How to Name Your Startup in 2026

Your name is the cheapest piece of marketing you'll ever buy and the most expensive one to change later. Spend a weekend on it. Don't spend a month.

The 5 rules

1. Two syllables max (ideally one)

Stripe. Linear. Notion. Figma. Vercel. Loom. Rocket. Short names are easier to say, remember, and put on a logo.

2. Easy to spell over the phone

If you have to say "that's L-Y-N-Q with a Q" you've already lost. Test it: call a friend, say the name once, ask them to type the URL.

3. A real domain you can actually own

.com if you can afford it, .ai if you're AI-adjacent, .so / .co / .dev as fallbacks. Avoid anything with hyphens, double letters from a missing vowel, or a misspelling that requires explanation forever.

4. No numbers, no "ly" suffix

The "-ly" era ended in 2018. Numbers in names are SEO and SEM nightmares.

5. It either says what it does, or invents a category

Two valid strategies: descriptive ("Calendly tells you it's a calendar") or evocative ("Stripe tells you nothing but feels modern"). The dead middle — vaguely techy nonsense words like "Quantix" — is where bad names live.

The 3 things to avoid

• Trademark conflicts. Run a USPTO + EU search before you fall in love.
• Negative meanings in other languages. Five minutes on Google saves five years of awkwardness.
• Names that pin you to one product. "ColdEmailGPT" is great until you add a second feature.

A 90-minute naming sprint

1. List 20 nouns and 20 verbs related to your category (10 min).
2. Mash them into 50 combinations (20 min).
3. Check .com / .ai availability for the top 15 (15 min).
4. Trademark-check the surviving 5 (15 min).
5. Say each one out loud in a sentence: "Hi, I'm building [name], we help…" Pick the one that doesn't make you flinch (10 min).
6. Buy the domain immediately (5 min). Sleep on it. If you still like it tomorrow, ship. Rocket's Brand Name Generator runs this sprint for you in thirty seconds and only shows names with available domains.