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Why we picked it This is the founder-lens take on your exact question: Graham argues the best names are cool words that also hint at what you do (his example is Writely), and he is honest that a purely descriptive name is a weaker outcome than one that earns its meaning. It is a starting point, not a rulebook, and it reads fast. We could not complete an automated fetch of this mirror to confirm it loads, so treat the link as best-known-canonical rather than machine-verified.
Startup Names
From Paul Graham (Y Combinator), 2006 Infogami essay by Paul Graham Short read, roughly 5 minutes
- The strongest names are both a real word and a nod to what you do, so you rarely have to choose between fully descriptive and fully abstract.
- A name that works as a verb or a short phrase tends to stick, which matters more than literal accuracy.
- Naming under constraint (every obvious name is taken) is a test of imagination, not a reason to settle for the most literal option.