Choosing A New Name

Our original name was wowie.co and I regretted the choice almost immediately.

At the time I just thought of it as a place holder. I needed to pick something so I could go live and test my idea. It seemed silly investing a lot of time into a name when I didn’t even know if it was going to make it off the ground.

I figured I could always change it later on. But as business picked up, changing the name was never a priority.

This became a real stumbling block because I didn’t want to promote a brand I knew was going to be replaced. At this point, it’s something that can no longer be put off. So we started brain storming new names.

Choosing a name for an online-based business is a 2-part process. First you have to come up with the name, and second you have to make sure the domain is available.

Out of all the names we came up with, here are the ones that ALSO had available domains:

hostingharbor.com
wpbirds.com
siteharbor.com
harborpress.com
wpharbor.com
wpanchor.com
wpshack.com
wpguardians.com
wpzelda.com
wpsavants.com
wprockstars.com
wpthankless.com
sitesentries.com
wpservants.com
wpbunker.com
wpblockhouse.com
wpcov.com
joingRedCarpet.com

Some of the names were jokes, some were serious contenders. It came down to WP Harbor, Site Harbor, and Red Carpet.

WP Harbor, because we focus on WordPress (hences the WP) and because we are an online “harbor” for small business owners. We are a safe place where they can get help, repairs, information, etc.

SiteHarbor for the same reason as above, except that it’s more generic. We probably would have gone with this, but there is a web development company called “Site Harbour” and although we offer a different set of services, there is overlap making it just too close for comfort.

Red Carpet because of the level of service we like to provide. We often tell prospective clients “we’re going to roll out the red carpet and take care of everything for you.”

Internally, we could not decide. So I polled friends and family. I was a bit surprised by the responses.

The Poll Question:

Imagine you are looking for a Website Management Service. You come across two companies on a list of recommended providers: Harbor and Red Carpet. What message do you get from names of the companies alone? And…all things being equal, which name do you gravitate towards?

The Results:

In my survey, I asked people to pick one, Harbor or Red Carpet. The results were:

64.29% Harbor
35.71% Red Carpet

Words people used to describe Red Carpet:

Conscientious, service, being treated like royalty, treated to red carpet service, high end, high maintenance, pizzazz, fame, welcoming, Hollywood, disconnected actors, luxurious, high end, first class, fancy, top notch, modern, new age, fresh, catered to.

Words people used to describe Harbor:

Safe, peaceful, calmness, laid back, structure, nautical, gathering place, trustworthy.

Words that were used MOST often to describe Red Carpet:

Service, Luxurious, High end.

Words that were used MOST often to describe Harbor:

Safe, Trustworthy.

Summary:

I was surprised by the number of people who gravitated toward “harbor” if for no other reason than having some kind of positive mental association with it.

People were generally more wordy when talking about “red carpet” vs. “harbor”.

Looking at words that were repeated in multiple responses, there was more variation with Red Carpet than Harbor. This made me think people have a wider range of pre-conceived notions about the name.

Conclusion:

We decided to go with WP Harbor due to the availability of the domain name.