With my first XNA game nearing completion, I'm starting to put some real effort into finding a kick ass name for my video game company. With that thought in mind, I was curious as to where other's got their company names from, what they mean, and if they had any tips on finding that all ellusive name the sums up everything your company stands for.

I read a general business book and it says to write down all the adjectives that describe your business on a piece of paper and then see if you can combine them in interesting ways. I also added some other cool descriptive words to my listing and thus far have come up with a few I like though several I had high hopes for turned out to be already taken.

I've also been searching expired domain names and some of the company name and band name generators for inspiration. I tried looking at some latin and greek words but ultimately felt they were all too difficult for the consumer to remember (not good for a company name).

I've debaited using a completely meaningless word (but easy to spell) too... harder to get brand recognition, but would likely be shorter and would not have an preconceptions as to what it means.

I started out with Metacreature Games, simply because it sounded interesting. That ship has sailed and in the future I plan to just use Super Gravelyn Bros because it's just my brothers and I and we are, indeed, super. Plus we like the Super Mario Bros reference as well. :)

My son called me "dadoo" instead of daddy when he was learning to speak. I didn't consider the marketing side of things when coming up with a name, I just picked a name that I liked.

I think that most company/brand names can be made to work given enough marketing dollars. Since I just spent my marketing budget on coffee I'm not going to worry about it too much.

dadoo Games:

My son called me "dadoo" instead of daddy when he was learning to speak. I didn't consider the marketing side of things when coming up with a name, I just picked a name that I liked...

Heh... that's interesting. My son called my "ka" instead of daddy until he was 5 or so. Nobody could ever figure out where he got that word. I don't think I'll be using it in a company name, though. Too close to "kaka". lol

Well my son is only 5 months old so currently calls me   Brrrr, Waw, Dribble, Smile, crap nappy sounds.    None of which was suitable for a company name  :-)  Although "Crap Nappy Games" could be funny!!!

We settled on RetroCoders, as we program Retro style games/code and www.RetroCoders.co.uk was un-used too.

As it was tho, xbox uses your UserName (oops) so our games Retro One and RetroOne - Part 2 came out under "CoderSys".  CoderSys being an abreviation of our old company "CoderSystems" when we build PCs and had a shop on ebay and stuff like that selling games and DVDs.

So we have  RetroCoders as a company, with a developer team called CoderSys.

Now I think about it tho,  "Crap Nappy Games" sounds ace  :-)

My game company is Rogue Eyebrow, and I own the domain Rogue-Eyebrow.com

I created the name during my time at Art Institute( hate that school btw, a rant for a different time though ) as a team name for my first team project. It was inspired by one of my teachers named Scott Swanson( who has a rogue eyebrow... look at his facebook picture ) and also because I have long eyebrows as well. They can measure as long as 3 inches, and if I gel them I can have the whole Jack Nicholson thing going on.

Good enough reason? My webpage's tagline is 'Rogue-Eyebrow, because who wants a normal eyebrow?'

As a side note, my username is my XboxLive gamertag and has been around since Xbox Live launched. With that in mind, its based on the fact that Mjolnir is the name of Thor's hammer( and the Master Chief's armor. ) Vengant is a loose latin word for vengeful. So you get 'The vengeful hammer of god.'

I liked the idea of two contradictory words being used together, 'Social Loner' was one of the first ones we thought of.  A lot of the decision came down to domain name availability, if the name wasn't available it was quickly crossed off the list.  Go for something simple and easy to pronounce, keep in mind that it will be seen worldwide.

The name "Jade Vault Games" (not in existence yet, but hopefully some time this year) originally started several years ago when I was toying around with the idea of starting up my own game review/hosting website for RPG Maker games (this is where the "vault" part of the name comes from). It was a fleeting idea, though, and nothing ever came of it, but the name sort of stuck.

MonsuneMoon means "Monsoon Moon" from the Mighty Boosh. I had to spell it like that because the real spelling was taken.

"I rain down the pain, I’m Monsoon Moon, I’m coming atcha like a beam, like a ray, like a laser, don’t try and stop me I’m quick. Like lightning. I’m frightening. Oowww! Chika-chika!Yeah? You want a piece of me now? You got nothing!"

Centurion Games was initially created when we had first started up business, and were working on an actual card and map game similar in ways to Battletech, but which was very Greek and Roman influenced and more battle suit oriented. Never the less this project was put on hold after some time, but the company name stayed.

I have had the domain name eclios.com for ages.

No idea where I thought of it from. (to be honest I am not even sure if people can guess how to say it!)

I quite like it though, a kind of classical feel.

J.

Mine, The Dead Pixel Society (thedeadpixelsociety.com, WIP) came about from what I decided I wanted my path in game dev to be.  Bringing back old school gameplay in fresh new ways.  Playing with 'dead pixels', really.  Plus I feel its unique and different enough to be noticeable.  And I don't have to throw the word 'Studio' in there anywhere. :P

I've considered retro/pixel somewhere in a game title, but I'm thinking I might do some other more modern games too (my current game is pretty old school as are my other three ideas for my next game, but I would like to try an X-Wing/Tie Fighter type 3D game too, which isn't really retro or pixelly).

I think I'm just too picky... one day I have a name I like, the next, I'm onto something else (or excited about a new name I thought of that is subsequently taken by someone else).

hmm i guess i just choose the best word that described me and i cam up with a name that represented me so far

"Untamed Games" <--- i like the result tho but it makes me think im weird if thats how i describe myself

My "company" has gone through several iterations.
I started as a hobbyist, with nothing special, really.  Later, I met someone interested in programming and introduced him to games.  I can't remember his name, but we combined initials to SDFD Games.  He eventually dropped out, so I changed it to DCD Games (just my initials).  Then I made it Can It Games.  It didn't ring too well with me, so I went unnamed for a while.  I picked up a few more helpers, and today I have settled on Burning Phoenix Entertainment (it sounds cool) for about 2 years now.  But only recently have I done anything important http://burningphoenix.pbworks.com/, so don't bother searching for any of the first ones.

I originally wanted to release games under the name Curmudgeon Games, but a Google search turned up too many similar names and URLS already being in use.  After that, I tried to come up with something about story and narrative, so I considered things combining adjectives describing stories with words like "software" or "games", but anything I could come up with was already in use.  I realised I needed something really unusual so that it would be easy to remember and not in use by anyone else.  I'm a big music geek, so I started going through my favourite albums, trying to see if I could change up the titles to sound like the name of a game developer.  Most of the albums I went through wouldn't have worked.  Then I came across The Shape of Punk to Come.  That was easy enough, just change the word "punk" to the word "games".  So the name is a combination of an homage to a fantastic album, and something I went with out of desperation when nothing else seemed to still be available.

In retrospect, I'd actually like to use the name Great Apes Games now, which is much simpler and sounds kind of funny, but I've already changed my account name once (from my real name to my company name), so it doesn't seem like a good idea to try to get it changed again.

I have a cat called Smudge,... maybe I should have put more thought into my company name.

Dave