How makers stay productive

I'm not exactly sure that I use a strategy - I don't really use one… But for projects where I'm really stuck, I just start a google sheets and start building combinations.

Otherwise - just start building and the name comes naturally.

Usually I look for names of companies I like and brainstorm around those themes.

For example, I have a Japanese learning site, Koipun.

That name was inspired by Heroku, the Saas platform. It is a Japanese sounding name, but it is not a real word. For me, it sound super cool. I love everything Japanese. The Koipun name was was also inspired by the name Tofugu. That is another Japanese sounding name, that is not a real word. Although in that case it is the combination of two real words, Tofu and fugu.

Some criteria I take into consideration when choosing a name:

• Uniqueness (wanna avoid trademark issues and also want to make easy to reach #1 on search rankings)
• Whether a good domain is available
• Whether it is short, I prefer short names

Another example, I really like the name Tesla, the car company. So I started to brainstorm around legendary figures in science and Engineering and came up with the name Caproni, for a podcast host I'm building.

My general approach is the following:

• what does the project or feature do in its most simple form?
• are there synonyms that sound better or are more visually pleasing? (use thesaurus
• can I find a domain that's acceptable? for me usually .com, .app, .dev, .io - there are a number of tools that help you combine different words or typical domain endings but usually my own ideas are better imho than the suggestions by these tools

usually that works for me, two examples:

• SaaSculator (SaaS + calculator)
• Up&Fast (uptime + speed)

Finally: I wouldn't let a bad name stop you, especially as an indie dev/maker you can easily change the name and rebrand your project without much hassle. It's much more important what the project does

(of course always make a quick search that there is not another project with the same name in the same field, otherwise it's going to be hard at best or a trademark issue at worst)

I think it's important that the name reflects the product, so that's my starting point.

I use GoDaddy and Namecheap for domain searches. Namecheap's Beast Mode is also fun to figure out some options.

Domain name availability is pretty important for my naming process. If I can't find a good domain, I won't use the name, even if it's my favourite.

I usually store a list of names and their related domains in a text note.

I start the naming process very early in the development stage. Sometimes I don't start coding until the name and domain is concrete. However, I find that starting a marketing site homepage design really helps to select (or reject) names. Seeing them in their final place makes or breaks certain names.

I recently settled on "Cove" for my latest project, comments for Ghost blogs, for various reasons:

• "co" like "comments" and "community"
• four letter word
• cove.chat and covechat.com were available
• alliteration with "chat"
• cove can mean "small niche" or "secluded inlet", which reflects the community aspect of the app

Hope this helps!

This has been a big struggle for me.

Instead of naming things lately, I've been giving them a codename & just working on them. Doesn't matter what you name it if you don't end up finishing it is my new motto :)

Once I start coding on a new project I usually keep a pinned tab open on my name checker. Then I jump over whenever I got an idea for a name or combination. I just enter it and after a while I have a look what looks good & is available. That is kind of it.

go to domain search, check if its available then go check on social media like twitter, facebook, instagram if its taken other than that is up to you to put 2 things into 1 name, 3 things into 1 name, or just 1 thing into 1 name.

Intuition. Always.