As many have said, go with what makes you happy. When I originally
ran my company name past a friend who was a professional brand
strategist, she hated it. She said it was too long; too difficult to
remember; occupied too much space on letterhead; conceptually vague;
etc. But I stuck with it because I wanted a name which wasn't
specific about what the company did except in a general way just in
case I wanted to use the same name if I switched amongst my different
interests later on: systems consulting, network consulting,
programming and food (!!!) so it'd be already registered as a
corporation. I chose "Reality Artisans" along with the motto: "We
craft ideas into reality" because they applied to what I would do
regardless of which interest I chose: I would take an idea and make
it into reality whether it was systems, networks, code or food. It
was great! Until it was time to design the logo. That stumped me
for a while (how do you pictorially represent "reality"?) That's when
I finally came up with what I did if you'll look at my website
below: A cartoon guy who creates an image of himself out of stone
("creating reality" out of the hardest stuff there is by someone who
is a craftsman with attention to fine detail so there's an idea of
permanence to the creation, i.e., what I create won't be ephemeral
but last through the ages). A lot of people whom I've spoken to since
then have loved the name because it's out of the ordinary and that
makes it memorable. The only issue I have is that I have to
constantly remind illiterate idiots that "reality" and "realty" are
two different words (they can't seem to figure this out despite the
radical difference in pronunciation and I blame the educational
system here in America)!!! Hope this helps.
On Jan 18, 2010, at 14:51, Benjamin Ragheb wrote:
> After living in denial (sole proprietorship) for a year and a half,
> I've decided to go legit and set up an LLC. I've already read a ton
> about corporate structures and liability and taxes. But I would
> like to hear more about choosing a name.
>
> I know the basic stuff: make it easy to spell, avoid foreign
> language curse words, positive sounding, etc. There are ton of
> generic "how to name your business" articles on the web. I'd like
> to hear more specific to indie software.
>
> For what it's worth, I'm do a mix of product sales and consulting.
> I have a name or two in mind, but my sounding boards (all non-
> programmers) are never enthused by the names I like, and then they
> make suggestions that I think are just terrible.
>
> + Do you have any naming advice particular to a software business?
>
> + If your name is too "cute", will potential clients not take you
> seriously?
>
> + If your name is too "conservative", will potential clients not
> remember your name?
>
> + Does it really matter? Or is the name whatever you make it? (I
> remember "iPod" sounded really weird the first time I heard it.)
>
> -- Ben
>
>
>
--
Reality Artisans, Inc. # Network
Wrangling and Delousing
P.O. Box 565, Gracie Station # Apple Certified Consultant
New York, NY 10028-0019 # Apple Consultants Network
member
<http://www.realityartisans.com> # Apple Developer Connection member
(212) 369-4876 (Voice) # My PGP public key can be
found at <https://keyserver.pgp.com>
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