Startups Stack Exchange Archive

Please help me with startup name

I want to name ads service “ligrad” (Liger + Ad). I’m not native english speaker and I don’t know how it sound for english ear and what associations might be.

I thought about easy understandable and recognizable “AdSpace” or “AdStore” but these names have nothing to do with me personally, and since I put a piece of myself to the project, I would like to somehow associate the name with myself. “Ligrad” is a the best what I could make out of my name and area of service :-)

Could you please share your thoughts about this name.

Thank you in advance!

UPDATE: Recently we with team come up to the following list of names:

  1. LigrAd
  2. AdStore
  3. AdView
  4. AdOn

Please help to choose.

Answer 629

If I were you, I would just go with "Liger". It sounds pretty cool, bold and striking (to me). Creates an impact. LigerAds etc, not so bold or interesting any more. Nobody advertises their services in their name nowadays - "Apple", "Virgin" etc. If you really want, you could mention Ad services in your tagline.

Eg.

Liger

Liger - "Ad Specialists"

Liger - "Next generation advertising"

Liger - "What do you want to advertise today?"

etc

Also, as I mentioned in the comments, Liger is a real animal (Lion + Tiger). You could play with that to create some classy & memorable logo.

Some example logos:

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enter image description here <<-- Don't go with this!

Answer 602

As far as I can think of this has no negative associations. To me it sounds fine. The only sort-of conflict that I can think of is the Chinese name Li Grad but I think that is a minor conflict and unlikely to cause any problems.

It is a fantasy name which does have drawbacks and benefits. However since you are dealing with advertisements you have removed most of the drawbacks (most specifically not being immediately apparent what you do since anything ending in ad is at least marginally apparent that it may refer to advertising). You definitely have the benefits - easy remembrance, uniqueness. So I would say it is a good choice.

In regards to the issue brought up by Sepano - possible differences in pronunciation - I do not think that that is problematic. Many companies names are not always 100% guessable as to how to pronounce unless you know what language they are based on and are familiar with the grammar of that language - like for example this list exists.

EDIT (Re: updated with list of names):

Answer 616

I understand your wish to incorporate your family name into the name of your startup, but have you thought about doing the same with your first name?

Maybe something like DeAd, or DenisAd or something in that way?

I personally would avoid AdStore and similar soultions, because they sound too generic for me, or it can also associate with something that Google made (sounds like AdSense, AdWords)

I believe that it might sound to ‘sharp’ or unnatural if your targeting an audience in the english-speaking areas.

Answer 603

It can be pronounced in different ways. such az the ones that @jdero mentioned.

Leegrad Lygrad Ligrad Liegrad or …

So in my opinion it is not suitable

Answer 607

I would like Liger8, as homage to the Liber8 group.

This might also give you some extra traffic if people mistype Liber8 because g and b are close on the keyboard. :)

The -grad usually means -town in Slavic languages, like in Stalingrad, Beograd, ..

Using a capital A seems better to distinguish it:

LigrAd

Maybe even use your full name, so people have a light bulb moment when they combine 1 and 1:

LigerAd

And make sure you have all the domain names registered.

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