Naming your app

, App Development

I like to develop Windows and Windows Phone apps. In the last couple of years I have developed quite a few as you can see here and here.

I have always find coming up with a really good name for your app one of the most difficult parts of app development. Recently I found a really good strategy of coming up with a good app name.

Stacey Mulcahy created a video A Developers Guide to Marketing Your App - Naming Your App in which she shows a process on how to come to a good name for your app or as she puts it taking the suck out of naming an application.

The name of your app can make a great difference, it helps your app stand out in between all those other apps. I normally wait until the last moment to name my apps. At that moment I really want the app to be in the store as fast as possible, so I spend too little time to create a really good name. So the first thing that you should do is not to wait until the last moment to think about a name for your app.

Start with coming up with some possible names for your app. I am working on a math app in which children can learn how to perform multiplication. I came up with the following small list.

  • math
  • calculate
  • algebra
  • arithmetic
  • numbers

With this list you can go to the Wordnik.com to look up synonyms of these terms. By using these synonyms you can expand the list of possible names for your app.

alt Screenshot Wordnik website

Another way to expand the list is to go to Urban Dictionary and look up additional names through their thesaurus functionality.
The same is true for Visual Thesaurus which also lets you find new words but using a visual tree. You can click through several levels of connections.

alt Screenshot visual thesaurus web site

One of the best ways to find good app names is by combining words of your list with other words. The web site WerdMerge makes this possible.

alt Screenshot werdmerge web site

Other good websites to come up with good names are

Remember if you found a good name to check if it is clear, authentic and if it can be pronounced and spelled easy. And also don’t forget to check if the name can be registered as a domain and on the several social channels via Namechk

Have fun with naming your app!

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