Knowledge Center

Learn naming, from first principles

A structured curriculum on the craft of naming — psychology, brand strategy, linguistics, domain selection, and trademark fundamentals. Built for operators who want to make better naming decisions on every project.

Why naming deserves a curriculum

Most founders treat naming as a creative exercise that happens once. In practice, it is a structural decision made under uncertainty, repeated every time a company launches a product, spins out a sub-brand, or enters a new market. A curriculum compresses years of pattern-matching into a small number of frameworks you can re-run on demand.

How the tracks fit together

Frameworks gives you decision tools. Psychology explains how the human brain encodes brand names. Brand Strategy connects naming to positioning. Linguistics covers sound, rhythm, and cross-language safety. Domain Strategy turns availability into a first-class attribute. Trademark Education makes the legal layer legible.

Frameworks

Repeatable decision tools you can apply to any naming project.

The 1-page naming brief

Audience, promise, tone, must-haves, must-nots — on one page.

The three-filter score

Brandability, availability, longevity — and how to weight them.

The five-year test

Will the name still fit when the company is twice as broad?

Naming psychology

How readers encode, recall, and emotionally tag a brand name.

Memory & distinctiveness

Why invented names out-perform generic ones over time.

Sound symbolism

What plosives, sibilants, and open vowels imply.

Cognitive fluency

Pronounceability as a trust signal.

Brand strategy

Naming as the visible end of a positioning decision.

Category creation vs entry

Names that name a category vs names that fit one.

House vs branded architecture

When sub-brands need their own names.

Rebrand triggers

When a name has hit its ceiling.

Linguistics

The mechanics of how a name sounds, scans, and translates.

Morphology patterns

Prefixes, suffixes, and the shape of brandable words.

Cross-language safety

How to avoid the names that don't travel.

Rhythm and stress

Why two-syllable names dominate brand lists.

Domain strategy

Availability is part of the name. Treat it that way.

Domain morphology

The shapes that correlate with .com availability.

TLD trade-offs

.com, .io, .ai — and when alternates work.

Handle availability

Naming for a multi-platform identity.

Trademark education

Enough to brief a lawyer well. Not a substitute for one.

USPTO classes 101

How class selection changes your search results.

Distinctiveness spectrum

Generic, descriptive, suggestive, arbitrary, fanciful.

Common-law marks

What use-in-commerce protects without a filing.

Frequently asked

Where should I start if I'm naming a company for the first time?

Start with the Naming Frameworks track — it gives you a one-page brief, three scoring filters, and a shortlist process. From there, dip into Brand Strategy for positioning and Domain Strategy for availability craft.

How is /learn different from /guides?

Guides are end-to-end playbooks for a specific naming problem (a SaaS, an Etsy shop, a podcast). Learn is the underlying knowledge — the why behind the frameworks the guides apply.

Are these tracks meant for agencies or solo founders?

Both. The frameworks are the same ones we use internally. Agencies use them to compress client sprints; solo founders use them to avoid an expensive naming agency engagement.