I.Position before poetry
Before a single name is written down, answer the positioning question: what does this tool do, for whom, and why is it different? A name cannot carry a positioning the product does not have. Write one sentence — "an AI meeting-notes tool for busy managers" — and test every candidate against it. Names that could belong to any of ten products are decoration; names that could only belong to yours are strategy. The generator's keyword seed exists for exactly this: feed it the core verb of your positioning and let the suggestions stay on-brief.
II.Choose a naming school
AI product names cluster into four schools. Compound names fuse two real words (the startup classic: suggestive, spellable, ownable). Invented names build fresh words from syllables (most distinctive, but you must teach the meaning). Portmanteaus blend two meanings into one (memorable when the blend is obvious, painful when forced). Professional constructions stay credible for enterprise buyers. None is universally best — the right school depends on audience and ambition. Generate in all four styles, then judge the lists side by side.
III.The radio test
Say the name once, as if on a podcast. If a listener can spell it correctly without asking, it passes. Names that fail the radio test lose word-of-mouth, collect misdirected searches, and cost you a little credibility every time someone asks "how do you spell that?" Creative respellings, silent letters and dropped vowels are the usual suspects. When in doubt, choose the boring spelling.
IV.Short beats clever
Under 8 characters is ideal; under 12 is comfortable. Short names are easier to type into a browser bar, easier to fit in a logo, easier to remember after one glance. Length is also a filter for quality: if a name needs twelve characters to be interesting, the idea is weak. Use the instrument's length filter to enforce discipline — generate short first, and only relax if nothing survives.
V.Check the "AI" reflex
Resist putting "AI" in the name. It dates fast, it blends into a sea of AI-prefixed products, and it tells the user nothing about what makes yours different. A name that suggests intelligence without spelling it out ages better. Save the AI label for the tagline and the marketing copy, where it can be updated without a rebrand.
VI.Test with strangers, not friends
Friends are kind; strangers are data. Show five finalists to people who match your users and ask: what does this product do, how would you spell it, what does it remind you of? The first answer tests positioning, the second tests the radio test, the third surfaces collisions with tools you have never heard of. Five conversations kill most bad names.
A name is the smallest possible pitch. If it cannot survive one hearing, one spelling and one search, it is not finished.