No Risk Near Free Naming Sites: 2 Good 2 Be True?

For about the past year, I’ve noticed an online trend that, to be honest, I’m torn about. You may have seen a number of sites that offer “no risk” or “very cheap” (say $99) Naming Services such as Name This or Picky Domains.

For any of us who do hourly freelance work for clients, these prices are ridiculously low—for both the client and the creative provider. But as a professional brander, I feel I should be aware of the competitive marketplace for creative services, especially with this economic environment. There’s no denying these “down and dirty” naming sites are getting more popular. But as a naming project client do you get what you pay for?

It’s hard to say really. If you look at a current example of a submitted naming project on Name This for example, for hand-knotted upscale rugs, there are some valid names on the list (and I’ll admit suggestions are mine as way of testing this site). As a consultant, these sites are a mix of good, bad, and ugly naming.

The good? I have to admit it appears that you’ll get hundreds of ideas within 48 hours—a relatively quick turn time for naming. In the rug naming project on Name This, for example, there are already 300+ suggested name ideas with another day to go for suggestions.

The bad? The quality level of the submissions, in my opinion, varies greatly. We can’t really blame that though entirely on the contributors. The information given about a business is usually very brief and there’s no or little interaction with the “naming community.” As a result, some of the names are often cliché, unlikely available, too generic, vague, amateurish, etc. .

For me, the name ideas generated from these sites are really what I would consider to be “viral brainstorm” thoughts than they are viable, targeted business names. But, if that’s what you’re looking for then this might be useful.

The ugly? If you genuinely have a need for your new product or business and you use theses sites, now what do you do? You have a long list of names. You don’t know who did them or why. And how do you make a choice? What if the name you like best (or was voted as the best as some sites now do) is not available? Remember, particularly clever or “catchy” (whatever that means) names have been thought of long ago. So be careful of popularity contests with names online.

In the end, I’m not endorsing or condoning these sites. They are for you to make your own decisions given your goals and budget. But keep in mind there are other options, such as an affordable, independent naming consultant. A real, not virtual, person who will not only listen to you, provide you with names, but also help you through the naming process, from start to finish.

Here's a short article from Inc. about Name This.