The five tests
How every name in this catalog earned its place.
Thousands of names were considered for this catalog. A few hundred survived. The bar was five tests, applied without sentiment — including to names we personally loved and had to let go.
1. Pronounceable on first read
In any major language phonology. If a Spanish speaker, a Hindi speaker, and a German speaker say the name three different ways, the brand fractures at its foundation.
2. Spelling-resilient
Say it aloud to someone who has never seen it. If they can type it correctly — through handwriting, voice, and accents — it passes. This single test eliminated more names than any other. A name that scatters into three spellings leaks its own traffic forever.
3. Brand-extensible
The name must not trap its owner in one category. A company outgrows its first product; a premium name has to survive the pivot.
4. Trademark-clean at the word level
We check the obvious shadows before listing. Buyers do their own clearance for their category — but nothing enters this catalog wearing another company's name.
5. Reads as a company, not a description of one
The subtlest test and the most decisive. "Quality Cheap Hosting" describes a business. A name has to be one — something an ambitious founder could say in a boardroom, print on a building, defend in court, and still love in a decade.
Names that fail any test do not enter the pipeline — and therefore never appear here. The catalog will never be in the thousands. That would mean the bar dropped, and the bar is the entire point.