The Name Inspector
thenameinspector.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2007
A naming consultant writes about choosing names for companies, products and services, including name types, tips and common myths.
What HN saysHN commenters repeatedly recommend it as the best resource for naming a company or product, and suggest reading it from beginning to end.
15HN people shared it
9linked it in comments
6stories submitted
53story points
13 years agolast shared
2007people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 110 Company name types on TechCrunch: pros and cons - useful if you're trying to pick a name4 people · 11 points · first shared 2007 · discussion on HN
- 2Homepage4 people · first shared 2008
- 310 tips for naming your company product or service2 people · first shared 2010
- 4Six naming myths to ignore1 people · 36 points · first shared 2011 · 9 comments on HN
- 5Search engine names: 10 types plus mashonyms1 people · 2 points · first shared 2009 · discussion on HN
- 6A disturbifying trend in namifying1 people · 2 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
- 7It's just semantics: Car company sues for naming rights of 'Lexeme'.1 people · 1 points · first shared 2014 · discussion on HN
- 8Naming stories: Trenchmice1 people · 1 points · first shared 2007 · discussion on HN
- 9Fabjectory1 people · first shared 2008
- 10Portfolio1 people · first shared 2011
What HN people wrote when they linked it
miriadis · 2013-02-28
This is an amazing blog about naming http://www.thenameinspector.com/
imp · 2010-05-24
If you have some money to spend towards this, I can recommend the Name Inspector, http://www.thenameinspector.com/. He can help with the whole project, or even just review a list of names that you've developed. He's written a lot about company names on his blog:
http://www.thenameinspector.com/10-name-types/
http://www.thenameinspector.com/10-tips-for-naming-your-company-produc…
IsaacL · 2012-10-22
The best resource for this I've found is: http://www.thenameinspector.com/10-tips-for-naming-your-company-produc…
And the rest of that guy's blog.
DabAsteroid · 2008-09-02
On the subject of naming, I think this should be thrown out there:
http://www.thenameinspector.com
Need naming help?
Ask The Name Inspector.
bmaier · 2008-02-13
1.) always do your domain searches on http://www.internic.net/whois.html so you can be sure that they're not being registered as you search for them.
2.) Read http://www.thenameinspector.com from beginning to end
3.) Come up with words that describe your ideas then use thesaurus.com
4.) Look to chop words down by syllables and then combine.
ie. a personal bookmarking service or online profile service that was described as "my highlights" would become mylights.com.
hansy · 2011-03-31
Is it better to:
-create a name using a combination of existing words? (e.g. MySpace, RadioShack, etc.)
-create a name that doesn't really mean anything to a majority of users (but possibly memorable)? (e.g. Twitter, Tumblr, etc.)
-create a name from existing word(s) but change the spelling for funkiness? (e.g. Digg, Reddit, etc.)
-create a name derived from another language? (e.g. Roku, uh...)
-do something else?
Also, randomly found this too:
clickable: http://www.thenameinspector.com/10-name-types/
jdp23 · 2011-02-24
Agreed. Eventually you want to get to something like http://www.thenameinspector.com/portfolio/
michaelbuckbee · 2008-02-14
I think that it is important to have a story behind the name it doesn't have to be something complex, but a sense of authenticity does come through.
The easiest way to do this (and advice elsewhere here in the comments) is to switch up different descriptors of your idea, businees, etc into something where you can get a free domain.
I did this for my startup, Fabjectory, and it was even written up by The Name Inspector:
http://www.thenameinspector.com/fabjectory/
- Mike
ALee · 2007-11-16
Go here: http://www.thenameinspector.com/10-name-types/
Choose one of the name types and figure out what you want. Remember, if you're making a calendar product, DO NOT call is icalendar or something like that, choose a name that you can build because your product(s) will change. Believe me, we've made that mistake.