naming
Claude Code skill for naming products, SaaS, and brands. Metaphor-driven naming that avoids AI slop.
naming
A Claude Code skill for naming products, SaaS tools, brands, and projects.
Metaphor-driven naming that produces memorable, meaningful names — and avoids AI slop.
What this does
When invoked, this skill guides Claude through a structured naming process:
- Naming brief — establish what the product does, who it's for, what it should feel like
- Metaphor exploration — map conceptual territories before brainstorming names
- Candidate generation — produce names grounded in metaphor, not thesaurus surfing
- Filtering — kill AI slop and anti-patterns
- Evaluation — score and compare finalists with a weighted rubric
- Availability checking — verify domains, handles, and package names
- Decision — present top candidates with origin stories and trade-offs
Install
As a project skill (this project only)
Clone or copy the repo contents into your project's .claude/skills/naming/ directory:
# From your project root
mkdir -p .claude/skills
git clone https://github.com/glacierphonk/naming.git .claude/skills/naming
As a personal skill (all projects)
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
git clone https://github.com/glacierphonk/naming.git ~/.claude/skills/naming
Usage
In Claude Code:
/naming
Then describe what you need a name for. Claude will walk you through the full process.
You can also reference the skill naturally in conversation — describe your naming challenge and Claude will pull in the relevant reference files.
Quick start
You don't need to read any of the reference files before using the skill. Just:
- Type
/naming - Describe what you're building in one sentence
- Claude handles the rest — it loads the right references at each step
The 7-step process and 14 reference files are the depth layer. For a quick naming session, Claude compresses the process automatically. The reference files exist so you can dive deeper when needed.
Files
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
SKILL.md |
Entry point — process overview and navigation |
principles.md |
Core naming principles (metaphor, real words, compounds, length) |
phonosemantics.md |
Sound-meaning connections — how sounds convey attributes |
anti-patterns.md |
AI name slop, fatal flaws, red flags checklist |
metaphor-mapping.md |
How to explore metaphor territories + starter maps |
cultural-references.md |
When mythology/literature/science references work vs. fail |
brand-architecture.md |
Naming within brand families and product lines |
availability.md |
Platform checking workflow and domain landscape |
case-studies.md |
Real product name origins and analysis |
evaluation.md |
Scoring rubric, comparison framework, decision checklist |
language-rules.md |
Working with foreign words — pronunciation, diacritics, transliteration, exoticism trap |
scripts/check-availability.sh |
Bundled availability checker for domains, npm, GitHub, PyPI, Telegram, etc. |
languages/INDEX.md |
Language-specific naming guides — see index for available languages (Polish, Portuguese, and more) |
industries/INDEX.md |
Industry-specific naming guides — see index for available industries |
New language and industry files welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md for templates and required sections.
Philosophy
Names are compressed stories, not labels. The best names plant a concrete image that unfolds into understanding — what the product does, what it feels like, where it comes from.
This skill is opinionated:
- Metaphor over thesaurus. Don't search for synonyms of your product's category. Explore what else in the world works like your product.
- Real words over invented words. Real-word brand names have ~68.8% recall vs ~38.1% for invented names. The brain follows the path of least resistance.
- Story over sound. A name with a great origin story and average sound will outperform a name with perfect phonetics and no story.
- Kill AI slop. Suffixes like -ly, -ify, -able, meaningless portmanteaus, and thesaurus extraction produce polished-but-interchangeable names. This skill actively filters them out.
How the skill uses context
- Always loaded: Skill name and description (~2% of context budget)
- Loaded on invoke: SKILL.md (~180 lines, the process overview)
- Loaded on demand: Reference files load only when Claude reaches the relevant step. A simple naming task might only load 2-3 files; a thorough session loads 5-6
- Never auto-loaded: Language files, case-studies.md — only when explicitly relevant
Contributors: keep reference files focused. A 500-line file is fine; a 2,000-line file wastes context on content that may not be relevant.
Development
Linting
PRs are checked by markdownlint and lychee (link checker) via GitHub Actions.
Common lint rules to watch:
- MD040 — fenced code blocks need a language tag (use
textfor plain text,bashfor shell,markdownfor markdown examples) - MD001 — heading levels must increment by one (
##→###, not##→####) - MD037 — no spaces inside emphasis markers. Use
`___`(code backticks) for placeholders, not___(which looks like emphasis)
Run locally before pushing:
npx markdownlint-cli2 '**/*.md'
Branch protection
main is protected — all changes go through pull requests. Direct pushes are blocked.
Contributing
PRs welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md for conventions, file structure, and how to add language files or case studies.
License
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