Give it a name

What It Covers

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson explain their product naming philosophy at 37signals, detailing how names like Fizzy, Basecamp, and Kamal emerged. They emphasize that naming comes first, drives momentum, and matters more than securing perfect domains. The episode covers twenty-five years of naming decisions across products and open source projects.

Key Questions Answered

• •Name-first development: Jason requires a product name before building begins, treating it as fuel for the project. Without an early name, he considers it a signal that something fundamental is missing from the concept. The name serves as an anchor to grab onto and pull through the development process, making it essential rather than optional.
• •Sound over concept: When choosing between Boxcar and Fizzy, the team prioritized phonetic appeal over conceptual tightness. Fizzy sounds more pleasant and fluid to say, even though Boxcar had stronger conceptual ties to Chicago train yards and the product's card-based interface. Pleasant pronunciation beats perfect conceptual alignment when names need daily repetition.
• •Domain flexibility strategy: 37signals launched four major products without exact domain matches: basecamphq.com, backpackit.com, campfirenow.com, and highrisehq.com. They waited ten years before acquiring basecamp.com. The lesson: avoid over-indexing on domain availability unless giving out email addresses like hey.com, where short domains matter. Pick the right name first.
• •Legal naming boundaries: David's open source tool Maersk triggered a trademark dispute with the Danish shipping company, resulting in police serving papers at Copenhagen Airport. The maximum penalty was seven thousand dollars under Danish law, revealing how different legal systems handle trademark conflicts. He renamed it Kamal, which became his preferred choice anyway.
• •Momentum makes names permanent: Instagram, Yahoo, Slack, and WhatsApp succeeded with names that would never pass a rebranding committee ten years later. Names become inseparable from products through momentum and familiarity. The takeaway: choose something you enjoy saying for your early-stage project, then let success make it legitimate rather than overthinking initial perfection.