EYODF Part 4 – The Wisdom of Crowds Experiment*

[updated to close survey]

The team and I were kicking around names for our little start up thing.  One of the folks was pushing to hire a company that makes it their business to name/brand companies.  The other end of the table was on the through it open to world idea.  Leaving costs aside, it got me to thinking about just how much can you really do ‘in the open’ as well as this notion of ‘proving out’ the Wisdom of Crowds theories.

I asked the simple question:  Knowing nothing other than it is a software company, what name just sounds good to you.  I asked 20 people and got an answer that I expected given the people who I asked. 

I know the name/branding people are having a brain aneurism right about now, however, it makes for an interesting experiment.

[NOTE: The Survey is Closed. I'm working up the results blog post for you.]

So, dear readers, a favor if you will. Please wander over to this site and answer the following question:  Just knowing there is a software company looking for a name, which one of these do you like.  That’s the only thing you’d know so it is a top of mind, instant reaction thing.

I’ll publish the results along with what some naming people said along side of my more controlled group.

Thanks for playing! 

Comments

[Adam Sculthorpe]

For Rick's team and anyone helping with naming, here's a great resource I've used and recommended several times.

http://www.igorinternational.com/process/igor-naming-guide.pdf

[Terry Smith]

I quite frequently come up with general business names I like. This usually results in me registering the associated domain name which makes my wife very happy :)

[Jay Shirley]

Rick, happy to opine :)

PS., got a typo on the survey, "Please a name you'd use for a software company".

[Rick Segal]

Jay,
Thanks, fixed...

Rick

[Ed Leavens]

Rick, if you want to play name games, try using backslang. For example, call your company Trevoc, or read backwards it is Covert, which may be a great name for your very secretive venture. Don't confuse this with a palindrome - stop v pots - which may piss off the english majors.

[Jim Rudnick]

yup, participated and I like this Doodle app too!

:-)

Jim

[nigel]

Here's an amusing idea from fiction - use adwords as a test run... http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robinsloan/robin-writes-a-book-and-you-get-a-copy/posts/1210

[Martin Edic]

I do names and it's hard- virtually everything is taken and there is no point if you can't get the dot com domain and the trademark, especially for a software company. I like the backwards technique, also a word and a number a la '37signals'. Easy to pronounce, remember and protect- the critical conditions for choosing a name.

[twitter.com/timraleigh]

Ok, so which name won? Or better yet what name did you pick?

[simon]

Software is now so broad a category as to be meaningless. It's kind of like naming a "food" company when what you sell is foie gras. Yummy Foods probably won't cut it.