I recently launched a startup which I named bfffr, playing on the word "buffer" since it ties closely to what the product does. I also chose that name because dribbble and forrst seem to be doing pretty well even with odd names like that. Admittedly I would have liked two f's, but the domain was taken. I paid close attention to how people were responding to the name. Many didn't even know how to pronounce "bfffr". I shortly changed the name to "Buffer", with the domain name bufferapp.com. It has turned out to be a very good decision. Domains may be hard to get, but there are plenty of examples out there that show we don't have to deny ourselves a good name simply because the domain name is gone (just look at all the 37signals products).
I honestly was quite surprised, but now I look back on it I realise how obviously hard to pronounce that very odd word is. It is very embarrassing to think I started with that name, but I'm glad I was receptive enough to change it and I thought it was worth sharing, as I believe many others may have similar assumptions with naming their startups. I guess that is another lesson that we always need to question our assumptions.
