Pick the right name for your application.
Yesterday we wrote about giving your app a name and a symbol right up front. What we didn’t get into was how to come up with the right name. The bottom line is the name you come up with day one probably won’t be the name you launch with. In this day of trademarks, domains and intellectual properties its near to impossible to cover all your bases up front.
We named our application Fireside almost immediately. It was exactly what we needed to get the project on its feet. What we didn’t take into account was if that name would cause any type of conflict in the future with trademarks, etc. Up to a week ago we were ready to launch the app with the name Fireside. The site was designed, blog posts were written and people were signing up to be notified, all under the banner of Fireside.
What Changed?
All along we kept the 37signals folks up to date on the progress of Ember. From beta test releases to regular updates on progress they’ve been in the loop. This last week Jason was kind enough to give some insight on the name Fireside. He brought up the fact that due to current trademark laws having the word “fire” in our application’s name might cause a conflict with Camp”fire” as a trademark. It wasn’t a threat in any sense of the word, but instead just a tip based on past experiences they had with naming products.
At first we were crushed, we thought Fireside was the perfect name for our iPhone app. It was clever and it communicated exactly what we wanted. To get around this potential conflict, we brainstormed several alternate name choices. Jason even contributed with a few of his favorites. The name that came up on all our lists, including Jason’s, was Ember. Now a week later, we are all big fans of the name, we’ve even seen some great comments on the name choice.
For us there were a few lessons, don’t get hung up on the initial name you come up with, do your research into trademarks and in the end launch with a great name.
