What’s in the name you may ask. Well, almost everything. Naming anything is very crucial and holds great importance. A name can create a huge impact or may even become the sole cause of a blunder. The naming process is imperative and must be dealt with caution. The same holds true even when you’re naming your mobile app. The name needs to not only suit your business and brand, it should also instantly ring a bell in people’s mind. Whenever someone hears the name, they should picture the image of your brand in their mind in a way that you wanted them to.

Think of all the great brand names like Adidas, Mercedes, Audi, Coca-Cola, Subway, Walmart etc. Do you think these names were pulled out of thin air without any thought process? Absolutely not. Moreover, a lot depends on the name of your app when it comes to search rankings. It’s great to have an amazing app, but it might not get the deserved attention if the name just sucks. In this article, we have compiled a few tips that you must consider while zeroing down on the name for your mobile app. Take a look.

1. Analyze The Competitors

It’s always a wise step to take a look at the already established players in your genre. Visit the app store and go through the top performers in your category. Understand what kind of names are grabbing more popularity. Long names or short names, common names or distinctive names, names related to some person or nonperson names etc. Check all these factors to know what is the safest bet. No need to be over innovative and swim against the tide. Just go with the flow with a little stroke of uniqueness. Do not try to be way too close to your competitor’s name or you may end up with legal issues.

2. Understand The Market Rules

It goes without saying that if you wish to play a game, you must know all the rules of the game. In case of launching a mobile app, you must be aware of the best practices of the store that you want to launch your app in. Whether you want to hit the Apple market, Android market, or both, it totally depends on you. But knowing the market rules and best practices is a must.

Apple store allows only 30 characters in a mobile app name. They recommend simple names with simple spellings and the name should have a connect with the functionality of the app. Apple also suggests maintaining distance from generic terminology and names similar to the already existing app of the same genre.

On the other hand, Android app store allows 50 characters in a mobile app name. They have strict terms about keywords stuffing in the name and description of the app. It can call a suspension if you don’t follow these rules religiously. Even if Google allows more characters in the app name, it’s advisable to stick to 30 characters as its an appropriate length for a mobile app name. Moreover, if you are launching the app on both the platforms, it’s good to have a common name.

3. Select A Brand Name Rather Than An App Name

Yes, we agree that technically you’re selecting your app’s name, but the name is not merely the name of your app. It’s the face of your overall brand. Thus, the name must look apt on all the platforms, social media pages or even on merchandise. Don’t just be an app, be a brand name. We don’t say that you will scale exponentially to become a global brand name like Coca-Cola or McDonald’s, but they would have been there if they would have thought the same.

The branding strategy must also focus on a clean and crisp logo which directly relates to your app name. This way it can be used as the app icon as well. It helps the users to identify your brand distinctively yet keeping the uniformity at place.

4. Stay Away From Unique Spellings

In a quest to be different and innovative, people sometimes cross the line. That’s when the trouble starts. It’s good to inject innovation and distinction when it comes to app names, but the innovation should have a limit and must not cost you the overall success of your app. One good advice on this label is to stay away from unique spellings. Don’t play with the spellings and please stick to the official ones. It has a very negative impact if you spell your app name in a way that is not standard.

Let’s see an Example: Suppose a user suggests your story app to his friend. He says “Dude check out this awesome story app by the name of Freaky Stories”. He searches it on the app store and couldn’t find you. Why? Because you wanted to be uber cool and thus spelled your app as FreeKey Stories. Unless you hold the formula to immortality and selling it for free, chances are that the user will not waste more time and efforts to search you. You will lose more and more potential users like this.

5. Consider A Third Party View

While you are the owner of your business, app, and brand, it will never hurt you to consider someone else’s opinion. This exercise can sometimes provide a new perspective or dimension to the whole process. You can select the names that top your list and can take opinions from friends, family, closed ones, knowledgeable, and even experts. They might give you the best suggestion or may even scrap all the ideas with a solid logic behind it. Both the things are for your good. You can even hire a consultancy firm for the same. They can conduct a study on a sample group, collect responses and provide you valuable insights.

Conclusion

There is always an unsung hero in any epic story and I think a mobile app name is that unsung hero of the epic success story of an app. There are plenty of advantages of selecting an apt app name considering the overall business and branding goals. The process may sound very simple, but sure needs a lot of brainstorming keeping the above tips in mind. Thus, naming an app must be amongst the top 5 on the ‘To-Do checklist’ if not at the very top. Talk to our experts to know more and discuss your mobile app development requirements.

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