How to Name Your Blog: 5 Tips to Make it Easy

Welcome to the third and final post of my “How to Name Your Blog” series. Part one talks about the basics of blog naming and part two covers five categories of names you can choose from. I recommend you read them as a primer for this post, where we learn how to pick a great name!

So you need a name for your blog. I know that feeling very well. I’ve been there a few times, often for weeks on end, mulling over hundreds of names but never quite feeling satisfied. The challenge with naming your blog is that it’s likely to be the first thing in a series of things you want to be perfect. Right?

Wordful was my very first naming challenge. Back then I worked a dead-end office job that offered me only mere scraps of creative expression. I got fed up one day and created an opportunity to start my own web copywriting company. For the name, I wanted it to truly and succinctly represent who I was and what I had to offer — in this case, writing and words. Thus the name Wordful.

I learned quite a bit from that experience, and now it’s sharing time. If you want to great name for your blog and don’t want to spend the money, take note of these five simple tips:

• Start with a Massive, Organized Brainstorm. Open your notebook and prepare to let loose. On the top of the page write a sentence or two describing as clear as possible what your blog is about and what it strives to achieve. Under that make two columns: in the left column write words that are directly associated with your blog. In the right column, use you imagination and write down adjectives and metaphors that describe your left column words. Do not hold back at this stage — just start writing everything that comes to mind.
• Experiment: Here’s the fun part: take those two columns of words and start fusing some of them together, breaking them apart, bending and stretching them, misspelling them, seeing how certain sounds come together — you get the idea. You can even add more words as you go. If you’re really struggling, know that compounded metaphoric names are your going to be your best bet — they’re fairly simple and straightforward to put together.
• Take a Break. That’s right — get up and move away from your familiar surroundings. Go and find a sacred space where your mind can relax and unfocus for awhile. This zen moment can be a time of great inspiration, and you may be pleasantly surprised what surfaces to your consciousness. Just be sure to write it down!
• Get Input from Other People. When you’ve got a decent list of names, be sure to run them by some people to get their feedback. This is a vital step because you need to know how the names are received by an audience. They might love a name you ignored or hate one you were clinging to for your own quirky reasons.
• Play the Domain Name Game. Let we warn you right now: this step is a real showstopper, and you might find yourself getting frustrated early on. This is because most good domain names are taken by someone who thought of it and purchased it before you (domainers, webmasters, cybersquatters, etc.). With that said, however, your chances of domain name success are greater if you: use your own name, invent a word or construct a compound metaphor (like facebook or techcrunch). [Word of advice: always try to get the .com TLD — it boosts your viability.]

Bonus: most web hosting companies offer a free domain name with a purchase with a hosting plan, which will run you about $6.95 per month (trust me it’s so worth it). I personally recommend Bluehost (affiliate link).

You may have to repeat a few of these steps to make progress. Remember — don’t ever settle for a mediocre name. It may never catch on and you could fall flat early in the game. If you persist and hold out long enough, the right name will come to you. It took me about two months to come up with the name Wordful and another 14 months to get the .com domain name (that’s another story). But I love it and it’s mine forever!

So if you can get through all five of these steps, you should have a great name for your blog. Then you can get really get to work.

An Abbreviated Example

1. Brainstorm: “I want my blog to be a community for everyday people who go running to stay in shape.”
   Left column: running, runner, runners, run, jogging, exercise, everyday people, training, athletic, athlete, staying in shape,  recreation.
   Right column:  happy, dedicated, common, amateur, average, shoes, soles, pavement, road, roadrunner, rabbit, friends, buddies, treadmill, steady, sweaty, group, pack. (You should have WAY more words than this by the way).
2. Experiment: commonrunners, thecommonrunner, treadmillbusters, packrunners, runningrabbit, runningrabbits, rabbitrunners, happyrunners, averagerunners, runtolive, pavementpounders, everdaysoles, runningbuddies, runningbuddy
3. Breaktime: came up with bunny (a friendlier version of rabbit): runningbunny, runningbunnies, runnerbunny
4. Input: treadmillbusters, averagerunners, everydaysoles, runtolive
5. Domain Acquisition: runnerbunny.com

Let me end by saying that I am by no means a linguist or naming expert. I’m just a guy who loves words and writing and naming things. What you read in this post (and the previous other two) is pretty much based on my bootstrapping experiences with naming Wordful and other blogs. My methods work pretty well for me and I hope they do for you, too. Good luck and let me know how it goes for you!