As I work on UI prototypes for the new web venture, I've been brainstorming names for the web site we're building. I've surveyed some of the finest minds in the software developer community (for very small values of "fine"), and we've come to a collective realization: naming a website is hard. Really, really hard.
You begin to have a new respect for all the crazily-named Web 2.0 startups. And then there are the domain names which must not be named. Some of them are actually serious. What were the people who named experts-exchange.com thinking? I'm not so sure they were.
We've racked our collective brains, and this is the best we could do. We'd like your input to see if we're on the right track. Vote for the name that best embodies what you'd like to see on a software developer community website.
(voting is now over; the winner was stackoverflow.com)
| humbledeveloper.com | 563 | 8% | |
| fellowhackers.com | 302 | 4% | |
| gosub10.com or gosubten.com | 334 | 5% | |
| writeoncereadmany.com | 157 | 2% | |
| humbleprogrammers.com | 179 | 3% | |
| privatevoid.com | 934 | 14% | |
| cargocultdevs.com | 109 | 2% | |
| dereferenced.com | 755 | 11% | |
| bitoriented.com | 492 | 7% | |
| algorithmical.com | 301 | 4% | |
| corecursion.com | 96 | 1% | |
| metaprogramming.com | 373 | 5% | |
| stackoverflow.com | 1,721 | 25% | |
| understandrecursion.com | 35 | 1% | |
| shiftleft1.com | 102 | 1% | |
| (other) | 442 | 6% | |
| 6,895 |
I can't quite talk about what this developer community website will do yet, but we think it's going to be somewhat unique. It sure helps to put a name on it first.
We appreciate all feedback, even if it's of the "they all suck" variety. In that case, vote for the (other) option and leave your ideas in the comments or email me directly. You can use the clever as-you-type search at Instant Domain Search to figure out what's available. I'm warning you: it's a wasteland out there. You'll have to be pretty clever indeed to come up with an interesting, simple name that isn't taken -- or, worse, domain-squatted.
Update: If you're curious what the website will do, in broad terms, this recent audio interview I did with Thirsty Developer explains.
Commenters also pointed out some excellent articles on naming: