Accessibility First DevRel. I focus on ensuring content created, events held and company assets are as accessible as possible, for as many people as possible.
It is interesting to see people saying that a lot of the big names do not make sense.
Google - from Googol (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.) - they want to index the whole internet, have huge amounts of information, the parallels make perfect sense. I mean, it makes a whole lot more sense than their original name for it: "BackRub" (yes we could have potentially been saying "let me just backrub that!")
YouTube - TV used to be called "the tube" as a lot were rear-projection using a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) - so "You Tube" is basically "Your Tube" or "your own TV channel".
Tailwind - I might not like it but the name is great, a tailwind when flying a plane gives you a "push" in the right direction so you get there faster and with less fuel (effort).
Facebook - originally called "The facebook" - this is what US college campus used to call the college directory, which had a list of students with their faces on it....makes sense really. Especially as it was a University / College only website for the first few years.
Apple - the story goes that Steve Jobs really likes Apples and came up with the name with Woz on the way back from "Apple Orchard". Personally I think that is the fairy tale "nice story" they tell people.
In reality I think it was called that as at the time businesses used to look up contact information in a paper based directory which was alphabetised, so "Apple" would be near the front under computers, whereas "Zefcon" would be near the end.
Amazon - even if I am wrong on Apple's origin, Amazon was simply Bezos getting a dictionary, starting at the letter "A" and looking for a word he liked.
Shopify - I mean, this name is just brilliant when you think about it. "ify" is to "'to become, or to make someone or something become, something" and "shop" is well, shop! So "Make your website a shop" is essentially in the name. It sounds dumb, but it does exactly what it says on the tin!
Does a name matter?
Yes and no.
You can build a brand around any name (my business I am working on launching is called "InHu", it makes no sense to anyone but me.)
However I also have the long form of my business name "Inclusivity Hub" which certainly does give you a good idea about what we are working on.
I would say a name counts for 1-2% of your success, learning how to market your service or product, learning to put a large chunk of your revenue aside for paid marketing or content creation etc. are far more important.
Just put the general area you are working in into that and just look at the results.
Then look at if there are any nice combinations, words you can combine, or words that you like the meaning of that you can then look up with a thesaurus to find alternatives. Eventually you will settle on something that grabs you.
And if all else fails just call it "RoKr" (Robin Kretzshmar) - that seems like a pretty good name out of the gate!
You absolutely prove my point. Steve Jobs liked apples, same goes for Bezos. Mark named it after a college directory. "Shopify" again makes no sense as it is not an actual word, although I agree that it is a good name.
These names again don't make "sense." It doesn't mean that people don't understand what the words mean. I know what apples are and what amazon is but if I was naming my business amazon because the actual one didn't exist, I would question myself and think my name is stupid because it isn't cool or makes sense.
The business you are launching called, "InHu," honestly does not make sense to me. But it does to you and that's all that matters. People don't have to understand it and it does not have to make any sense to them, that's the point.
Started coding at the age of 13, now a professional software engineer and Scrum Master, creating and maintaining enterprise solutions. Eat - Sleep - Code - Lift - Repeat 💪🏾
Thanks for taking the time to write this comment!
You mentioned good examples here and to be honest I wasn't aware of most of the reasons behind those names.
Building a brand around a name, learning how to present and market it and to scale it is the best advice to me.
A small bonus for me was that you mentioned thesaurus because that is something I always have in mind but can't remember what it's called when I need it :D
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It is interesting to see people saying that a lot of the big names do not make sense.
Google - from Googol (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.) - they want to index the whole internet, have huge amounts of information, the parallels make perfect sense. I mean, it makes a whole lot more sense than their original name for it: "BackRub" (yes we could have potentially been saying "let me just backrub that!")
YouTube - TV used to be called "the tube" as a lot were rear-projection using a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) - so "You Tube" is basically "Your Tube" or "your own TV channel".
Tailwind - I might not like it but the name is great, a tailwind when flying a plane gives you a "push" in the right direction so you get there faster and with less fuel (effort).
Facebook - originally called "The facebook" - this is what US college campus used to call the college directory, which had a list of students with their faces on it....makes sense really. Especially as it was a University / College only website for the first few years.
Apple - the story goes that Steve Jobs really likes Apples and came up with the name with Woz on the way back from "Apple Orchard". Personally I think that is the fairy tale "nice story" they tell people.
In reality I think it was called that as at the time businesses used to look up contact information in a paper based directory which was alphabetised, so "Apple" would be near the front under computers, whereas "Zefcon" would be near the end.
Amazon - even if I am wrong on Apple's origin, Amazon was simply Bezos getting a dictionary, starting at the letter "A" and looking for a word he liked.
Shopify - I mean, this name is just brilliant when you think about it. "ify" is to "'to become, or to make someone or something become, something" and "shop" is well, shop! So "Make your website a shop" is essentially in the name. It sounds dumb, but it does exactly what it says on the tin!
Does a name matter?
Yes and no.
You can build a brand around any name (my business I am working on launching is called "InHu", it makes no sense to anyone but me.)
However I also have the long form of my business name "Inclusivity Hub" which certainly does give you a good idea about what we are working on.
I would say a name counts for 1-2% of your success, learning how to market your service or product, learning to put a large chunk of your revenue aside for paid marketing or content creation etc. are far more important.
Coming up with a name
businessnamegenerator.com/
Just put the general area you are working in into that and just look at the results.
Then look at if there are any nice combinations, words you can combine, or words that you like the meaning of that you can then look up with a thesaurus to find alternatives. Eventually you will settle on something that grabs you.
And if all else fails just call it "RoKr" (Robin Kretzshmar) - that seems like a pretty good name out of the gate!
You absolutely prove my point. Steve Jobs liked apples, same goes for Bezos. Mark named it after a college directory. "Shopify" again makes no sense as it is not an actual word, although I agree that it is a good name.
These names again don't make "sense." It doesn't mean that people don't understand what the words mean. I know what apples are and what amazon is but if I was naming my business amazon because the actual one didn't exist, I would question myself and think my name is stupid because it isn't cool or makes sense.
The business you are launching called, "InHu," honestly does not make sense to me. But it does to you and that's all that matters. People don't have to understand it and it does not have to make any sense to them, that's the point.
Thanks for taking the time to write this comment!
You mentioned good examples here and to be honest I wasn't aware of most of the reasons behind those names.
Building a brand around a name, learning how to present and market it and to scale it is the best advice to me.
A small bonus for me was that you mentioned thesaurus because that is something I always have in mind but can't remember what it's called when I need it :D