I was just checking my News Aggregator and for some reason a month old post from Strange Brand came up titled Top Ten Tips for Corporate Naming. I have no idea why it took 6 weeks for it to appear in my aggregator but I’m glad it did because today I’ve been thinking a lot about names for blogs and projects that I’m working on.

The 10 tips on naming a business are pretty good value and are worth considering for naming your next blog also.

1. Determine How Important the Name Really Is
2. Stand Out
3. Avoid Generic Surnames
4. Avoid Descriptive Names
5. Avoid Acronyms
6. Avoid Faux Latin
7. Avoid Faux Latin (Cont’d): -nt Names
8. Avoid Spaceless Names
9. Avoid “Tech Power Synergy” Names
10. Find Examples to Emulate

James writes excellent material on each point.

I guess with blogging there are a few other considerations in how it sounds and what it means to readers – one of the big ones being SEO. I know I tend to go on about Search Engine Optimization but your name is what people will predominately link to your site with and rule #1 of SEO is that the words that people link to you with is very important in helping SE’s like Google to determine what your site is about.

I tend to name most of my blogs with pretty functional names for this reason and because I want people who come to my blog to immediately to know what my blog is about within a few seconds of them arriving. Names like Digital Photography Blog, Camera Phone Reviews and Michael Jackson Trial Watch might not be the catchiest names for blogs going around but they do meet these two goals at least.

So how did/do/will you determine what to call your blog? Is it about SEO, creating a buzz, communicating what your blog is about, making it easy to remember, intriguing readers, building a brand, standing out or some other factor?

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