Building Formula: Choosing the name

Last week I released a new app: Formula – Universal Code Editor. And different of any app I made so far, this is complex, and not easy to develop. So thinking in all the process of building it I decide to make a series of “Building Formula” to speak the whole process of building it. And I’m going to start saying how I choose the name

Well, I actually didn’t choose the name. When I’m working in a new project I pick a codename, for this project in specific I choose Quebec. How this works? Easy, for projects that is simple and it is a kind of tool I choose names from cities in France (like project Nice, aka Random 42, or project Lyon, aka Time Calculator), for fun projects and entertainment I pick cities in United States (like the Las Vegas, aka the old #TrueOrDare). And now Project Quebec (Canada) for complex tools.

I like to work with code names because I’m not attached to the name of the product, meaning that I can change the name of the app easily, just in one line. Or that I do not have to wait until I have a name to start code it. The name is the last thing I do in my projects. And to choose the Formula name, I went to Twitter nation!

I’m not good in creating names. For me I would release it calling it Quebec, but I do know that this isn’t good for marketing and for the product. So I simple asked my followers on Twitter, what name should I use. They send me all sort of names: Code X, IDE CODE,  Code Master, Codz, Codez and a lot of others.

I was already thinking in use the name IDEA, but it is already used for the IntelliJ (Java IDE). Without Twitter I would release with that name. Thanks @julihermes for the heads up. And them, I saw myself surrounded of many possible choices, my favorite so far was Code Boss. But a lot of good ones. I decided to make a Quiz in Twitter with Code Boss, IDEa, Formula and Code X. 37 votes later, [notranslate]Code X[/notranslate] was in the first place, Formula in second.

During these quiz @julihermes send me another suggestion: Universal Editor. Well, this is an awesome name.

So I pick up the suggestion of @LaurenteEnoque and @julihermes and built the “Formula – Universal Code Editor”.

Well, I know I cheat it, and didn’t pick the must vote in the quiz, but Code X wasn’t passing the feeling. Wasn’t expressing what the Formula is. And that’s how I choose the name. I’m considering in use this same method to look for new names, so stay tuned in my Twitter (@vt_norton) for any news and in my Instagram (@vt_norton) account that I submitted a lot of ‘screenshots’ of the project before any other place.