How we named our app – A developer’s story

Posted by Adriano Teixeira In: Stuff We Like

How important is a name?

Whether we’re talking about people or products, it comes to our collective minds that names are powerful things that can facilitate the understanding of who we are talking with, or what we are talking about.

Names have always carried meaning. More recently people and products have tried to get away from that notion and escape the bondage of tradition, if you meet someone named Pedro, you can no longer assume you can trace his ancestry, religion or place of birth.

App markets are filled with restrictions and rules, but most of all they are extremely crowded. That being said, when naming an app, developers should do whatever they can to pick a name that is both unique and clear about the app function.

Make a test right now: go to any category on an app list and read a few names. Can you guess what the app does based solely on that name? If you can, it means someone did their job well and took the first step towards establishing the communication between developer and user.

Everyone knows there are more factors at play when it comes to successfully communicate what your app is about, but naming is often overlooked or seen as something that simply hasn’t got too much method behind it, and although marketing is not as straightforward as coding, there are some core principles to guide your decision:

Is your name unique? Make sure you don’t sound too much like the competition.

Is your name descriptive? Does it hint what your app does?

Is your name easy to pronounce and spell?

When the time came to name one of our new apps, we used the principles listed above. The main challenge was that AutoBud’s concept is not a common one, so everything about the app experience had to express not just what the app
currently does, but also what it will grow up to be.

The name AutoBud came up because the app is all about improving the relationship between the user and their car. We could have gone in a different direction, but ultimately, this was the name which said more about our vision.

Looking back on it, I could reminisce on some of the other names that came up during the brainstorming and maybe be glad about the fact our team followed these simple guidelines and chose AutoBud instead of the other name I was so keen on: CARDASHIAN

Go check our amazing app, it’s available for both iOS and Android.


Adriano Teixeira
Loves writing, except biographical information.