Picking Names

Naming people and businesses has become harder than it used to be.

My son is a Leo/TWIT fan to the nth degree.  He usually listens to his podcasts at night after I’ve gone to sleep but occassionally he brings them into the car with our iTrip and I listen with him.  Last week he played an anniversary show for me and I heard a couple of interesting tidbits.

People are choosing names for the baby based on whether the domain name is available.

I totally get that!

Digg.com originally really wanted to be Dig.com – but the domain wasn’t available.  So now, Digg is so cool and the name is so regognizable that they’re glad it worked out that way.

I’ve brainstormed a few hundred domain names with friends and coaching clients – you business name does not have to equal your domain name but the closer it can come the better in most cases.  It’s darn hard to find a good one for some highly competitive markets.

Speaking of Leo – I read on his blog that he actually stopped using Twitter because the name Twitter is to close to his TWIT (This Week in Tech) trademark.  He felt it was confusing people so he had to go use something else.

I do not get that at all. 

So what that they share common letters?  Just keep smiling and saying, “No, we’re not connected” for pizza’s sake.

Should Twitter have considered the similarity to TWIT when they launched?  Maybe.  But they didn’t.

If you’re in a naming frenzy for your new business – what kind of challenges are you facing?  Do you worry about coming up with a name too close to something else?