In addition to making your Public Profile look better,  it now contains the statistics about your recent activity. You may wish to review your “About” texts, since they look different in the new layout.

The statistics panel contains the Up/Down ratio. The higher this ratio is, the better. The ratio also includes deleted entries. Don’t worry if this ratio isn’t too good at the moment – we only take into account the last 30 days, so you can continuously improve it.

We also added a Top Contestants page, where you can see your 7-day, 30-day or all-time ranking.

What else would you like to see on the Profile? We’re considering a Send Message button and building NameStation internal messaging.

Starting today, the value of a downvote is -1 Point, instead of -2 Points.

As part of our continued efforts to develop a more balanced awards system that would also increase the quality of name suggestions, we recently decided to prevent the deletion of downvoted entries. Afterwards it became clear that this can be a demotivating factor for contestants – especially since Contests holders often don’t  define the requirements in great detail.

We also analyzed the ratio of upvotes vs. downvotes, and decided that 2 points is just too much of a penalty for a downvote. So we cut it in half, to 1 Point.  Previous votes and points are not affected.

New flagging options for contest holders

We also added a new option for Contest Holders to flag irrelevant responses (see the screenshot below). Flagging doesn’t currently affect Points, but accumulating too many negative flags is never a good idea. For now we’re just collecting data, but in the future, flags may be reflected on the Contestant’s profile and they may be tied to the Points system. Too many negative flags may also cause the user to be banned from a Contest.

So please keep the entries relevant. Stick to the contest requirements and only suggest entries that you would like to use for your own business project.

This guide on how to find better domain name ideas may give you some inspiring insights and help save time when searching for names.

We just updated the response deletion functionality in Public Contests. Contest entries can no longer be removed after a vote has been cast. Contestants must now consider their suggestions more carefully, because entries with downvotes can no longer be removed.

Hopefully this will increase the competitiveness among contestants and has a positive impact on the quality of entries. It is now more useful to add 30 relevant entries than 100 irrelevant ones.

Using alliteration is a great way to make company names more memorable.

One of the main criteria that branding experts mention in relation to good business names is memorability. Think of it yourself: what’s the use of developing a great product if your customers cannot remember how it is called?!

Company names that include alliteration are very often more memorable than those that do not. In essence, the term “alliteration” refers to the repetition of certain consonant sounds in the first syllables of consecutive words or phrases. Numerous tongue twisters make use of alliteration; for example, try saying the famous phrases like “Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers” or “She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore”. Such sentences are without a doubt much easier to remember than those that have no alliteration; on the other hand, overusing the language device may result in articulatory complexity, which is a feature we do not need in our company name.

Examples of alliterative names

Since most businesses prefer short names, complex articulation isn’t something that we need to worry about too much. Moreover, a lot of businesses have benefited from alliteration for years now. Think of well-known brands such as Coca-Cola, Dunkin’ Donuts, Bed Bath & Beyond, Johnson & Johnson or PayPal. Even in the famous Harry Potter series a decent number of characters have alliterative names (Moaning Myrtle, Luna Lovegood, Salazar Slytherin. Helga Hufflepuff, Godric Gryffindor, Dudley Dursley, Peter Pettigrew).

Alliteration in NameStation

Inspired by the demand for such names, NameStation has developed a feature that enables you to create names with alliterative characteristics. For that you need to pick a term that you want to be present in the name and the system automatically appends or prepends words or letter combinations with similar beginnings. NameStation also allows you to match word ends .

For example, typing the word hair in the search box results in entries such as HairHaze, HairHail, HairHand, HairHay and many more. With summer the system offers SummonSummer, SummerSuit, SundaeSummer or SummerSundae, etc.

If it happens that some names are in the right direction but not quite what you are looking for, try clicking “More like this” behind the names you like better. This function offers you a  list of  similar entries that are just slightly different from the original name.

What is the most common difficulty that people come up with when looking for an ideal business name? You probably think that the question itself is rather senseless, since there is no single problem; moreover, there seems to be a huge load of aspects to consider, none of which can be disregarded. Most naming specialists agree that a good name should be short, memorable, relatively easy to spell and pronounce; it should be neither too general nor too restrictive and what is even more important, it should be brandable – whatever that means. Here at NameStation, we are of the opinion that while it is good to keep such criteria at the back of your head, you shouldn’t go crazy following the rules, which are rather subjective in the first place. First find a name that you like and then see which rules it follows, which it disregards and whether it matters or not.

How to begin?

As a starting point, take the main ideas you want your name to forward to your customers. What is it about your business that makes it special? Think of what the company does, how it does it and who is the target customer. When brainstorming you probably come up with a list of keywords on the matter. Actually, the longer the list the better. Don’t be bothered if the majority of words seem unusable because you never know which of them could eventually turn out to be inspirational.

Prioritize

Do not forget that a name in isolation cannot transmit all the associations and values that your company represents and that you would like to be present in the name. Therefore, you need to prioritize and deside which ideas are the most important to convey. With the help of branding and marketing you can of course add more associations to the name but this only matters for people who have already heard of your company. Others can only work with the information the name directly does or does not provide.

Do not confuse your customers

Make sure your business name does not mislead potential customers or create confusion. A rough example would be Taco Bell that didn’t serve tacos or CreditSuisse that didn’t have anything to do with money or Switzerland. With famous brands such as Apple or Caterpillar it is of course an arguable matter whether the names are misleading or not. On the other hand, with enough marketing resources almost everything can be done – as we can see, it is even possible to make us think of computers when someone says „I have an Apple“. However, if you do not possess such resources, it is better to stay on the safe side. An important point to remember is that name generation is just one aspect of your overall marketing strategy. In order to stay focused and make the strategy a whole, it is advisable to put together a marketing plan (at least lay down the basics) already before you begin your name searches.

Compounds and clipping compounds

NameStation’s conceptual wordlists include thousands of entries that could give inspiration for your own name searches. People normally pick a concept (or several of them) that in a way correspond to the message they want their company to carry – such concepts are represented in NameStation by wordlist titles, e.g. Art, Events, Creative, etc – and start combining list entries. We are constantly coming up with new wordlists, so if you do not find a suitable one, just send us a message.

You can use these lists for the same kind of word generation that also goes on in languages as a natural process. The easiest and sometimes also the best method is compounding – joining two or more words to create a new lexeme with an individual meaning different from the meanings that the component parts possess in isolation. The most widespread compounding formula is joining two words in a way that the first word denotes a speacial kind of referent of the last word, eg foot + ball = football, black+board=blackboard. Look closely – even NameStation is based on the same principle, although the meaning is slightly more metaphorical. Such names can be found in various business fields; further examples include Facebook, Miniclip, Morningstar, MarketWatch and TrueCar.

A disadvantage that often comes up is that unless you use relatively short words, your business name could end up being too long. What would you remember better: Group Coupon or Groupon; Integrated Electronics or Intel? Most people would pick the latter. In essence, these are compunds as well. To be more exact, they are clipping compounds because a part of the word has been clipped. In common use, such names often lose their original meaning, so that when speaking of Intel, we disregard the fact that originallythe word denoted Integrated Electronics. It is just Intel for us, a brand that carries the associations it has managed to create through its activity.

Compounding on NameStation

On NameStation Domain Generator, go to Combine Lists and choose two concepts you like. Under the option Blending you can pick the length of the word parts you want to remain in your clipping compound. Finally, press Generate Names and there you go, you have a list of possible name variants. It pays off trying the same lists several times, because every time you press Generate Names the search engine combines the entries differently.

If there is a word that definitely needs to be represented in your name, use Append Lists, which appends or prepends one of our conceptual wordlists to your preselected word. For example, professional + wordlist creative results in variants such as professact, profetale, profilize, profedium, etc.

Not to get your hopes too high, it usually recquires some time trying out different lists before arriving at a good name candidate. You could also experiment with different lengths of compound parts. We are sure, however, that eventually you will be surprised at the variety of options NameStation is able to generate and find one that best conveys the principles behind your business.

Finding good domain names is getting harder. Conventional domain search methods require creative thinking, a bit of luck and a lot of time (or alternatively, a substantial budget).

NameStation’s name generators can greatly reduce that time, but in order to be efficient, we need more input than a few keywords. Methodically following a funnel towards finding suitable name candidates helps you save time. Having a user account with us ensures that we can guide you through the process – even if you choose to take a few days off and and come back later.

Benefits of customized search

Having a user account enables us to offer customized services on a different level. You can continue refining your searches where you left off, create your own custom wordlists, save your favorites, search preferences etc. You can combine the keywords in your search history or append them to your preferred wordlists. Furthermore, if you decide to crowdsource your quest for a name, having an account enables you to start a name contest and interact with participants. If you have a little spark of creativity, participate in our Public Name Contests for a chance to earn Talent Points and win cash awards.

Funnel towards finding available domains

First-time visitors are looking for a quick validation of our service. Having a search box on the home page meant that each day, hundreds of visitors left our site after typing in “web” and not seeing the magic they expected. It’s quite impossible to provide relevant names with too little information, especially with a popular keyword like this. Therefore we created a guided funnel, which can be much more efficient. According to some of our clients, they’ve had entire teams looking for name ideas for several days. With NameStation, one person can master the advanced name generators in a few minutes. In terms of time spent selecting a suitable name – think hours instead of days.

Increased accuracy and quality

Having the sign-up requirement enables us to increase the quality of service. We can assure that there performance remains steady and is not affected by automated queries and bots.

Creating an account is free and it takes just a few seconds. Registered users can generate unlimited random domain names and hold private name contests. You can also connect with your Google or Facebook account. Create your account today

Based on your requests, we’re often adding new niche Lists to help you find relevant domain names. As always, you can combine these Lists with others, append or prepend keywords etc.

Here are a few recent additions:

• Innovation, with words like think, vision, original, pioneer, idea, dream.
• Mechanics – generate, auto, kinetic, rotor, robotic.
• Greek Deities – atlas, chronos, pluto, dionysus, zeus
• Reviews – discuss, comment, note, summary, assess, critique

For instance, combining Innovation+Mechanics results in names like DreamRobotic, ImageTurbine, InventMachine, FocusBoost, MakeBot, ProgressPower, FutureImpulse. Try this now.

Taking full advantage of NameStation’s name generators depends on knowing which Lists to select.

We have over 170 niche wordlists that can be appended, combined and merged. Most popular niches are covered, but sometimes it takes a bit of experimenting to find which one is most appropriate. For instance, if you need a name for an educational institution, you might find that there is no Education List. Instead, relevant keywords can be found in the Training and School Lists. Combine these with the Smart list and you’ll be amazed to see which domains are still available.

It’s worth trying all sorts of alternatives, even if they’re only remotely related to your business. For instance, when looking for a cloud hosting company name, you might find the right domain by combining the Weather list (containing words like atmosphere, sky and terms for different types of clouds) with the Containers list (box,  pocket, rack, bucket).

Universal Lists

Then there are universal Lists, which can be useful for almost any occasion. Conceptual Lists contain words that are associated with certain concepts. For instance, the Unique List contains words like direct, essential, target, limited.  The Secure List has words that are commonly associated with defense and security – shield, vault, trust, command.   In the Popular category, you’ll find the Top 1000 Keywords, short Prefixes and Suffixes commonly used in website names.

A separate List is also created for each Contest. These Lists contain keywords submitted by the contestants. Contest Lists can be continuously refined on the Keywords tab on the Contest page.

Requesting a New List

We often add new Lists and announce it on our Facebook page. If you can’t find an appropriate List, then you can post a List Request to our support forum and we’ll create or recommend one for you.

You can also create your own Custom Lists, we recommend that  Onelook Reverse Dictionary for finding conceptually relevant words .

You can now add random suffixes to any of our 170+ Lists. A new result set is created each time you click Generate Names.

Suffixes can be added to complete or shortened words. The original word is shown in the search results.