Naming in two languages

Most naming starts on a whiteboard, in one language, among people who already know what the product does. That is the worst possible test. A name lives somewhere else entirely: in a phone call, in a search bar, in a recommendation between two people who have never seen it written.

I work between German and English almost every day, and between several other languages in my own life. That has made me strict about one thing. A name has to work out loud, in both languages, before it is allowed to look good on a screen.

Descriptive names feel safe and age badly

Several of the products on this site started with descriptive working names. Pawow began as Pet Circle. woaah began as autoten. Hummanio went through WirPersona on its way to its final name.

Descriptive names are tempting because they explain themselves. Pet Circle tells you it is about pets and some kind of community. But that is also the problem. A descriptive name sounds like a category, not a company. It is hard to own, hard to protect, and hard to find, because it shares its words with everyone else in the market.

The names these products ended up with do the opposite. They do not explain the product. They give it a sound people can remember and a word nobody else is using.

The four tests I use

Every name on a shortlist has to pass the same four tests before anyone gets attached to it.

Say it, do not show it. I read the name to someone in German and someone in English, without showing it, and ask them to type it. If they cannot spell it after hearing it once, it will lose traffic forever. woaah breaks this rule on purpose with its extra letters, which is why it has to earn its place in the other three tests.

Listen for the second meaning. A word that is neutral in English can be awkward, rude or simply comic in German, and the other way round. I check every candidate with native speakers, and in the markets the company might reach later, not just the first one.

Check where it has to live. The domain in the main markets, the trademark register in the relevant classes, and the social handles. A name that is only available as something-app or get-something is a name you will be explaining for years.

Put it in a sentence. “I booked it on Pawow.” “We moved our invoices to WirFaktura.” “Check woaah first.” If the name does not sit naturally in an everyday sentence, people will avoid saying it, and a brand nobody says out loud does not grow by recommendation.

German and English pull in different directions

German rewards precision. Compound words are normal, and a long, exact name can feel trustworthy, especially for business software. English rewards brevity and sound. Short, slightly playful names travel well and are easy to say in a pitch.

WirFaktura leans into the German side on purpose. It sounds like what it is for its market: invoices, for us, in Germany. That fits a product whose whole promise is being correct for German law. Hummanio and Pawow lean the other way. They are built to be said in any language, by anyone, because their markets are wider than one country.

Neither direction is right on its own. The mistake is not choosing. A name that tries to be precise and playful at the same time usually ends up being neither.

Naming is a strategy decision in disguise

The hardest part of naming is rarely the word itself. It is agreeing on what the company is, who it is for, and how far it wants to go. A name for a German compliance tool and a name for a European consumer brand are different answers to different questions.

That is why I treat naming as part of advisory, not as a creative task at the end of the brief. Once the positioning is clear, the shortlist usually writes itself. When it does not, that is a sign the positioning is not clear yet.

A name you can grow into

A good name feels slightly too big at the start. It has room for the second product, the next market and the company you will be in five years. Pet Circle would have stayed a circle. Pawow can become whatever the company earns.

Choose the name you would still be proud to say in a meeting in Berlin, in London and in Prishtina. If it works in all three rooms, it will probably work everywhere else.