Naming Force hosts naming contests. When you cannot come up with a creative name for your business, product, or website, we can. Your business name search ends here. We have thousands of creative people waiting to submit names on your contest. The concept is called crowdsourcing, using the public to accomplish a task normally solved by an agency.
How long does a contest run?
Contests have three phases. In the first phase namers are invited to submit names. For a standard contest this lasts 15 days and 5 days for a rush contest. In the second phase we use the power of the crowd to rank the name submissions. We have a blind voting system designed specifically to bubble the good names up to the top and weed out the weaker names. We give the namers 3 days to complete voting to help rank the names for the client. Phase three is where the client is invited to review the names and choose a winner. The client has 7 days to choose a winner.
As of June 1, 2012 we do not offer refunds on contests. All of our contests result in a winner. If the client does not choose a winner in the given timeframe we use our voting algorithm to choose a winner. No refunds are made for any reason.
When we choose a name, who owns rights to the name?
All namers have accepted the Naming Force terms of use that requires them to relinquish all rights they may have to a name when it is chosen on Naming Force. They have agreed that they no longer have any rights to the name once it has been chosen on Naming Force. Naming Force assumes no rights to any names submitted on the website. Conduct a business name search before proceeding with any names supplied by this site.
Does Naming Force check the availability of a name? Can I use the submitted names without worrying about trademark/legal issues?
We do not conduct business name or trademark searches on names submitted on Naming Force. Our site does however perform a simple domain check on submitted DOMAIN NAMES and the results are shown to the client when they are signed in to their contest page. Clients are instructed to conduct their own business name search. It's important to note that business names do not have to be 100% unique in many scenarios. The uniquness of the name often depends on the industry and jurisdiction of your name registration. For example, you can have a "32nd Degree LLC" registered in every state of the U.S., but only one "32nd Degree Inc." We do not offer any advice on this matter beyond what is in this FAQ.
How Does Naming Force rank submissions?
We use a somewhat complicated process of blindly polling our namers on the popularity of submissions of other namers. We use an A/B voting system (which is better, A or B). Namers vote over a 3 day period and help us to weed out the weaker names and bubble up the best names. As the voting goes on we wittle down the list of names being voted on to determine which names are the very best. Clients are present with a list of the top names, and can also view the entire list of submitted names.
Namers
What does Naming Force do?
Naming Force hosts naming contests. When you cannot come up with a creative name for your business, product, or website, we can. We have thousands of creative people waiting to submit names on your contest. The concept is called crowdsourcing, using the public to accomplish a task normally solved by an agency. You'll receive hundreds, or thousands, of names. We'll rank the names. Then you'll choose a winner.
How long does a contest run?
Contests have three phases. In the first phase namers are invited to submit names. For a standard contest this lasts 15 days and 5 days for optional rush contests. In the second phase we use the power of the crowd to rank the name submissions. We have a voting system designed specifically to bubble the good names up to the top and weed out the weaker names. We give the namers 3 days to complete voting to help rank the names for the client. Phase three is where the client is invited to review the names and choose a winner. The client has 7 days to choose a winner.
What is the voting all about?
We don't want to just deliver a thousand names to the client. We want to be able to tell the client which of the names have real potential. By acquiring votes from the crowd we can weed out the weaker names and bubble the better names to the top. These rankings are shown to the client as a suggestion, but clients can still view all names. We also use the votes to identify strong and weak namers and act accordingly.
What are the consolation prizes?
If a client doesn't choose a name in the given time, we use our voting system to choose the "best" name, and award the namer the full award prize. Only Pro Namers can win consolation prizes.
How will I be notified if my name is chosen?
If your name is chosen you will be emailed.
Where can I see whose name was chosen on the contests?
We will send payments via PayPal to the PayPal email address specified in your namer account. This address can be changed in the Profile section of the site.
Do I have to submit a W9 in order to get paid?
Yes. We do require a W9 before any payments are made. This is the best way for us to stay straight with Uncle Sam. A link to the W9 will be sent when your name is chosen. W9's can be sent to us through fax or email. All this information is emailed to the user when their name is chosen.
Unfortunately, no. It's an income tax issue. Our accounting department has suggest we avoid this to maintain the site operations simplicity. Sorry!
What does it mean when a name has a star by it?
The client has marked this name as a "liked." Although this may not mean it's going ot be chosen, it's good to know what types of names the client likes.
We calculate the ratio of "good" names to "bad" names, based on the voting, and turn that into a score. Your score determines how many names you can submit. The higher the score the better. There are 4 submission volume levels: 10, 20, 30 and 50 names. If none of your names have been voted on yet you will have a score of Zero. Once the contests you have submitted names on go to the voting phase you will get a NamingScore.
What are examples the different name styles?
Real (Apple, Amazon), Misspelled (Digg, Flickr), Compound (Firefox, Facebook), Phrases (Stumbleupon, MySpace), Blends (Zillow, Skype), Made Up (Plaxo, Zumba), and Acronyms (AOL, IBM)
You cannot submit a name that is an extension of another namer's name. Ex.: If Bravado exists, you cannot submit Bravadomania, etc.
You cannot submit a name that is a shortening of the beginning of another namer's name. Ex.: If Bravado exists, you cannot submit Bravad, etc. If Bravado exists you can submit Ravado.
In multi-word names, the first word is considered the unique word of the name. Ex.: If Bravado Computer System exists, you cannot submit Bravado Experts, etc.
In names that include Z's, a search for the same name with an S in place of the Z's will be made. Ex.: If Bravados exists, you cannot submit Bravadoz.
In names that include "and", "&", or "'n'", a search for the name with "and, "&", or "'n'" in place of the "and" will be made. Ex.: If Bravado & Sons exists, you cannot submit Bravado and Sons, etc.
Anything 6 letters or fewer is not considered a unique-enough word, and is ignored when considering duplicates. Ex.: If Brava Enterprises exists you can submit Bravado Industries.
Spaces, dashes, underscores, etc. are removed when comparing names. Ex.: If Bravado exists you cannot submit Bra Vado.
If the client (or Naming Force) adds a word in the "consider using" list this word is ignored when comparing names for duplicates. These keywords are actually removed from the names before they are compared. Ex.: If "computer" is a keyword and Computer Consultants Inc exists you can submit Computer Experts Inc.
You cannot submit a name that contains any of the client's do-not-include words.
