Bad names smell like bad food
I’ve been involved in naming a few internal blogs recently and some things hold true in all cases:
1. Think about how blogs are indexed and sorted in your environment. If blog names appear in a long internal directory with little more than their names in a list, you want your blog’s name to give people an indication of what the blog is about or who it’s by.
2. Don’t be (too) cute. Your colleague in the Donald Duck necktie thinks he’s being whacky and fun. Do you want to be that guy? If you’ve got something genuinely witty, try it out on a few people you trust to use the word “stinks” in a reply; and think especially hard before you reach for a pun or alliteration-for-alliteration’s sake.
3. Be memorable. A friend of mine wore distinctive canvas shoes. He was known for it so he called his corporate blog “The guy with the funny shoes”. Who was going to forget that name? He complied with with Rule 1: you knew this was going to be a personal blog and you had a fair idea of the author. And he didn’t fall foul of Rule 2, either: it was genuinely funny and interesting name.
4. Write something before you worry too hard about the name. Authors have working titles for their books because things change as they write. Knock out your first few posts and you’ll have a much better idea how you’re going to write and what about. (Sometimes you’ll learn that blogging isn’t for you, which means you really don’t need to worry about the name!)
5. Love it! You’re going to be blogging for a long time, I hope, so pick something you like. You’re going to be writing to this blog again and again; you’re going to be asking people to read it — saying the name out loud — so pick one you love, one that you’re proud of, and won’t tire of quickly (see Rule 2 about puns and alliteration — they wear thin quickly). It’s like a tattoo: if you’ve any doubt, go back to the drawing board.
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