Austin
posts

Naming things

Notion

When you start a lot of things (projects, websites, companies), one of the problems you’ll face is giving them a good name. I think I’m better at this than most? (Mostly by virtue of having tried a lot of bad names). Here’s what I’ve learned:

Tips for good names

  • Pick single words
    • You get to add stuff to it, eg “Manifold ⇒ Manifold Love” and that’s still a brand
    • “You get about 5 words”, so don’t spend too many of them on your name
    • It’s okay if your name doesn’t convey everything
      • As you build out your product/company/”brand”, people will associate the right feeling with your name
      • Descriptive names are for cowards
    • If you have a long name, people will shorten it anyways
      • Could have a long formal name; “Horizon Institute for Public Service” ⇒ “Horizon”
      • Early on I decided we should rebrand “Manifold Markets” ⇒ “Manifold”, since I saw some people calling it “MM” and that seemed bad
  • Pick words with good vibes
    • Esp with some generally neutral to positive meaning
    • Ideally niche (so you can own it), but not that niche
      • “Manifold” = good, “Mantic” = bad
  • Pronounceable
    • 2 syllables is great

      • think about trochees (2 syllables, accent on first), they’re catchy

        • Google, Facebook, Apple, Twitter, Cursor, Notion

    • And ideally spellable
      • For when you’re telling someone to google your thing
    • Real words are great for this
      • Okay to jam words together, or make up words, but do this carefully
  • Avoid ambiguity
    • You want to be the only <name> in your field
    • Suspicious of “Apollo Airtech” b/c of existing “Apollo Research”
      • (though, “Airtech” is great!)
    • Relatedly, probably don’t make your name a reference to some other thing
      • You want to define yourself, not be defined in opposition to sth
      • One of the pitfalls of “e/acc”, and then “d/acc”
  • Domains
    • Good domains are pretty important
    • You don’t have to have the .com/.org, contra Paul Graham
      • Notion and Cursor started on “.so”
      • You can buy the .com after you’re rich
      • More important to have a good name for starting out, than a bad name where you have the .com
    • practical: can bulk upload a list to Namecheap to look for available domains
  • Don’t worry too much

    • You make your name great.

    • You’ll get used to it

    • You can change it. Paul Graham:

      There's nothing intrinsically great about your current name. Nearly all your attachment to it comes from it being attached to you.

Process for naming: brainstorm, then filter

aka “babble, then prune”

  • Generate a long list of ideas

    e.g. top 20% of names I’d considered for Mox

    Origami

    Cluster

    Sandbox

    Superbloom

    Archipelago

    Glom (agglomeration, conglomerate)

    Surplus (sur.place, surplant, surply, surplex)

    Subsidy

    Heaven, utopia

    Sum

    Gains from trade

    Schelling Point

    Collective

    Signal

    River

    Yield, Yieldspace

    Nexus

    Moe (moe.space is available). but, moescape...

    or: Mox? for Mixture Of eXperts. moxsf.com,

    or: Mix, Mixture, mixport

    Charity

    Manifest, Maniforum

    Manifund Labs. Surplus Labs

    Assisi

    Athenaeum (or: Athena)

    Library, Alexandria

    Babel

    Fulcrum

    Bridgespace

    Underpass, Passage, Campass

    Boundless

    Division

  • Take a while to steep in them, idly think about it in the shower, look at it with fresh eyes

  • Ask people what they think

    • Unlike many other product decisions, “what people think” is a good proxy for “how good a name is”

    • Also names are fun to bikeshed

      • e.g. this market for naming Manifold’s currency “mana” (which imo is also a great name)

    • Claude is pretty good too

      Claude convinced me Mox was good

      Austin: I'm trying to find a name for the coworking space, and am considering ideas around "mixture of experts", since it suggests both AI and the gathering of smart folks. The full name is a bit unwieldy, but give me your thoughts on the following abbreviations:

      • Mix, or Mix SF -- unfortunately, there's a bar called SF Mix
      • Mox -- also a MTG reference for geek cred. moxsf.com is available. It's not a standard shortening though.
      • Moe -- this is the standard abbreviation but I think "Moe" seems too much like the name, and "MoE" is annoying to pronounce as 3 syllables?

      Also suggest alternatives and possible URLs/brandings around this theme.

      Claude: Mox stands out as the strongest option among those listed:

      • Has a sharp, modern sound that fits tech/AI
      • The MTG reference adds a clever layer of meaning (Mox artifacts represent concentrated power)
      • Single syllable makes it punchy and memorable
      • Distinct enough to build a brand around
      • moxsf.com being available is a big plus
      • "Mox" also has connotations of courage/determination/energy (as in "moxie"), which fits well with a space for ambitious projects

      The others have clear drawbacks:

      • Mix: Conflict with existing SF bar could cause confusion
      • Moe: Anime connotations could overshadow intended meaning
      • MoE: Awkward to pronounce/write

    • Though, extensive surveys might be overkill

  • meta: you’ll get better with practice (by starting a lot of small projects)

Names I’m proud of naming

[TODO: expand on the process of arriving at these]

  • Manifold
    • I liked that Manifold had many appropriate meanings:
      1. common English: “manifold” = plural, many
      2. mathy, space whatever
      3. if you bet well you’ll earn a “many fold” return
    • Manifest
      • also A++
    • Manifund
      • okay when it was tied to Manifold; might rename now
  • Mox
    • Bit early to know for sure, but I think this one’s good
  • yield.sh
  • openbook.fyi
  • Ada Astra When
  • scanlate.io

Other good names

  • Epoch
  • Stripe
  • Cursor
  • Notion
  • Anthropic

(some are just products I like, but I think the names are pretty good too)

Bad names for good people

  • Long Term Future Fund
  • Giving What We Can
  • OpenAI — 4 syllables to pronounce. (though at least it’s short to write and “open” has good vibes)
  • LessOnline
  • “AI for Epistemics”
  • …

Caveat: what names are “good” depends on context

  • Pick names in a style of names that are good, for your field
    • Most of this advice applies to products, companies, orgs
    • Naming blog posts or books is pretty different. There, you do want descriptive, pithy, 3-8 word things
    • Taren: long institution names are more institutional, perhaps reputable. “AI Safety Institute” might be good
      • (not sure I’m sold)

Resources

Paul Graham: https://www.paulgraham.com/name.html

James Odene: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/uQytvfpKtS2iXxXp8/it-s-not-effective-to-call-everything-effective-and-how-not