HN Explorer

Ask HN: Help me name my startup

5 points by quotz ↗ HN
Hi! I am launching a new eco-friendly and sustainable company and I need your help! Our mission is to reduce CO2 by cutting out unnecessary water from personal care and household products. We all have tap water at home, why don't we just cut shipping costs and pollution with a "Bring your own water" solution where you can use tap water to dissolve the products at home!

Our first product will be toothpaste and mouthwash tablets which are infinitely refillable and come in zero waste and zero plastic packaging.

However, we are in a dilemma about choosing a name that fits. We have the necessary domains with both options. These are the options:

1. Earthbound or Earthbound Society. We like this name because it associates with sustainability and community. We can drop the society if only earthbound is better.

2. Lavabo. We like this name because it means "washbasin" in almost all of European languages. Its also short and sweet.

Whats your opinion? Every single answer helps, also I can send you free samples once the first batch arrives if interested!

16 comments

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casho
Earthbound is cool.
quotz
Without the Society part?
casho
I would say not to add the society. However, If you had a discord community, that would make for an amazing server name
quotz
Okay thanks for the help! Btw if u have 2 mins to spare could you explain your rationale ?
mindcrime
If those are the two choices, then I say "Earthbound", hands down. I don't see anything even remotely evocative or appealing about "Lavabo". Even if you see a large portion of your target market as people who speak the "half of European languages" where it's a real word, what positive connotations does "wash-basin" have? I mean, as an English speaker I wouldn't be particularly predisposed to buy something from a company named "Sink".
quotz
The reasoning behind Lavabo was that its a short name and probably easy to remember. In romance languages Lavare means to wash, and Lavabo comes from old Latin which also means washbasin. The meaning of the word does not really have a great connection to our products besides that for some products in our product line people usually put them on the sink haha like the toothpaste and mouthwash. Earthbound might be more difficult to pronounce for some other languages but our main market is the US, with Europe following later on.
mindcrime
> The reasoning behind Lavabo was that its a short name and probably easy to remember.

I'm not sure "short" necessarily equates to "easy to remember". I mean, I'm no expert, and feel free to ignore this, as it's probably very subjective. But to my way of thinking, the fact that Lavabo isn't (in English, AFAIK) a "real word" with any particular connotation or association, makes it "not memorable" to a degree that offsets the "easy to remember because it's short" part. I mean, consider, "Inprise" is also a short, easy to remember word, and yet that is widely considered one of the worst debacles in corporate re-branding ever.

> In romance languages Lavare means to wash, and Lavabo comes from old Latin which also means washbasin.

TBH, this sounds a bit like "overthinking things" or trying to be clever for the sake of being clever. Is anybody going to buy your product because of this? If not, then it doesn't matter.

Earthbound seems kinda cool though. Anyway... that that for what it's worth. Again, totally not an expert. I could be totally off-base here.

quotz
Youre very much right, the only reason I am defending Lavabo right now is to just for the sake of the debate. Subjectively I prefer the name Earthbound. But I am also looking for objective reasons to pick that name hence this post! We actually did some surveys that we sent to friends and posted on socials, we got some 100 responses and the votes were 70 Lavabo / 30 Earthbound for some reason, but it could be that the results were skewed due voters from our native countries in europe :D
paulkrush
Earthbound
quotz
Thanks for the reply! And whats your reasoning behind the choice?
yuppie_scum
Earthbound is the name of a cult classic video game from the 16 bit era. I imagine you’ll face some headwinds with SEO if you choose that. Perhaps even trademark trouble.
quotz
Haha yep, I found out about this video game by googling everything about Earthbound. Seems like the community is still active! Also trademark-wise we are in the clear I did a search.
GianFabien
Some geeky suggestions:

--CO2 = decrement CO2

H2O++ = just add water

quotz
I had a friend recommend H2 NO! :D
pestatije
Definitely not "lavabo"...you might be half-way there about "almost all of European languages", but it definitely means not just washbasin in spanish, it also means bathroom...you can also mean to say toilet or loo, like "puedo ir al lavabo?".
quotz
Hahah so thats very interesting. We actually did a survey, posted it on instagram and sent it to a lot of friends both european and american, and bunch of different native language speakers, and the most surprising part was that spanish speakers from latin america generally preferred Lavabo and said it does not mean toilet just washbasin, but Spaniards all told me it can also mean a toilet haha. I prefer Earthbound, but the survey was 70% Lavabo : 30% Earthbound. There were some 100 responses more or less.