A handle is just a handle

What’s the perfect name for your brand, business, or book? There isn’t one. Pick something and start creating. Your handle doesn’t matter.

There is no best name. You can borrow a family name (Heinz) or steal one from fiction (Starbucks). You can twist an existing term (Google) or borrow a random word (Apple). You can even make up something stupid like Lawdingo. Success and naming look connected, but they aren’t.

Don’t burn energy hunting for the “perfect” name. Just make it edible. A name is good enough if it’s yours and it makes sense. Heck, it doesn’t even need to make sense. Slack means “shirk” and they make work software. No one at Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing (3M) has touched a shovel for a century.

One of the traps of identity is believing that the label on the jar defines what’s inside, when at most it can describe. Like all words, a label is merely a clue. A pointer. A name can inspire action, but you still have to do the work.