It is high time now to have a real product name for our OCL AddIn for Rational Rose (after all, EmPowerTec is not Microsoft who can afford to call their database server ‘SQL Server’ or their word processor ‘Word’). I had some prerequisites in mind, when a started my search:
- The name should come up with few hits on Google. This is not so much because it should have a high placement in the result list but to increase the risk of a trademark conflict.
- It should have some connection with the product but given that most users soon build there own associations with a product name this should not be overvalued.
- Most important, it should sound good and be memorable.
Naively, I started with some names that are closely tied to the products purpose.
- Model Sharpener
- SharpModel
- TightModel
- SolidModel
- Exactum
But these names are really bad because they bring up a lot of hits on Google, have a high chance of trademark collisions and frankly are also a little boring. Next, I substituted ‘Model’ with ‘UML’ and came up with:
While ‘UML’ does generate fewer conflicts than ‘Model’, there are already some software projects out there, that use ‘Sharp’ in their name (e.g. SharpReader or SharpDevelop) and the fragment ‘Sharp’ refers to the programming language C# in this case. This clearly does not make sense because our OCL AddIn does not have any special relation with C#.
With ‘IronUML’ being my only acceptable choice so far I decided that I need a little help and a great place to get help for such an issue is the Business of Software group on Joel on Software. The nice and knowledgeable guys in this group really gave me some great advice for finding a good product name. Here are some of the highlights:
William Rayer: "So don’t spend time thinking of names based on UML or modelling, instead think of non-IT words with the same attributes you want your product to have."
Anonymous: "As suggested above, think of a real-life tool that helps you do something more precisely, like a tuning fork or a camera lens."
This was the first lesson for me: the product name should not communicate the technical aspects of the product, it should transport and evoke associations that point to the benefit of the product. Roger Jack also neatly summarized the requirements for a good product name:
- Benefit: The name should stress the benefit (not features) of the product.
- Short: The name should be one or two words. If you start using three or more words you will user will make up an acronym.
- Internationalizable: User for which English is a second language should be able to understand the name.
- Alliterate: This helps people remember the name.
Another anonymous contributor pointed me to the Igor naming Guide which contained an interesting categorization of product names along with advantages and disadvantages of each category. And finally, I got some great, concrete recommendations from an anonymous user:
- Occelerate.
- Ocumlo. (has UML inside it!)
- Oclear (working on the ‘sharp’ angle).
- Oclarity (more sharp/precise; sounds like ocular)
- Occurate
- Umlocracy (the rule of UML!)
- Occordance (because accord means to be well-tuned.)
- Attunity (tuning; sounds like eternity)
- Focalaire/Foclaire
- Ultony.
Oclarity seems to be used by nobody according to a search on Google and some trademark databases and I think it is a really good choice for an OCL related product. It is the winner! Thanks to the person who made this great suggestion.
p.s.: In the meantime I learned about a discussion board dedicated to naming and branding: http://www.wordlab.com/. It also provides a database with ideas for product names from 40 categories (however, software is not one of them).
