Brand, web & content

How do I come up with a good name for my startup?

The short answer

Pick a name you can spell out loud once and have someone type correctly. Short, easy to say, and not a clever misspelling beats 'meaningful but confusing' every time. Don't burn weeks here, the product makes the name good, not the other way around.

Go deeper, your way

3 hand-picked resources, 2 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.

📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it A tight, example-driven breakdown of naming approaches from one of the best practical marketing writers online, memorable and immediately usable.

Four (not boring) ways to name a new product

From Marketing Examples by Harry Dry 5 min read

  • Personify it with a human name, or name it what people say when they use it
  • Pull out an adjective, or name it after the job to be done
  • Concrete, sayable names beat abstract 'meaningful' ones
Open marketingexamples.com →
📄 Article
✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it A structured, practical walkthrough from a reputable product team covering name types, domain checks, and trademark basics in one place.

How to come up with a brand name: the ultimate guide

From Webflow Blog by Webflow Team 12 min read

  • Understand descriptive vs invented vs evocative name types and their trade-offs
  • Check domain and social handle availability before committing
  • Run a trademark knockout search early to avoid legal dead-ends
Open webflow.com →
📄 Article
Free Beginner

Why we picked it Paul Graham's short, opinionated take on naming from someone who has seen thousands of startups, canonical, no-fluff, and free.

Startup Names

From paulgraham.com by Paul Graham 8 min read

  • A name should be easy to say and spell, avoid clever misspellings
  • The product makes the name good, not the reverse
  • Don't over-invest time here; ship and let the name grow into itself
Open paulgraham.com →

People also ask

Do I really need a .com domain, or is .io / .co / .in fine? For a serious brand, fight for the .com, it's still the default people type and trust. If the exact .com is taken or absurdly expensive, a modified... Beginner 2 resources → What kinds of startup names exist and which type should I pick? Names fall into buckets: descriptive (Dropbox), invented (Kodak), and evocative (Amazon). Descriptive is easiest to understand but hardest to trade... Beginner 2 resources → How do I check if a name is legally free to use in India (trademark)? Before you fall in love with a name, do a quick free knockout search on the Indian trademark registry (IP India public search) in your class, plus ... Intermediate 2 resources → How do famous startups actually get their names, any real examples? Most iconic names started as jokes, placeholders, or happy accidents, not committee outputs, the product earned the name meaning. Look at how India... Beginner 2 resources → Should I buy a premium domain or just use a cheaper workaround? At pre-revenue, don't drop lakhs on a premium domain, a clean workaround domain (tryX, getX, X-hq) costs a few hundred rupees and you can upgrade l... Beginner 2 resources → How do I check if a startup name is already taken before I fall in love with it? Do a fast five-minute sweep before you get attached: search the exact name plus your category on Google, check the domain, look up the handle on In... Beginner 3 resources →

Also in D2C

The same ground, over in Build your online store, our D2C track.

Which AI tool should I use to shoot clean product photos without renting a studio? Photoroom is the fastest place to start, shoot on your phone against a plain background, and its AI backdrop/virtual-model tools turn that into a m... 4 resources → Which Shopify theme should I pick for my store, and how much should I customize it? Start free: Dawn is the fastest, cleanest base for a first store and it's tuned for Core Web Vitals out of the box - don't pay for a premium theme ... 3 resources →

Also in How Founders Use AI

How founders actually use AI for this, over in Content Creation.

Why use AI for blogs, newsletters, and social posts, and how do I avoid sounding like AI? AI removes the real reason most founders stop publishing: the time cost of a blank page. Buffer's study of 1.2 million posts found AI-assisted cont... 20 resources → How do top founders build content engines with AI (repurposing one idea into ten formats)? The pattern is always the same: create one dense pillar piece (a podcast, video, or newsletter), then let AI atomize it into clips, threads, Linked... 18 resources →

Also in GTM

The same ground, over in Own the story, our GTM track.

What does category actually mean in go-to-market, and why does everyone keep telling me to pick one? A category is the mental shelf a buyer puts you on before they judge anything else about you. The moment someone hears what you do, they reach for ... 3 resources → Should we create a new category or just say we are a better version of something that already exists? For almost everyone at the start, the answer is the existing category. April Dunford's own count is that around 90 percent of recently public tech ... 4 resources →
eChai Partner Brands