If you’ve ever tried naming a company, you know it’s a deceptively frustrating process.
You think it’s going to be fun—maybe even easy. It starts with some light brainstorming. A few clever ideas. A quick domain search. Then the rejections start piling up. The good names are gone, the .coms are all taken, and what’s left just doesn’t land.
But naming matters more than most people think. It’s not just your URL or the logo on your deck. A strong name sets the tone. It shapes how investors perceive you, how customers remember you, and how your brand can grow.
At Atom.com, we help thousands of founders navigate this exact process. Recently, we took a closer look at 5,000 of the most recent domains that sold on our platform—names that real startups actually bought to build real businesses. What emerged was a surprisingly clear picture of how naming is evolving in 2025.
Here’s what that data revealed—and how the naming landscape is shifting in 2025.
Startup Names Are Getting Less Literal
A decade ago, many startups gravitated toward names that said exactly what they did: PayPal, SurveyMonkey, or WebMD. That’s changing. Founders today lean into names that feel open-ended — ones that spark curiosity or emotion instead of simply describing a function.
This trend shows up clearly in the data. We saw a rise in short, brandable names that are phonetically smooth and emotionally resonant, but not directly descriptive. Think of names like Notion, Figma, or Lumen — or from our own data, domains like Zozu.com, Koko.com, or Lapel.com. These names don’t spell out what the company does, but they feel like brands from the moment you hear them.
Smooth-sounding names like Zyla or Valur don’t necessarily mean anything at first glance, but they sound great, are easy to remember, and give founders flexibility in shaping their brand identity.
We also saw a resurgence of compound names that blend concrete and abstract concepts. Think of companies like Salesforce or YouTube — or names from our dataset like MindGroup.com, DataStrike.com, and StackSync.com. These names hint at value or action without boxing the company into a single identity
Legibility Matters More Than Ever
With the rise of made-up names, clarity is as critical as phonetic appeal. If your name can’t be easily repeated and understood, it won’t stick with the public, and it won’t appeal to investors either. Along with keeping names short and their spelling intuitive, following a vowel, consonant, vowel pattern usually makes words easier to pronounce and recall.
At Atom.com, we often use what we call the “Crowded Bar Test” – Could someone catch your brand name over the noise of a crowded room and remember it later? If not, it’s unlikely to make the splash you want it to, and might make branding and marketing harder rather than easier.
Although we’ve used this test for over a decade, it’s more relevant than ever in 2025. In a world of voice search through Alexa and other AI assistants, and marketing campaigns across podcasts, Reels, and videos, phonetic appeal is non-negotiable.
Naming Choices Reflect Industry Culture
A name can sound great, be easy to spell, and pass all the branding checkboxes—but if it doesn’t feel right for the space you’re in, it won’t stick. That’s something we kept noticing while analyzing over 5,000 domain sales: each industry has its own naming style. The tone. The rhythm. The emotional undercurrent. Founders aren’t just picking names—they’re signaling culture.
- In AI and tech, the strongest names blend intelligence with imagination. We saw names like Ace.ai, Imagine.io, and Zora.ai—short, modern, slightly futuristic, but still warm and human. They live in the same creative space as brands like Figma or Notion. Our research into tech naming found that almost half of consumers favour names that emphasize both innovation and creativity.
- Finance and crypto brands play a different game. They lean into names that sound strong, clear, and dependable—think Billable.com, WiseCapital.com, or Yield.xyz. You see the same traits in companies like Stripe or Coinbase. These names convey motion, trust, and control—exactly what you’d want in a money-first brand.
- When it comes to wellness and health, the tone softens. These brands often go for names that feel clean, calm, and ethical. There’s data to back that up too: In our research, 85% of consumers said they value health brands with a social or environmental mission. Domains like Recovery.com, KindBox.com, or InnerBalance.com reflect that ethos—just like Calm or Ritual do in the real world.
- And then there’s the consumer lifestyle space—quirky, rhythmic, and full of emotion. Names like Dazzy.com or Gosh.com work because they create an instant connection. They don’t try too hard. They just feel good. And that’s often enough to be remembered.
Ultimately, the name you choose says more than what you do—it hints at who you are and how you want people to feel when they interact with your brand.
If there’s one big trend in naming as we head deeper into 2025, it’s this:
Evocative wins. Every time.
Alternative Domain Extensions Are A Strategic Choice
As ever, .com remains the gold standard of domain extensions – it made up 85% of Atom.com’s domain sales last year and remains the number one most credible domain in the eyes of consumers. It’s easy for customers to remember as the most likely extension, and an exact match .com domain provides prestige and recognition in every industry.
The appeal of .com, however, can put the extension out of reach for some brands seeking super-short, memorable names. This has contributed to the growth of alternative extensions in the last few years, particularly for startups that are AI-forward enough to justify the choice of .ai. When it works, .ai is used to mark a startup out as genuinely powered by artificial intelligence, while .io is used to signal general innovation. Country code extensions (such as .co.uk) should also get an honorable mention here, offering deep trust within their countries of origin.
To Choose A Name, Think Like A Storyteller
In the end, naming a startup isn’t about finding a perfect word. It’s about finding the right starting point—a word that feels like it belongs to your story, even before the rest is written.
That’s what we see again and again in the best names: they don’t try to explain everything. They spark something. They invite curiosity. They give founders a canvas big enough to grow into.
So whether you’re building in AI or health, crypto or consumer goods, resist the urge to over-explain. Instead, listen for the name that feels right. The one that sounds like the future you’re trying to build.
And when you find it—you’ll know. It won’t just look good on a slide or pass a domain search. It’ll resonate. And that resonance is what turns a word into a brand.
The right name doesn’t close the distance between your startup and the world. It opens a door.
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