How to Name Your Startup Without Picking Something Terrible

Your startup's name will outlive everything else about it. The logo will change. The product will pivot. The team will turn over. The name almost never changes — and when it does, it costs an enormous amount.

Google was originally called BackRub. Twitter started as twttr. Pinterest started as Tote. They all changed early, when changing was still cheap. Once you have customers, press, and SEO, the cost of changing your name goes up by an order of magnitude every year.

Let's make sure you pick a good one. Here's the framework I use.

Three Types of Names

There are essentially three categories, each with trade-offs.

1. Descriptive Names (PayPal, Salesforce, General Motors)

• Pros: Clear what you do. Easy to communicate. Low marketing cost early on.

• Cons: Hard to trademark. Hard to find an available .com. Boxes you in if you expand. Proven SaaS

2. Evocative Names (Stripe, Drift, Notion, Slack)

• Pros: Suggest a feeling or benefit without literal description. Highly brandable. Scalable. Proven SaaS

• Cons: Require some marketing to teach the meaning.

3. Abstract / Invented Names (Google, Kodak, Hulu, Asana, Revolut)

• Pros: Maximum trademark protection. Maximum brandability. Almost guaranteed domain availability. Proven SaaS

• Cons: Require real marketing budget to give them meaning.

My recommendation for most founders: aim for evocative. Descriptive is fine but limiting; abstract is hard to pull off without a marketing budget. Evocative is the sweet spot.

Linguistic Landmines to Avoid

1. The "weird spelling" trap. Twttr, Flickr, Tumblr worked when domain hacks were cool circa 2008. Today they feel dated and create confusion. If you have to spell your company name every time you say it out loud, you have a problem.

2. The international embarrassment. Mitsubishi's "Pajero" SUV is a slur in Spanish. The Chevy Nova was famously mocked in Spanish-speaking markets ("no va" = "doesn't go"). Always run your shortlist past native speakers in your target geographies. Metabrand

3. The pronunciation ambiguity. "Is it GIF or JIF?" If your name has any ambiguity, half your customers will pronounce it the way you don't want and never tell you.

4. The "too clever pun." Cute names that play off existing brands ("Spex in the City," "Lord of the Fries") feel clever at launch and tiresome by year two. They also create trademark risk — the WWF (World Wildlife Federation) famously sued the WWF (World Wrestling Federation) and forced the rebrand to WWE. Constant Contact

5. The 4+ syllable trap. Long names get shortened by customers. Aim for 1–3 syllables. Naam

The Availability Workflow (Run This Before You Fall in Love)

Before you tell your co-founder a name you like, run it through this gauntlet:

Step 1: .com domain availability. Type the name into a domain registrar. If the .com is taken, factor in $5K–$500K for a domain or a .io/.co/.ai alternative.

Step 2: USPTO trademark search. As of the January 2025 fee update, the USPTO charges $350 per class for a trademark application using their pre-approved Trademark ID Manual descriptions. Custom descriptions trigger $200/class surcharges. Before paying, search the USPTO Trademark Center for your exact name plus phonetic variations. USPTOBonamark

Step 3: Social handles. Check Instagram, X, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube. You don't need every handle, but you want 3–4 of the major platforms.

Step 4: Google search. If page one is dominated by a competing business — even in another category — you'll fight that SEO battle for years.

Step 5: International language check. Run the name through Google Translate in 5–10 major languages. Native speaker in your top 3 markets.

Step 6: The "say it out loud" test. Say the name 20 times. "Hi, I'm calling from [name]." Can a stranger spell it after hearing it once?

Trademark Reality in 2026

The USPTO charges $350 per class for the base trademark application via the new Trademark Center system (which fully replaced TEAS mid-2025). Custom goods/services descriptions add $200/class. Insufficient or incomplete applications also trigger surcharges. Maintenance filings (Section 8 in year 6, Section 9 every 10 years) run $325–$650 per class. USPTOBonamark

Practical realities:

• File early. You can file "intent-to-use" before you've launched, which holds your priority date.

• Most first applications receive an office action. Don't panic — respond clearly and on time. Trademark Engine

• Descriptive names are very hard to trademark. Evocative or abstract names are much easier.

• Total cost for a single-class trademark via attorney: typically $950–$1,500 (per flat-rate firms like Stemer Law, which lists $950 for 1–3 class applications). Stemer Law

If your brand becomes valuable, this is some of the cheapest insurance money you can buy.

When to Hire a Naming Consultant

Real naming consultancies (Lexicon, Catchword, Eat My Words, Igor) charge $25,000–$100,000+ for a full naming engagement. That sounds insane until you realize they're naming products that will generate hundreds of millions in revenue.

The middle ground:

• DIY for pre-PMF startups and side projects

• Workshop with a brand strategist ($2,000–$5,000) for funded startups

• Full naming engagement ($25K+) for funded scale-ups, product line extensions, or rebrands

A Practical Naming Workshop You Can Run Yourself

Block out a half-day:

Hour 1: Strategic foundation. What does your business do? Who's it for? What feeling should the name evoke? List 5–10 "tone words."

Hour 2: Generate 100 names. Use the categories — descriptive, evocative, abstract, compound, founder-based, metaphorical. Don't filter. Quantity first. Vida

Hour 3: Filter to 20. Cut obvious losers. Keep names that feel right plus a few that feel weird-but-interesting.

Hour 4: Run the gauntlet. Domain, USPTO, handles, Google, language tests. You'll drop 15–18 of them.

Hour 5: Live with the survivors. Don't decide same-day. Take 3–5 finalists into the weekend. Try them in sentences. Pick on Monday.

A Personal Story

I was once on a project where the founders had fallen completely in love with a name. Printed business cards. Designed a logo. Bought the domain. Then they discovered another company in an adjacent category had a strong trademark on a phonetic variation. Eighteen months later, they got a cease-and-desist. The rebrand cost them roughly $250K all-in — and they lost three years of SEO.

The lesson: do the work upfront. The five-minute USPTO search saves the $250K cleanup.

Bottom Line

A great startup name is short, ownable, evocative, easy to say and spell, defensible legally, and stretches across every product you might build. Worth more thought than you're probably giving it.

Spend a half-day. Run the gauntlet. Live with the finalists for a few days. Then commit.

If you'd like a second opinion on your shortlist — or you want help running the strategic naming workshop — that's something we do at Clarity Decoded as part of our brand identity work. Naming is one of those decisions where an outside perspective is genuinely useful. Schedule a 15-min intro call