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I have came up with a term for the company I want to make. Please read it's company not a Product URL. The names that usually came in my mind were:

  • MyCompanySoft
  • MyCompanyTech/Technologies
  • MyCompanySystems
  • myCompanySolutions

but I want to avoid these names as they are old now. The thing that came in my mind was *get*MyCompanyName like we read getFirefox.

Do you think will it work?

About my company or products I want to make: I have a goal/vision that I want to make stuff that make people to become what I want them to become. For instance if the company name is Smart then I would like to make it getSmart because my products will make people to get smart.

Update: The URL will be getSmart.com but company's name will only be Smart so it will be used on Logo/Site/Letterheads etc

What do you suggest?

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3 thoughts come to mind: 1) are you targeting just english-speaking countries or worldwide, and if so, how would your candidate name translate in other languages; 2) type your candidate in all search engines, and see what comes out and if you like what you see; 3) think of what people would type in a search engine to find the product that you sell. – frenchie Dec 21 '12 at 14:46
The name I wish to pick is quite a common English word, like Smart. Yes I am targeting worldwide as I will be selling softwares. – Volatil3 Dec 21 '12 at 14:47
I doubt that SEO could be the issue since it will be a company name rather than a product name. Correct me if I am wrong. – Volatil3 Dec 21 '12 at 14:49
There's an interesting post by SethGodin sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/04/nouns_and_verbs.html – Volatil3 Dec 21 '12 at 15:02
So "Smart" is your company name, what is "GetSmart" for? – Billy Chan Dec 21 '12 at 15:25
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3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Based on the updated version of the question, I would suggest better not to make things complicated, at least not intentionally.

Keeping two versions of company identity has cost, and it's not cheap. Imagine you explain it to everybody you met, "well, actually our company name is Smart, but we want you to Get Smart, so Smart and GetSmart are all us". I bet you will get tired soon :)

For the examples you listed, I think the main consideration is the availability of domain. Squareup.com may want to acquire "square.com", but the single word domain may cost millions easily if not tens of millions, and is not always available for sale. They have to take a related alternative.

For your case, if you can acquire smart.com at affordable cost you definitely need to do that. If you can't, you can still go with GetSmart.com but identity yourself as Smart. No branding for GetSmart. Domain only.

Another important consideration is, before you brand yourself as "Smart", better to make sure the trademark "Smart" is not taken in your industry. If available you may need to consider applying for it once decision made.

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but having a domain starts with get make sense? Specially when it's for a company? – Volatil3 Dec 21 '12 at 18:32
I think "get" makes more sense to product name. For company name, maybe "smartHQ", "smartTeam" or anything better? It seems too much people use "HQ" after Basecamp, but at least it is a convention. I prefer word like "hq", "team" than suffix like "or", "ster", "ly" in the case, as it looks another word after adding suffix. My 2 cents. – Billy Chan Dec 21 '12 at 18:40
Ah HQ(It for HeadQuarter, right?)..Making sense. I see if I get a domain pertaining my name. Thanks a ton! – Volatil3 Dec 21 '12 at 18:52
up vote 1 down vote

With the word of "Get" you are indicating an intent. The intent for the user to take possession of something that is downloaded from your site. Hence, "GETfirefox.com". If you were to use just Smart. I'm sure that you would have branding and trademark issues in a dozen countries 50 different ways. Do some additional research.

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Billy suggests SmartHQ as domain but I am getting your point that having Companyname as Smart only looks incomplete. So you suggest something like SmartSoftwares something like that? – Volatil3 Dec 22 '12 at 6:09
Whatever you pick really give it some thought. Single word names now are popular but the domain is hard as hell to get and if someone has it they are going to want a lot for it. Just don't think of what the name is for the company but what it says to someone reading it. – Tony Dec 22 '12 at 15:28
up vote 1 down vote

Whether you add something at the beginning or the end of the core word, you are going to create some brand confusion if your domain name is different from your actual company name. Companies obviously can work thru these kinds of problems - Basecamp, Square, Fuze (meeting) come to mind. And there are also plenty of companies that append 'co' or 'inc', etc. to their domain names. But, imo, it is something to be avoided, if possible. Personally, I would work pretty hard to find a way to make the domain name and the company name match by morphing the company name to something unique which is both available and retains the original concept of the core word.

Assuming 'smart' is the core word you need to build around, I would tend to add something at the end of the name vs the beginning. This ensures that your brand is first in line in the domain name which means it is first in line in the minds of your customers/prospects.

There are several ways to do this:

  • Add relevant supporting word - like 'software', etc. I don't really agree with your point that these are 'old' now. If the alternatives are 'get' before name vs. 'software' after, 'software' after works much better. It is more logical to leave off 'software' as a short form of the company than it is to add the random word 'get' before it to create a domain name.
  • Add generic descriptor - like 'HQ', 'box', etc. These sort of accomplish the same thing as 'software', but may feel more modern to you. In my opinion, they are more confusing, but obviously they have worked for some companies (many of whom often end up spending piles of money to buy the root word domain name eventually - something you may find less likely to need to do with a word like 'software').
  • Add corporate designation like 'inc' or 'co' or 'llc'. Again, easy to leave this off in short form company name. Logical for people if you add it into the domain name. But probably this feels extremely old fashioned to you.
  • Morph the core word with suffix like 'ly' 'ing' 'matic' or other roots. This actually changes the name of the company from 'smart' to 'smartly'. I would go this route myself. This gives the best result because it is a distinct name where you can have exact match between domain name and company name. That avoids brand confusion and is likely to give you a leg up in trademarking efforts.
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Thanks for the detailed answer – Volatil3 Dec 27 '12 at 10:24

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