Bad names tax every dollar of marketing you spend forever. Good names do the opposite — they compound. Yet most founders pick a name in a weekend and live with it for a decade. Here's the stress-test we run before signing off.
The seven-point test
- Distinctive. Easy to pull out of a Google search; not generic ('GrowthCo').
- Pronounceable. One unambiguous reading on first glance.
- Memorable. Sticks after one exposure; ideally three syllables or fewer.
- Scalable. Doesn't lock you into one product, geography, or era.
- Available. Domain (.com if possible), social handles, trademark.
- Emotionally aligned. Feels right for the category you're entering.
- Translatable. Doesn't mean something terrible in your top three markets.
Categories of names that work
- Coined — invented words like Kodak, Xerox, Spotify.
- Evocative — Amazon, Apple, Tesla. Suggest something, don't describe.
- Founder/legacy — Hermès, Ford, Disney. Earned over time.
- Compound — Facebook, YouTube. Two clear words fused.
Categories to avoid
- Descriptive ('BestPlumbersInTown') — generic and unmemorable.
- Acronyms — IBM, KFC and HP earned theirs; you haven't.
- Misspelled real words — feels cheap unless deliberate (Lyft, Tumblr).
- Names that need explaining at a dinner party.
Note — If you can't explain your name in five seconds, you'll be explaining it for five years.
When to rename
Almost never. Rename only if (a) your current name actively harms growth, (b) you've outgrown the category your name describes, or (c) there's a legal forcing function. Otherwise: improve everything else first.
