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Intelligence
What’s in a name, anyway?

Intelligence

What’s in a name, anyway?

Feb 22, 2009By mStoner Staff

This is not a web site.

Shakespeare once wrote, “that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” He was right; a name does not change the qualities of the object being described by the name. But when something is well-named, it can help better describe what something is to someone reading it for the first time. Or it can simply have enough promotional appeal to generate interest from the people it’s designed for.

We’re working on a new site, and although I can’t release the details of the site yet, we’re helping name the thing we’re going to design and build. Patrick DiMichele, senior strategist for mStoner, has been spearheading the naming effort with the client, writer Andrew Huff, and myself.

Naming things isn’t normally something our creative team is asked to do (which is one of the things that makes it fun) and so we began by investigating how other sites are named. Here are a few ways people decide what to call sites, with a well-executed example for each category.

Sites with made-up names, such as Youtube
It’s clever, it’s catchy, and it has a built in rhyme. The word you clearly enunciates the idea that it’s about user-contributed content and the word tube (slang for TV) helps describe the informal nature of the content.

Sites with high-level idea names, like TED

If you click on the “About” section, you’ll see that TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. They’ve foregone made-up words, they don’t attempt to define the virtual space you’re in, to call it a “collective” or anything else. The site simply deals with the three ideas described by the acronym. This is what programmers call “high-level” language; where we name the things we build after the most concise and intuitive language possible.

Sites named after a printed counterpart, for example, The New Yorker
Many magazines are now maintaining web content that is either enhanced versions of print content – or ideally, offers the content you find in print, enhanced print content and additional new content that can only be found on the web. I could have used many examples here; I just like the New Yorker, both for it’s name and content.

Sites where the name is an insider reference, i.e. Slashdot
Because the name is a reference to code that most Unix programmers understand, it presumably helps their targeted audiences understand it’s a niche interest site. For people who don’t get the reference, the site’s categories quickly make it clear what kind of content you can expect to find.

So far the naming process has been a positivie learning experience for us. When we get a little further along in development, we’ll let you know where we land.