What to name a startup?

What are the latest trends in startup names? In order to understand this issue, Crunchbase conducted a survey among startups founded in the last three years that raised seed or  pre-seed funding of more than $500,000. The survey focused primarily, but not exclusively, on English-speaking countries and on names based on English words or words that are similar in English and other languages.

Так что же обеспечивает успех названия? Майкл Карр, соучредитель консалтинговой компании NameStormers утверждает, что успех или неудачу зачастую определяет один единственный атрибут — запоминаемость, то есть могут ли люди запомнить название.

While not everyone may agree with this point, it is undeniably a widely held belief. Crunchbase data shows that among the startups surveyed, simple names with recognizable words were super popular.

Increasingly, founders are prioritizing recognition over uniqueness. True, we still see names made up of made-up words, such as Boopos or Stonks. However, these days they are clearly less common than names consisting of common nouns and verbs, such as Tumble or Power.

New naming preferences are largely a reflection of established success stories, said David Placek, founder of Lexicon Branding, the consulting firm behind names like Impossible Foods, Turo and Lucid Motors.

“In our experience, the only trend in naming is imitation,” he says. New startups, consciously or not, tend to follow the magic of success of leading brands.

What are the four main trends in naming today?

Simple words from the explanatory dictionary 

With services from startups that have received funding in the past year, you can track cryptocurrency transactions with Context, issue credit cards with Power, plan your estate with Wealth, and manage your investments with Fierce. You can even do your accounting with Decimal support or create automated investment strategies with Composer—the list goes on.

Considering that the fintech startups listed above can be assumed that the names of the successful Stripe, Block (formerly Square) and Plaid influenced the choice of young startups.

A similar trend exists in other industries. For example, let's call  Aware, a mobile app for health data, Roam, a cloud platform for businesses, and Earth, a developer of an environmentally friendly alternative to burial and cremation.

It is noteworthy that the vast majority of these simple names have also been used by a number of other companies, often including newly formed startups.

Cute spelling mistakes

Some startups use misspellings to create a name that is both familiar and unique. Replace z with s or y with i and you get a brand that is pronounced like a familiar word but has a unique spelling.

This approach remains a long-standing trend. Research shows that it remains quite popular, as evidenced by the names of startups such as Gynger, Wispr, Rezonate, Transferz and Qobra.

Numbers in titles

Another way to create a unique name  — add a number to a group of letters. For example, the name of the company Rumin8, a developer of a feed additive that reduces methane emissions in livestock farming.

There are both pros and cons to this approach. The typo attracts attention at first glance. But the problem is that there will always be people who will simply hear the name and not notice the unusual spelling.

Title followed by AI

Considering how much money investors are pouring into AI startups, it's not surprising that these two letters have gained popularity in names. 

The naming experts interviewed were divided on this approach. Some naming experts believe this is a short-sighted strategy, similar to the trends of the dot-com era, when companies first added .com to their names and then removed it after the bubble burst.

In addition, AI technology is not always perceived positively. And this may cause a negative reaction to the name of the company that uses the association with this technology.

The benefit of including AI in the name is that it makes it clear what the startup does. And when a company decides that AI is not needed at the end of the name, there is always the option to abandon it.

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