How to name your product

Every day, countless founders waste their one shot at a first impression.

They settle for whatever domain is available, pick something easy to spell, or worse - choose a name that actively confuses their market.

Years later, they're stuck explaining their name instead of having it explain their product.

I’ve noticed that the best product names aren't just labels - they're assets that compound in value over time, doing the heavy lifting of marketing and positioning while you sleep.

Jack Butcher from Visualize Value puts it perfectly: you can measure how "good" a name is by how well it stores the equity of an idea:

Language is one of the oldest and most resilient forms of leverage.

If you nail the language that represents your idea, and deliver on the promise that it makes, the validity and memorability of it gradually increases.

…

Naming is important because it vastly restricts or accelerates the flow of attention.

It is my hypothesis that the quality of a name reflects a deep understanding of the thing being named. A great name communicates the most information in the most compressed way.

Here are some examples of great names that do this:

• Doordash: Instantly communicates "we dash to your door with food" - compressing the entire service promise into two simple words
• Build Once, Sell Twice: Captures an entire business model in four words, making a complex idea instantly graspable
• Shopify: Combines "shop" with "simplify", telling merchants they can easily create their store

While this concept resonated strongly with me, it was still difficult to just "come up" with a good name off the dome.

As Jack mentions, “The quality of a name reflects a deep understanding of the thing being named.” So, how do you deeply understand what you’re about to name? What’s the process?

I’ve realized that finding your name lies in understanding your position in the market relative to competition. And I’m not talking about differentiation for the sake of it here. It’s more about finding the core truth that makes you meaningfully unique in the eyes of the customer.

Here’s an example:

I recently had the opportunity to name a payments platform catered for South Asian foreign currency earners.

Historically, payments infrastructure in these markets have been a let down for folks who provide goods and services globally. It's a real pain because you don't have a lot of flexibility to do what you want with your hard earned money.

I first listed down all the ways these customers try to make progress today when it comes to getting money from abroad:

• Personal foreign currency accounts provided by local banks
• Using Wise/Payoneer
• Creating an LLC + bank account in the US.

Once you have this, you can think about what sets you apart from the competition. Ask yourself why will it be better? Choose two that really set you apart.

Check out my in-depth article on how to find what makes your startup meaningfully unique.

In our case the key differentiators were freedom and getting the best rates (without tricks).

But finding a name isn't as simple as directly translating your differentiators into words. The goal is to craft a name that cleverly captures these differentiators in a way that becomes more meaningful and valuable over time. Think of it like creating a symbol that represents both what you do today and what you aspire to become.

After many iterations, I landed on "Liberty Rails." Using thesaurus.com as my friend.

Here's how the name encodes the differentiators:

• "Liberty" is a powerful derivation of "freedom"
• "Rails" represents the stable coin infrastructure replacing traditional SWIFT network, enabling those best rates

Pro tip: I constantly checked namecheap.com while brainstorming. There's nothing worse than falling in love with a name you can't actually use.

But here's where it gets interesting. A great name doesn't just describe - it compounds value over time by storing equity in multiple layers. While the surface layers matter (like immediate clarity and symbolism) the real magic happens in the interpretive depth.

Think of interpretive depth like this: it's the endless ways people can find personal meaning in your name. When a name has rich interpretive depth, it becomes a canvas that customers, employees, and the market can project their own stories and meanings onto. The name grows stronger with each new interpretation.

For Liberty Rails, this means one person might see it as their path to financial independence, another as a metaphor for breaking free from old systems, and yet another as representing the bridge between traditional and future finance. Each interpretation adds another layer of meaning, making the name more valuable over time.

This is what Jack means by "storing equity" - the best names are open-ended enough to accumulate meaning while remaining anchored to your core purpose.

How to know if your name is any good?

A great name communicates your difference and gives you room to grow. Test yours against these criteria:

1. Instant clarity: Someone should grasp what makes you different immediately. "Liberty Rails" signals freedom and infrastructure. "Doordash" tells you they rush food to your door.
2. Marketing potential: Your name should enable multiple marketing angles because of interpretive depth. Liberty Rails could run campaigns about financial freedom, new infrastructure, or breaking free from old, restrictive systems.
3. Room to grow: Will your name still work when you expand? Amazon started with books but their name let them grow to "everything from A to Z."

Now it's your turn!

1. Map your market: Identify your top 3-5 competitors that customers are most likely to consider.
2. Extract your differentiators: From your market map, identify:
   • One key differentiator that makes you fundamentally different
   • One supporting differentiator that reinforces your position (Best rates through stable coin rails infrastructure)
     
     For example, Liberty Rails had:
     Key: Freedom of financial movement
     Support: Best rates through stable coin infrastructure
3. Start your naming sprint:
   • Open thesaurus.com and namecheap.com in separate tabs
   • List synonyms for your key differentiators
   • Combine words in different ways
   • Immediately check domain availability
   • Test each potential name for interpretive depth by asking: "What different meanings could this hold for customers?"
4. Test your shortlist:
   • Say it out loud
   • Share it with potential customers/friends
   • Ask what it makes them think of
   • Finally, think about whether it passes the clarity, marketing potential, and room to grow criteria.

Remember: A great name isn't just born - it's discovered through understanding your market position and crafted to store equity over time. Take the time to get it right.

And hey, while “Liberty Rails” might not be the world’s greatest name (my examples aren’t always perfect!), the process of deeply understanding your market and crafting a name with interpretive depth is what really matters.

Referenced

1. Jack’s original article: “Make a name for yourself”
2. Jack Butcher on Twitter/X
3. Visualize Value on Twitter/X and their website