Help choose my site name v.2

August 3, 2008 2:10 AM

A follow-up to my recent website naming question. We now have some finalists, which should I choose?

The site-without-a-name is an online community which provides reliable reviews of service businesses for homeowners. It is like yelp.com but focused more on home services.

The contenders, in no particular order are:
1. ServiceFisher
2. AlongTheVine
3. Foondee
4. SpringFisher
5. ServiceVine

I'd appreciate your thoughts on which names you like or dislike and any reasons for this. Any alternate suggestions are welcome too.

For anyone else looking for names, I found both nameboy and the Igor naming guide to be useful resources.

posted by Gomez_in_the_South to writing & language (11 comments total)

Foondee is my least favorite. It fails the idiot-proof spelling test (F/ph? EE/ie/y? Oo/u?) and from the sound of it I expect to visit a web2.0 site for neocons who fancy themselves gourmands (buzzwords chosen for effect).

Of the ones you posted, ServiceVine is my favorite, though it still sounds a little awkward. I would suggest smoothening it and humorizing it by making it VineService or HouseVine, resulting in a nice blend of direct, subtle, and punny.

The Fishers, though nice-sounding, may resonate too strongly as being about, well, fishing.
posted by whatzit at 2:22 AM on August 3

Based on a pure gut reaction:

ServiceFisher: doesn't quite sound right. whatzit may be right, the resonance with fishing may be too strong.

AlongTheVine: like it, the "vine" idea is cool, and you can refer to it onsite as "ATV".

Foondee: a bit too Web2.0 as well as being cryptic.

SpringFisher: the word has a nice rhythm (king-fisher) but is meaningless and has that "fisher" thing going on.

ServiceVine: has the nice "vine" thing. Would be my second choice.
posted by outlier at 3:48 AM on August 3

ServiceVine.

The others seem too early-internet opaque to me, and don't have an obvious connection to what you do. With ServiceVine, I get it. It's like the grapevine about services.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 5:01 AM on August 3

I'm with everyone else. ServiceVine or AlongTheVine.
posted by cachondeo45 at 5:32 AM on August 3

I like AlongTheVine, mostly for the same reason that outlier gave: You can refer to it by either its full name or ATV.
posted by sabira at 6:16 AM on August 3

Service Vine. It's the only one that sounds remotely like what the site is about, it's easy to remember and easy to spell.
posted by geeky at 6:49 AM on August 3

AlongTheVine sounds the best, but I think I'd have to go with ServiceVine, just because it is more descriptive of the site.
posted by alligatorman at 7:19 AM on August 3

I don't particularly like any of them, but ServiceVine is the least oblique.
posted by davejay at 8:36 AM on August 3

Foondee sounds like baby talk.

I vote for ServiceVine.
posted by Ostara at 8:59 AM on August 3

The foondee name has a little more significance in a South African environment. It is derived from fundi (domain taken) which is an expert or teacher (wikipedia: fundi - expert - from Nguni 'umfundisi' meaning teacher or preacher - used in mainstream South African English). But I agree with the difficulties in spelling and web 2.0 cliche as pointed out.

Thinking about it more, alongthevine also works well in the context that it will be used, for example sydney.alongthevine.com or tokyo.alongthevine.com. The downside with all of them is that I am going to have to get decent traffic just so that this page doesn't come first in a google search!

Thanks for all the honest opinions.
posted by Gomez_in_the_South at 9:20 AM on August 3

flyonthewall
posted by Acacia at 12:14 PM on August 3