2 years ago – I was scratching my head trying to come up with names which were available as a .com domain. Out of frustration I made up a misspelling of the word “berserk” as I was going Berserk search for names – at the time http://www.bezurk.com seemed like a good name.

We have a successful business now – but we still loose out on customers not finding us as they type berserk or bezerk looking for us. We are now forced to spend more on SEM and SEO.

If I ever do another start up – I am going to map out my naming requirements properly and consider misspellings . You live and learn}

The right domain name is the startup for startups. I read and browse the internet, magazines, ads etc. and start thinking and checking what’s available. Create a name, put names together. You are inventing a new business, this is step one. Don’t turn the page till you’ve got a domain name you like. Talk to friends, talk out loud, keep talking. It does come sometimes early, sometimes later. Use aids, like dictionary.com and it’s components to start working it. The domain must NOT be spelled differently than spoken. You don’t want to explain how to spell the domain name each time you say bob@spellthedomain.com.}

http://grabagooddomain.com/}

We picked ‘Gaboogie’ despite some feedback that it was ‘dumb’ or didn’t mean anything, because we liked saying it and it was easy to attach what we were doing to the name. Oh, and because it works well as a verb. Nothing more, nothing less.}

Another concern we had when naming Wambo was bad connotation. Prior to deciding on polling people, we would run a few names and run a search on the Urban Dictionary to check that. There are LOTS of slang words and I highly recommend checking these out…

Example: we liked “hify”. Sounds a lot like “Hyphy” – the rap word…}

Virulence: The quality or state of being virulent or venomous; poisonousness; malignancy.

If I was selling weed killer it might have been appropriate. BTW- the word choice, it was a whole concept about breaking something down to rebuild it… yada yada. Let’s just say it didn’t go over well.

You just mentioned something else that makes a very good point. We are now Trossen Robotics, we used to be Phidgets USA because the company started as a reseller of a product line called Phidgets. Naming your own company after another companies product line is a HUGE no-no. You have immediately locked yourself down to being identified with only that product. It also is very confusing to everyone else who thinks you are the same company. So listen up dear readers, don’t do that! ;)

After having two experiences with bad name choices I kept it simple and conservative this time around. Trossen Robotics is pretty darn to the point.}

The data was extremely helpful and helped us to narrow the name.}

Some further reading on the subject is over here:

http://www.thinkvitamin.com/features/biz/how-to-name-your-company}