These linguistic tools will help you brainstorm good domain names.
Last week I interviewed Anthony Shore of Operative Words to understand how he comes up with names for his clients. He mentioned many tools he uses. I call these little-known because they aren’t domain name tools; they are powerful linguistic and dictionary tools that will help you brainstorm names.
I recommend listening to the full podcast to understand how Anthony uses each tool, but here’s a rundown.
Sketch Engine – This is a very powerful tool but has a learning curve, especially if you don’t have a linguistic background. It’s inexpensive and there’s a free trial so you can try it before you buy it.
OneLook.com – Great thesaurus capabilities and wildcarding.
RhymeZone – Find rhyming words, synonyms, adjectives and other words.
MRC Psycholinguistic Database – Good for substitutions, wildcarding, etc. (Listen to an example in the podcast.)
GoldenDict – A dictionary lookup program that allows you to search multiple dictionaries.
Ondřej says
I’m happy to help you design a search query that will find some good results in Sketch Engine. Just give me as much details about what ther result should look like and we’ll do our best. Just email support@sketchengine.eu
Mike says
Hello Andrew,
Nice list of tools!
My favorite rhyming dictionary for new domain name brainstorming is https://www.rhymedesk.com – it has an interesting selection of near rhymes and you can also filter results by various criteria.