Like all effective brand names, app names should elicit emotions and feelings, be easy to spell and say, and tell great stories. Beyond that, they should generally not include more than 11 characters and must sit well in the store. The six app names below received five stars from the entire River + Wolf team.
Evernote
With Evernote at your fingertips, you can write notes, make checklists, do research, and much more.
Five Stars: Besides being super easy to say and spell, this name seamlessly blends function and flair —‘note’ gets at ‘function’ and ‘ever’ adds flair, suggesting you can do note taking (and more) wherever you find yourself.
Wunderlist
Organize and share your lists, whether grocery, movies, household, or other. No matter the size, Wunderlist makes it easy to get to the finish line.
Five Stars: Like Evernote, this name combines one functional word–‘list’–with the enhancing word ‘wunder’. List sounds pedestrian, but ‘wunder’ not only creates a play on “wanderlust”, but adds sparkle and suggests things getting done like magic!
GrubHub
A food delivery and takeout app that let’s you order food anytime and anywhere. Added ingredient? Free pickup and delivery.
Five Stars: ‘Grub’ derives from an old Germanic word meaning ‘to dig’. Its slangy food association comes from the idea of animals digging in the ground for roots. ‘Hub’ suggests centralization. What makes this name a knockout is its memorable hard rhyme.
Periscope
Periscope let’s users broadcast live video—video that’s instantly visible to your friends and follower no matter where they are. They can then join in the fun, adding comments or hearts in real time.
Five Stars: A periscope is a tube-like apparatus whose mirrors or prisms allow an observer to see things normally out-of-sight. With periscope, others can see what you see, even if they are not in visual range. This imaginative name gets at the app’s function while suggesting adventure, as periscopes are commonly associated with submarines.
Tinder
The world’s most popular dating app that uses a very basic approach of allowing users to choose between the photos of other users to make matches.
Five Stars: Tinder is dry, flammable material used for lighting fire. This unusual metaphor goes straight to the app’s benefit. With its quick set up and no long forms or questions users go straight to the pictures to see if sparks fly.
Squid
An app that allows you to take handwritten notes naturally on your Android tablet or phone. With Squid you can write just like you would on paper using an active pen, passive stylus, or your finger.
Five Stars: Formerly known as Papyrus, Squid gets at an ink-shooting creature on the move (Cephalopod ink is the dark pigment octopus and squid release when escaping). In one short syllable, the name suggests writing (ink) on the go!
