Only the FSM ⧉ knows how much money I’ve spent on domain names when I’m excited about an idea.
I must own around 10 domain names that I’ve parked, and every year I receive that pesky email from my registrar urging me to renew. That’s when I consider whether I should renew for another year or just let them go.
It’s always the same story. I come up with an idea that I want to develop. I think of an amazing name, and oh my goodness, the .com is available! Maybe I should buy it since I’m going to build it anyway. It’s only $10. Alright, let’s do it. Then it’s time to start the project. I quickly set up the scaffolding, but then I hit a wall. I get distracted. I stop working on it. A year goes by, and I get reminded of it.
I’ve also realized that when I name the project or idea ahead of time, the idea becomes entangled with the name. This doesn’t make sense at this stage because the name should adapt to the idea, not the other way around.
Now, I’ve started using code names for my projects. Instead of jumping the gun, I use a generator until something feels right and fun. Examples include: European Toad, Quick Whale, Long Giraffe.
A couple of months ago, I named a project “Long Giraffe.” Once I was satisfied with the product, I then started to think about its name.
This approach gave me so many ideas for the name since I was finally able to adapt it to the product. I was able to research, play with options, and I even thought of creating a Recursive Acronym ⧉, which I love. I asked around to see how it sounded.
In the end, I found a name and I am very happy with it. I managed to name the product I created by detaching the name from the idea at the beginning.
Ideas change. They evolve. Let them do their thing instead of chaining them to something that just sounds right.