Hi, friends!
After some brainstorming, I narrowed down the possible names for my blog to three options:
The third best option was TotalSurpriseException, because that’s the name of my YouTube channel since two years or so, where I’m publishing coding tutorial videos. The name was intended to be somewhat technology related and humorous, but it does better as a nickname for a content creator than as a name for a product like this blog. Because it doesn’t say what this is about.
My second best idea was ThatGermanProgrammer. The “programmer” part is clear enough on the field of topics I may cover here. The fact that I’m German will probably come up from time to time, when I need to put my perspective on things on context. Also it reminds me of a sentence my American host said to his mother, after I showed to him that his bike tire valve was not broken, but rather French valves need to be unscrewed before pumping: (slightly annoyed) “The German fixed it.”
And starting with “That” the name has a tone of randomness, which I find funny as well. (I’m playing video games as RandomGuy from time to time.)
But the name I finally decided to go with is On Coding. First I had something like Thoughts On Coding or Thoughts For Coders, to imply that this blog is no tutorial but rather by room for any technology and career related topics. But generally in writing (and also in naming things) the shortest terms are the most powerful and most expressive. Also, I remember a scene from the Colbert Report some years back, when Henry Kissinger just had published a book and was a guest on Colbert, who asked him with a straight face: “You new book is called ‘On China’. What is it on?” This was hillarious. I’m sorry that I cannot find a link to that clip.
So there we go. On Coding.
Do you like it? What makes a good name in your opionion?
What I figured out:
The name should create an expectation on what to find in the blog.
Of course, the domain has to be available. A downside for On Coding is, that the .com domain with that name is already taken. I wasn’t planning to take the .com anyway, rather .io or .org, but the .de came free with the hosting, so cheap little me went with that one. But I definitly see the risk that someone types my url by hand into the adress bar (since it’s short) and then unconciously adds .com, which will take him to a totally different thing. If I was going to start a business here, this fact would have been a show stopper for the name! But it’s just my private blog, so it’s okay.
And the hardest part for finding a good name: It needs to sound good!
Would you agree, that all the three mentioned options have a good melody, when you say the words in your head? For me, they do. This is the reason, why I didn’t consider ThatGermanDeveloper or OnProgramming, which are basically synonyms for the options that were my favorites. Developer is even more true than programmer, because we consider software development to include more activities than programming, right? But for whatever reason, I feel they don’t sound that nice. Is there some magic going on about the number of syllables?
In coding, finding good names is very important. Names for objects need to be precise, self-explaining, understandable. Which also means: as short as possible, as long as necessary.
Finding a good name as a brand is even harder. It should sound appealing.
I’m very happy with On Coding.