Some potential names are already taken and used, or their website url (.com, or .io) is taken, they are illegal names, or they might mean something else in another language that could be offensive.

There are different approaches to finding, liking and settling with one name, here is my approach and how I did it.

Before I get into the details I think it is a good idea to know some things about our startup, what it does and what are some of its features. Without knowing these, it would be harder to grasp what I am writing about.

Our app is a group based social photo sharing app.

With our app you can capture raw, random moments of you and your friends simultaneously shared in a fun photo collage.

It has a couple of fun aspects to it:

• when a user starts this processs and wants to capture a shared moment, first she takes a picture and adds a caption what she is doing at that moment and then when she sends it she basically “gives” 5 minutes to her friends to respond with theor own photo and caption.
• the receivers, the other group members who “get” the 5 minutes to respond might get this request at random times throughout the day when when the sender wants to know what everybody’s up to at that moment.

When I wanted to find a good name for our startup, first I wrote down on a piece of paper all the characteristics, features, and key words of our app:

photo, pics, pitcures, picture sharing, photo sharing, collage, photo collage, camera, app, mobile app, mobile application, network, time, timer, 5 minutes, five, go, social network, friends, family, fun, real time, genuine, raw, random, right now, hurry, time running out, no BS, simultaneous, at the same time, response, syncronized, in sync, 4:59, etc.

After I had these, I also I looked for synonyms for some of these words above and I even checked if there is a cool equivalent of any of these words in another language.

For that I used google translate. For simple word translations it is great, for sentences not so much.

As I was playing with these words on this paper, I also envisioned the logo and what it could and should include and combine.

The process was about two days, but not in a direct continuous way like I was sitting down and not willing to stand up until it was done.

I just kept playing with these words in my head and see how they each sounded.

At the end, there were a couple of good candidates but I liked this one the most:

Synco

This is basically a combination word of the number 5 in Spanish, cinco and the word sync or syncronize; both of which are crucial features of the app, because users are given 5 minutes to respond to a request and all group members respond almost simultaneously, so in sync with one another.

So I combined Sync + Cinco and I got Synco.

Now the technical part: both synco and its url .com form was taken and used by another company so we added the word Go in front of synco which again has a meaning in the app. When you click and send a synco, you click a button called Go.

So this is how I came up with the name for our app called: GoSynco

Now onto the logo:

I wanted to have some of the app’s characteristics and/or its features included and illustrated in the logo.

I wanted to have some of these words below somehow incorporated in the logo: a timer, a camera, 5 minutes.

If you look at our logo, you can probably figure out that it is a camera. At the same time it is also a horizontal number 5.

The lens is also representing a timer with a hand suggesting there is a time element of the app.

The little balls are hinting the aspect of time running out.

Basically that was the process and it took about two days to figure it all out.

Thanks for reading, and I hope it helps you to come up with a cool name and logo for your product, brand or company.

If you are interested in downloading the apps here are the links:

GoSynco from App Store

GoSynco from Google Play