Brainstorming Brandable Names

A brandable name doesn’t describe what your product does. Instead, it’s a name you can instill your own meaning into, or one that already has a meaning, just not a literal description of your product. That’s what makes brandable names powerful, and also what makes them harder to brainstorm. You can’t just list industry keywords. You need a different approach.

Start with a feeling

Think about the vibe you want your brand to project. Not what your product does, but how it should feel. Playful or serious? Elegant or scrappy? Accessible or exclusive? Technical or approachable?

Take homerun.co, the hiring platform I mentioned in the previous chapter. A sports term for a hiring tool sounds odd at first. But think about it: when you finally find the right person for the job, it does feel like hitting a home run. That one word captures the feeling of a great hire better than any hiring-related term ever could.

I went through this myself with Yay, my AI camera app. I originally called it Fade, a name people struggled to pronounce and that meant nothing to them. “Yay” is just an expression of excitement — exactly what the app is supposed to make you feel. It doesn’t describe a camera app at all, but it sounds like one of those fun consumer apps that has already gone viral. And it stuck: people who use it send me photos whenever they spot a store called Yay somewhere. (How I ended up on the yay.camera domain is a story of its own, involving accidentally selling my previous domain right before launch — see Buy from a Marketplace.)

To try this yourself, write down what you want people to feel when they encounter your brand. Then brainstorm words, metaphors, and phrases that evoke those same feelings. You’re looking for something that resonates, even if it has nothing to do with your industry on the surface.