What this covers

You have an idea and maybe some data, but no name. This step walks through how I picked a name that worked as a domain, a brand, and something I could actually say out loud.

What I did

I had an xG data spreadsheet and a plan to build a Stryktipset analysis tool. xG is expected goals, a stat that measures how likely a shot was to go in. Stryktipset is a Swedish football pool where you predict match results. I had the data and the concept. What I did not have was a name.

The constraint I set for myself was that "footy" had to be in the name. It signals football to the right audience, it is casual enough for the tone I wanted, and it filters out people looking for something corporate. So I started listing combinations. Footybeacon. Footypulse. Footyradar. Footyscout. I wrote about thirty of them in a notes file and started crossing things out.

Footybeacon.com was available. That almost ended the search right there. Available feels like a sign when you have been staring at "domain taken" messages for an hour. I nearly bought it. Then I said it out loud. "Check out footybeacon." It sounded like a lighthouse app. Slightly earnest. Like something built by a committee who wanted you to know they had read a book about lighthouses. I closed the tab.

Footybeat came from two meanings landing at the same time. A beat is a pulse, a rhythm, the heartbeat of the game. A beat is also what a journalist covers. The football beat. Both meanings fit a site that tracks match data and reports on patterns. I searched the domain. It was available. I searched Twitter, Bluesky, Instagram. All clear.

I bought footybeat.com on Namecheap for about twelve dollars. The whole decision took one afternoon, but most of that afternoon was spent almost buying the wrong name.

Skip the mistakes

Start with what is right, not what is available. Write down the names that fit your idea before you check a single domain. If you search availability first, you will compromise before you have even begun. The registrar search bar is where good names go to die, because the moment you see "taken" you start settling.

Say the name out loud before you buy anything. Tell someone "check out [name]" and see if it sounds like a real thing or a placeholder. Footybeacon failed that test in about two seconds. The pub test is not a metaphor. It is a filter.

Check social handles the same day you check the domain. A matching handle on X, Bluesky, and Instagram is not a nice bonus. It is a requirement. Finding out your name is an active competitor's handle after you have bought the domain and designed a logo is a problem you can avoid entirely by spending five minutes searching first.

The .com matters more than you think. You can build something credible on .io or .co, but you will spend years telling people it is not .com. If the .com is taken by a parked page or a dead site, move on to another name. If the .com is taken by an active business, definitely move on.

What's next

A name without a face is just a URL, so the next problem is making it look like something real.