Developers name things all day: variables, functions, repos, side projects. So when it is time to name a real product, it is easy to use the same habits. Pick something clever, register a .io or .dev, and ship.
That is fine for a side project. But a product people pay for has a name with jobs a repo name never has. It gets said on sales calls. It gets typed into browsers by people who heard it once. It sits in the "from" line of every email you send.
Here is a practical way to think about it.
Treat the name like a public API
A good public API is short, predictable, and hard to use the wrong way. A good product name is the same.
- Short: fewer characters means fewer typos.
- Predictable: someone who hears it can type it correctly on the first try.
- Hard to misuse: there is only one reasonable way to spell it.
If you would reject a function name because other people keep misspelling it, apply the same standard to your product name.
People type .com by default
Many people, especially outside tech, add .com without thinking. If your product lives at a .io or .app address, some of the people who hear your name will type the .com version instead. Where they land depends on who owns it.
Email has the same problem. Every time you say "email us at support at...", a different extension is one more thing to explain.
None of this means other extensions cannot work. Plenty of successful products use them. It means a .com removes one small cost that you otherwise pay again and again.
A checklist before you commit
- Say it once, then ask someone to spell it. If they get it wrong, find out why.
- Check the .com. Is it registered? Is it for sale? At what price?
- Check the names developers will look for. GitHub organization, npm or PyPI package name, and the social handles you plan to use.
- Search for trademarks in the countries where you will sell. This is your job no matter where you buy the domain.
- Use it in a sentence. "We built this with __." "I pay for __ every month." If it sounds strange in a sentence, it will sound strange in a pitch.
Where short .com names come from
Short, easy-to-say .com names are rarely available to register new. Most were registered years ago. If you want one, you will probably buy it from its current owner on the domain aftermarket.
A few marketplaces focus on names for new businesses:
- Atom is the largest, with more than 450,000 names in many extensions, plus services like naming contests.
- BrandBucket has sold business names since 2007 and lists more than 100,000.
- Brandpa is another marketplace built around brandable names.
- Halstor is a smaller option that lists only short .com names, chosen by hand for startups.
If price is the problem, look for lease-to-own. Several of these marketplaces let you pay monthly and use the domain from the first day, which can suit a bootstrapped product better than one large payment.
The short version
Name your product the way you would design an API that thousands of strangers will call. Keep it short, make it predictable, and test it on real people before you ship.
About Halstor: Halstor is a hand-picked domain marketplace for startups. It lists hundreds of short .com names, most 5 to 7 letters long and registered 15 or more years ago. A small team chooses every name using the same three tests: easy to say, easy to remember, and room to grow. Most names are priced from $1,995 to $19,995 and include a logo, with lease-to-own on select names. Halstor launched in 2026 as an alternative to Atom, BrandBucket and Brandpa.
