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What makes a name brandable?

NobleSavage

NobleSavage

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Ie: GoDaddy. Pharma companies are great at stone cold making shit up: Viagra, Lipitor, Prilosec, Celebrex, Xanax, Vybriid, etc

How hard (is it feasible?) would it be to make a Python script that could spit out short brandable names? Where to start? Python has the NLTK (natural language tool kit) that I'm just learning.
 
It seems like it would be fairly simple, though I have never done such a thing. Simply enter a couple words descriptive of the meanings (maybe even two or three meanings like “fast, relief, and happiness) you want to imply in the name into a program linked to a thesaurus. The program would search for synonyms then select one syllable from each word then combine the syllables to make your new word. It should be able to spit out a few hundred new words that you could read through and select the one you like. But, hey, I haven’t done any programming for several decades now.
 
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skepticalbip said:
It seems like it would be fairly simple, though I have never done such a thing. Simply enter a couple words descriptive of the meanings (maybe even two or three meanings like “fast, relief, and happiness) you want to imply in the name into a program linked to a thesaurus. The program would search for synonyms then select one syllable from each word then combine the syllables to make your new word. It should be able to spit out a few hundred new words that you could read through and select the one you like. But, hey, I haven’t done any programming for several decades now.
Click to expand...

That seems like the most logical way to go about it. Splitting words into syllables is tricky, but I think it can be done http://www.onebloke.com/2011/06/counting-syllables-accurately-in-python-on-google-app-engine/
 
Some names are better than others.

Xarelto works on the clotting cascade. It is a Xa inhibitor.
 
NobleSavage said:
skepticalbip said:
It seems like it would be fairly simple, though I have never done such a thing. Simply enter a couple words descriptive of the meanings (maybe even two or three meanings like “fast, relief, and happiness) you want to imply in the name into a program linked to a thesaurus. The program would search for synonyms then select one syllable from each word then combine the syllables to make your new word. It should be able to spit out a few hundred new words that you could read through and select the one you like. But, hey, I haven’t done any programming for several decades now.
Click to expand...

That seems like the most logical way to go about it. Splitting words into syllables is tricky, but I think it can be done http://www.onebloke.com/2011/06/counting-syllables-accurately-in-python-on-google-app-engine/
Click to expand...
You are right that it may be real tricky to write a program to split words into syllables. If it turns out to be too much of a hassle, you may consider just entering the syllables yourself rather than the words. Also eliminating the link to a thesaurus would severely reduce the number of new words that you have to cull through to find the jewel.

An example:
Assume you want to come up with a brand name for a new Xerox printer ink. Xerox would be a good choice for the first descriptor so you could enter into "set A" Xe and rox. Printer doesn't look too promising to me so I'll try copier which would mean entering into "set B" cop, i, and er. Ink doesn't look too promising to me either so I'll try toner which would mean entering into "set C" ton and er.

This selection would yield twelve possible new names, mostly really dumb but I could kinda see Xecopton or Coperox. If you also combined only two of the syllables then there would be even more new words to consider like maybe Xeton. Find a few more synonyms and add them to the syllables already in the sets and the number of new words would go up exponentially.

Of course, if your are looking for a serious programming project, this method would likely be too trivial to fool with.
 
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^^^^Yeah, this is mostly a project to learn (so I'll go the hard route) and to support my hobby of buying domain names.
 
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