Startup Naming Handbook

7 min | Brainstorming

There are 16 common name types. Below, I’ll show you how I come up with them.

1. Brief Mining

I write down interesting words as I read through the brief, the brand strategy, history, audience insights, benefits, roadmap, and so on.

💡 Tip: Use my 44 research prompts.

2. Word Lotus

Around each word I find, I add eight more. I keep going until I have ~500 words.

To find new words, I use these websites:

Visuwords Create visual mind maps.

Idioms by The Free Dictionary Find idioms.

Reverse Dictionary Search for words by their definition.

Power Thesaurus My favorite thesaurus. It can also find idioms and phrases.

Related Words Find words that are related to a specific word or phrase. Great for mind mapping.

Word Associations Find associations to words. Pretty similar to Related Words.

Spruce by OneLook Find quotes, lyrics, proverbs, and jokes.

Tiny Budhha The best place to find quotes on any topic.

Describing Words Find the right adjective for any word.

Urban Thesaurus Find slang words related to your topic.

3. Brainstorm

I go through the 16 name types, one by one, trying to come up with new names.
I spend 10-15 min on each category and use these tools:

This Word Does Not Exist – AI imaginary word generator.
Novanym & Namelix – AI name generators.
Punpedia & Pun Generator – find and generate puns.
Word unscrambler & Werd Merge – tools that combine words.
Pantheon & Theoi, Comicvine Gamespot – collections of names and terms from mythology, folklore, comics, and religion.
Dictionadrydotcom & Wordnik’s random words – look for unique words in a dictionary.
List of negative words – come up with offensive and negative names.
Wikirhymer & Rhymezone – play with rhymes.
Name Berry, B ehind The Name, Fantasy Name Generators – browse and generate human names from all times, places, and dimensions.
A cheatsheet with literary devices by Florian Mueck
Phrontistery, Old Occupations, Native Languages – explore rare, extinct, and unusual words.
Wikipedia’s list of glossaries – borrow terms from other fields.
Birds of the World, Reptile Database, Sea and Sky Names, WFO Plant List – Lists of names of birds, reptiles, plants, and other things found in the sea, sky, and space.
A list of onomatopoeia words
Namingschemes.com – A comprehensive list of naming schemes and systems.
ChatGPT prompt:

Act as: A brand strategist and naming expert with 20 years of experience
Background: [A detailed description of your company and audience]
Brand keywords and adjectives: [Insert 5-10]
Task: Generate 15 creative [Name type] brand names

💡 Tip: Work alone. Favor quantity over quality. No filtering or editing at this stage.

4. Prescreen

Time to grab my ~~eraser~~ knife. I use these methods to  filter out bad names:

Method A: SMILE vs. SCRATCH

Credit: Alexandra Watkins.

Method B: Positioning

Method C: Look & Sound
– How does it look in a sentence?
– Handwritten, typed, small caps, all caps, backward?
– How does it sound?
– Try using it as a verb.

Method D: Negative meanings
Use Urban Dictionary and Word Safety to ensure that it doesn’t have hidden negative meanings.

5. Domain and Trademark

Now, I have a shortlist. I organize the remaining names in a table and do a preliminary trademark, social, Google, and domain search.

Domains
Name Cheap’s Beast Mode – the best way to find good domains.
namecheck.com – check the availability of your business name across various social platforms and domains.
Snapnames – Find expiring domains.

👉 Rule of thumb
If the .com is taken, either use an alternative extension or add a modifier – avoid doing both. A few examples from the startups I work with: