Most of our clients find naming their chatbot quite a challenge. They obsess over finding the right name. It’s understandable — when you put so much work into a project, you want it to be perfect. And when thousands of your customers will interact with your newly created bot, your motivations are even higher. So how do you approach naming your bot? And how do you get it right?
In our experience, conjuring up a catchy bot name involves both art and science, and a bit of luck. There’s no one-size-fits-all guide, and it all depends on your use case, target audience or bot channel. For example, website bots often might not need a name at all. Ultimately, if there’s one thing we could say for sure about selecting your bot’s name, perhaps it would be to trust your gut.
Still, we were curious if the Internet has anything to say on the topic, and while a lot is written on chatbots, there are very few resources that focus on naming. We thought, surely, there must be some research out there we could draw on. So we delved into naming principles in general and discovered that a lot of work has been done on naming companies, brands, and products. We were surprised how many of these findings could be applied to bots, and how many of them we already followed subconsciously.
Without any further ado, let us share with you our bot naming process, including:
- 4 Steps to a Great Bot Name
- Bot Name Types
- Bot Name Checklist
4 Steps to a Great Bot Name
Now, how do you set yourself up for success? To be frank, there’s no one rule for everyone — some people may experience an “aha” moment in the shower or when driving, while others may flourish in a creative workshop. One thing to keep in mind is to be patient — these things take time, so don’t be hard on yourself or your team when the process takes longer than expected.
That being said, you must take the job seriously, as the right name can leave a lasting impression on your customers. That’s why we’d like to share with you 4 simple steps you can take to help you structure the process and deliver reasonable results sooner.
1. Start with your guidelines.
This is the part where you go back to basics: your product vision and brand guidelines. What is your bot’s purpose and what target audience is it created for? What brand values or personality traits would you like to convey? What would you like your bot’s name to say about your business? You could even go through different chatbot names that you’ve heard about, and list out what you like and dislike about them.
2. Create a reasonably long list of candidate names.
Time for brainstorming! You’ll want to give yourself the freedom to be creative, but you’ll also want to keep your guidelines at hand. We always recommend getting all your ideas out there and creating a long list of names to ensure a good pool of options and alternatives. In the next part of our article, we’ll share with you different name types you might consider when naming your bot.
3. Evaluate.
Many of the names may sound awesome at first, but a closer look will reveal they don’t bring out your brand as much as or they just don’t click. When evaluating your list, make sure to follow our checklist — it will help you verify whether your bot’s name abides by best practices.
4. Test and iterate.
As mentioned in our previous work, we’re big advocates of testing and iterating across all stages of the bot design process. Once you select your bot’s name, it’s vital to test it out with your colleagues, friends, family and finally with the real users and make sure it resonates with them. There are a plethora of established UX methods you can use for testing, including product reaction cards (displayed below). However, don’t hesitate to try something more out of the box either, such as emoji voting.
Bot Name Types
Now that we’ve discussed the process as a whole, let us dive deeper and examine what types of bot names are out there for you to choose from. This will help you expand your list of possibilities, and evaluate different options. And luckily for you, there’s plenty of name types you can play with.
- Human names — this strategy can humanize your brand and the overall experience of your users, i.e. Alexa, Eliza, Orange’s Max, HelloFresh’s Freddy
- Names after human pioneers — this approach will add depth and higher meaning to your chatbot. Bear in mind that by choosing someone less known, you can bring them to public attention, i.e. a bot named Ada after Ada Lovelace
- Descriptive names — they indicate what the bot does, i.e. Flower Delivery Chatbot, Meme Generator Bot, InsomnoBot
- Acronyms — i.e. Wall-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter — Earth Class)
- Combined names — they join together existing terms into something new, i.e. NASA’s Robonaut
- Suggestive names — i.e. PLAY’s bot Danny, whose name is derived from the word “data” (disclaimer: in this example, a suggestive name happens to be a real name too).
- Brand name + “bot”/”assistant” names — i.e. TransferWise Bot, Sephora Assistant
Bot Name Checklist
Finally, we’d like to share with you 10 bot naming best practices that can serve as a checklist to make sure your chatbot’s name is everything you need it to be and more.
1. Short and simple.
A quick and simple chatbot name that rolls-off the tongue is a modern marketing ideal. A name is one of the first things your customers will learn about your bot, so the simpler and more spot-on it is, the more effective it will be.
According to Robertson (1989), a short name has two major benefits: it’s easily learned and easily recalled. In fact, consumers often simplify more complex names themselves, i.e. “Coca Cola” becomes “Coke”, “Chevrolet” becomes “Chevy”.
Besides, a short and simple name is easier to share with others, quicker to type it in a search engine, and chances for typos when spelling it are smaller.
Some examples of short and simple bot names include Orange’s Max (instead of Maximilian) and HelloFresh’s Freddy (instead of Frederick).
2. Easy to pronounce, conjugate and spell.
When choosing a bot name, make sure your colleagues and other people you test with can pronounce, type, spell and conjugate it. The last thing you’d want would be to leave your customers tongue-tied when pronouncing your bot’s name. If they can’t pronounce or spell it, they will have a hard time talking about it both online and offline.
Ultimately, what you should be aiming for is an easy-to-share name, that facilitates word of mouth marketing.
PRO TIP: You may want to use Word Complexity Measure to assess the phonological complexity of your bot’s name. Although this tool is usually used in children’s speech therapy, it will work just as well in this case.
- More than 2 syllables = 1 point
- Stress on any syllable other than the first = 1 point
- Consonant at the end = 1 point
- Two or more consonants within a syllable = 1 point
- Velar consonant = 1 point for each
- Liquid consonant, syllabic liquid, rhotic vowel = 1 point for each
- Any fricative or affricate = 1 point for each
- Voiced fricative or affricate = 1 point for each
For instance, “baby” gets 0 points, “green” gets 3 points, “crying” and “butterfly” get 5 points each. The more points, the harder a word is to pronounce.
3. Unique and memorable.
A unique name that sticks can help you grab your users’ attention, set your bot apart, and build awareness around it. Just imagine building a community or appreciation around a bot with a generic, boring name such as “Support Bot”. It sounds like a mission impossible!
A more distinctive name, however, makes people curious and thus, it captures their interest. It increases your bot’s discoverability online, as it’s easier to rank for a distinct word than a highly popular one. And lastly, it simplifies word of mouth marketing, as a unique name is easier to remember and recall.
One last thing to keep in mind though is not to go overboard with the uniqueness of the name, as too much novelty can cause uncertainty and unpleasant feelings in your audience (Robertson, 1989).
4. Compelling and evoking positive emotions.
According to Yorkston & Menon (2004), a phenomenon that sound conveys cues about the word’s meaning is not a new idea. However, the fact that it can quietly affect consumer evaluation is. That’s why it’s important to determine whether the name you chose is appealing and whether it evokes positive emotions in your audience.
Test it with your friends or colleagues and find out whether it moves them in a certain way. Ask them how it makes them feel and what comes to mind when they hear it. Any adjectives? Any real people, fictional characters or other associations? While we’re at it, abstract names that don’t evoke any connotations or emotions may be a problem too.
As an example, one of our clients PLAY named their Messenger bot “Danny”. Consider what comes to your mind when you hear it. For starters, it’s quite certain that it sounds much lighter, more playful and more affectionate than a full version of this name — “Daniel”.
Lastly, research suggests that if your product category is an emotional one, an emotional word used as a brand name can be advantageous (Robertson, 1989). This practice can be observed in chatbots too, i.e. Joyable or Woebot that are both from the mental health sector.
5. Without negative connotations.
When naming a bot, watch out for negative connotations associated with the chosen name in your language, and frankly, in any other language as well. Don’t underestimate this step — several car companies got their fingers burned by giving their new car models unfortunate names.
Take into account what rhymes come to mind too — you wouldn’t want your bot’s name to rhyme with anything negative either.
6. Made of repeating sounds.
This principle is not a must, however, it can make you consider names you haven’t thought about before. According to Robertson (1989), incorporating some type of repetitive sound is pleasing to the ear and generates positive emotions.
Some examples of brand names that follow this principle are Rolls-Royce, Pampers, Kit Kat or Shake Shack, and some examples of chatbot names are: ShoppBot, Job Bot or GoT Bot (Game of Thrones Bot).
7. In line with your brand.
When looking for your chatbot’s name, seek what is characteristic of your brand and its personality. The name you choose should resonate with your organization and signal “This is us”. It doesn’t have to describe everything you do, but it can definitely hint at who you are as a brand, or even enhance its positioning.
For example, if your company’s mission is built upon gender equality, your bot should amplify the message. Naming it after a female pioneer would probably pay off. If your brand is known for being funny, your bot’s name shouldn’t disappoint.
Ask yourself what brand values you want your bot to convey, and start from there. Having brand guidelines at hand is a great way to ensure you don’t veer off track and choose something that isn’t relevant.
8. Not infringing on any existing trademark.
Researching how bots are named in your industry is often a good practice. That being said, your bot’s name shouldn’t be too similar to what already exists or what is used by your competitors. The last thing you’d want would be a copycat name, that would spoil all of your hard work and leave a bad aftertaste.
9. Both sounding and looking good.
Likely you’ll be using your bot’s name both in speaking and writing, so make sure that it both sounds and looks good when written down. This principle is especially useful to remember when it comes to names that can have multiple spellings, i.e. “Max” and “Maks”. This allows you to evaluate different spelling options and choose the one that looks more appealing on paper.
On that note, however, if you want your audience to be able to recall your bot’s name later, they should be able to spell it correctly (Luna, 2012).
10. In line with your bot’s gender.
Lastly, make sure that the name you chose is in line with your bot’s gender. Even though many bots technically identify themselves as genderless, their names or voices are female or male in character. If you do want your bot to be gender-neutral, it’s best if the name you select is unisex too, i.e. Swelly, Miao or Insomnobot.
What about bot name generators online?
Although online bot name generators are fun to use and can serve as great inspiration, the truth is they’re limited in their capabilities. In the end, all they rely on is keywords. There’s no way to bring them up to speed with the wider context of your product or brand values, and they can never be as creative and intuitive as a human either.
That being said, there’s no way to know when a good idea will strike you or what will induce it, so there’s no harm in trying some of these tools out.
Final Thoughts
That’s it! Now you’re fully equipped to start the process of coming up with your bot’s name yourself. To make it easier for you, we’ve created a PDF version of our checklist, so you can print it out and have it at hand when the time comes. Good luck!
