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Whats in a name?

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 6:00 pm
by Deemo
That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet

Throughout my programming career, I have never really used very interesting names. What makes a name for a program good? Is it the ability for the user to point and be like "yes thats exactly what i need", or more of a catchy name that people remember?

Many unix programs have names that have absolutely no meaning, but are names that you will remember because they are catchy. Applications like Kopete, for example, do not tell me that Kopete is an instant messenging program, but rather just help me remember the program itself. Or even google, if an alien came to earth and didnt know what google was, he would never guess a search engine.

Then again, programs such as Microsoft Word, are fairly obvious what they do, and people still remember it.

I am currently in development of a major php project, and i would like to know what you guys think about naming programs. Do names really matter that much in the end? And if so, what makes the perfect software name?

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 6:15 pm
by feyd
The only guidelines I try to follow is: Can someone pronounce the name correctly without needing help?

You can always change the name, logos, and icons it uses later if they aren't working, just makes it mildly confusing for a transition period.


Moved to Enterprise.

Re: Whats in a name?

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 7:49 pm
by Roja
Deemo wrote:What makes a name for a program good? Is it the ability for the user to point and be like "yes thats exactly what i need", or more of a catchy name that people remember?
You've hit on the dilemma: Do you need to be obvious, or distinctive?

Lets look at an example in the world of domain names. If you wanted to open a webhosting company, you need to pick a domain name. You could choose to have a name that is obviously about webhosting - webhosting.com, for example.

Or, you could choose a name that is distinctive: FatMonkey.com.

Both are easy to remember names. One is distinctive, one is intuitive. Webhosting.com will get you a better rating in search engines, and probably because its so obvious, more than a few sites linking to it - even by accident.

FatMonkey will be easier to trademark. Its used less often, its uncommon, and its obviously not the same as webhosting.net!

If I forgot what your domain name was, and searched for it, which would I be likely to find? I guarantee that "monkey hosting" in google would return FatMonkey, where as "webhosting" would get you lost!

There are advantages to each. Its up to you to decide which is better for your situation.
Deemo wrote:Or even google, if an alien came to earth and didnt know what google was, he would never guess a search engine.

Then again, programs such as Microsoft Word, are fairly obvious what they do, and people still remember it.
Keep in mind that both are memorable not because of their names primarily - but because they are the market leaders.

However, there are notable examples of both that aren't market leaders: Firefox is certainly memorable, and not a market leader - just like Opera. Notes is certainly an "obvious" name that has stuck around, but again, its no market leader.

Point being, it all depends. Loyal fans will follow good software. Focus on that, not the name.

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:09 pm
by Deemo
thanks for the tips!

at this point it gets more specific to my particular case. I am creating a program that is meant to be essentially the Eclipse of PHP. Not necessarily an editor, but I hope to make a fully expandable and themable program. In many aspects im just creating a simplified CMS, but i want it to be better expandable, to allow it as a sort of starting point to begin a program.

For example, when you are building an office building, you first begin with the underlying architecture: the beams, the support, the floors. I want this program to provide the architecture to a PHP application, where a user who is familiar with the API can simply go in, design their program, and not worry about database connectivity, or all the other nitpicky things PHP has. So basically any user can come and use this for virtually any possible program. To my knowledge, there have been similar things made (CMS's being the closest i know of) but nothing that allows for easy access to plugins

Now in my case, i believe that a generic name (like the ones with PHP in it) is not something that would be desirable. First off, those names are often confused because they all begin the same, and second, because its overused. Also, im not exactly sure there is a conventional name for this project (workspace is the only word i can think of that midly relates), so i think in my case i must go with a distinctive name.

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Also, please tell me if something like this has been dont before so i can test it out, and then decide what i think should be done with it to make it better. Nothing like seeing a competing product and trying to improve it
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