The 2.5 Types of Blog Names

There are two basic types of names, whether it's a blog name, book name, a name for a new breakfast cereal, or anything else.

1) Descriptive names.

A descriptive name is one that makes it obvious what the name applies to, at least to the target audience/market.

I see a sign for "The Bagelry" across the street from me. You can be pretty sure it sells bagels. It probably has a place to sit and may serve coffee and drinks as well, but certainly it has bagels. "The Bagelry" is a descriptive name.

Blogging for Business is a descriptive name; My Blogging for Business blog is quite simply about "blogging for business."

Schneier on Security is another descriptive name. It's about security and written by well known security author and thought leader Bruce Schneier.  Oh, you hadn't heard of Bruce Schneier before? It doesn't matter as his target audience certainly has.

Ask the Atheist and CorporatePR are other examples of blogs with descriptive names.

2) Clever names, called "cute names" by some.

As I write this I'm at "Breaking New Grounds." Breaking New Grounds? Is that a spiritual growth center, a construction company, or  ???

Actually it's a coffee shop. Get it? Coffee - coffee grounds, and the expression "breaking new ground" as in making progress? How clever.

Boing Boing is a clever name. Whether you or I personally think it's clever isn't the issue. From the name you can't tell what it's about, but it's currently the 5th most popular blog on the planet so obviously that doesn't matter much.

icanhascheeseburger is another extremely popular blog with a clever name (personally I think it's stupid, but that's not important). You can't tell from the name that it's about cats and other fluffy animal pictures with amusing captions.

Not all blogs with "clever" names are irreverent, primarily for amusement, or silly.

For example, a shel of my former self, by Shel Holtz, my co-author for Blogging for Business (the book, not the blog), is a serious business blog on technology and communications. I have no idea what the name means, although it's clever and catchy. Maybe Shel used to be really fat and lost 200 pounds? I'll have to ask him someday.

2.5)  Viral Names
Marketing Guru Seth Godin sometimes mentions a third type of name, a name you choose because it will get talked about.

This is typically a clever name that you hopes catches on and enters the vocabulary.

Examples from Seth include his book Purple Cow; most people now know this means something that is remarkable and unique, whether it's a product, service, company, or maybe their marketing.

Another example is "Google"; it now means to look something up on the Internet.

Note that both "Purple Cow" and "Google" are basically "clever" names, but ones that have really taken off and are now used to mean much more than the book and company they originally named.

It IS tough to choose a "clever" name like these that spreads virally as they have, but if you do you can have massive results! Imagine perhaps millions of people using your blog name in daily conversation.

Examples of viral blog names are rare, but one example is "dooce". Heather Armstrong was fired in 2002 for things she wrote online about work in her blog dooce.com. "Dooce" is now widely understood to mean "to be fired from your job because of things you write online." Dooce is also a very popular blog -- a Technorati Top 100 Blog.

Another example, perhaps not as big as dooce yet but with enormous potential, is Pamela Slim's blog Escape From Cubicle Nation. "Cubicle Nation" invokes such vivid and to many of us unpleasant Dilbertesque images that I can see it really taking off - that is, taking off even more it already has.

So, you've really got two choices for a blog name, "descriptive" or "clever."

If you're amazingly lucky your blog name, whether clever or not, may skyrocket along with its/your popularity, and enter or perhaps change the vernacular. Hey, maybe it'll be bigger than Google!

Comments oh insightful readers?

Comments

[Fred Savage]

Great info!

The one thing holding me back is choosing a blog name. I've even written several posts already, but just haven't chosen that all important blog name!

This is helpful

[wmchamberlain]

I choose my blog names to describe their purpose. I deal with fifth graders that are concrete and need it to be simple.

[T Demop, Blogging for Business]

Fred, you need to just pick a name and go!
You might just make a list of possible names, perhaps over a few days, and then make a decision. Asking opinions on any final selections from potential readers can also help sometimes -- i.e. getting external input.

wmchamberlain, concrete and simple is always a good choice.

[The Hairy Beast]

Yeah, unfortunately "The Hairy Beast" attracted the wrong crowd for me...

[Michael]

Nice read TD, I can see why you made the "Viral" category bullet 2.5 instead of 3. I would argue that the viral names themselves aren't substantially different from the "Clever" set - but the sites themselves provide enough value to users/readers that their popularity shoots off the charts.

[T Demop, Blogging for Business]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your input -- I agree, but thought that "viral" was significantly different than "most" clever names to be worth maybe not a #3 but a #2.5

Hairy Beast,
You have been attracting the wrong crowd since grade school :)