Before you buy a name, say it to three people and ask them to write down what they heard. If two of them spell it differently from you, you have found a problem that will cost you visitors for years. Names with silent letters, creative spellings or homophones sound clever in a brainstorm and awful on the phone.
Most domain names are shared by ear more often than people expect: on the phone, on the radio, across a counter, in a video, at the end of a conference talk. The spelling that survives that journey is the one worth paying for.
The three-person test
Pick three people who have not seen the name, preferably of different ages and not in your industry. Say it once, at normal speed, as you would on the phone. Ask each to write it on paper, then add the ending: "dot com". Do not repeat it, do not spell it, and do not explain what it means.
Collect the papers and compare. Three identical spellings, matching yours, is a good sign. One variation is worth a thought. Two or more different versions mean that for every customer who gets it right, another types a plausible neighbour and lands on an error page or a competitor.
Why clever spelling costs you
Names with silent letters, creative spellings or homophones fail for a simple reason: speech carries sound and not spelling. A name that swaps a "c" for a "k", drops a vowel, or relies on a homophone such as "four" for "for" sounds identical to its ordinary spelling. The listener has to guess, and a guess is a coin toss.
The cost is hidden but real. Misspelled addresses produce no complaint. They produce a lost visit, which nobody records. You can see the damage only indirectly, in the number of direct visits that never arrive or in mail sent to the wrong address.
Short helps, memorable helps more
Short helps, but memorable helps more. A six-letter nonsense word that people can spell after hearing it once beats a clever twelve-letter phrase that needs explaining. What counts is how few decisions the listener must make while writing it down: how many letters, which spelling of each sound, whether a hyphen or number is involved.
Accents, noise and the telephone
Run the test in the conditions where the name will actually be used. People pronounce vowels differently across regions, and a name that sounds distinct to you can merge with another word in a different accent. A noisy shop, a car speaker or a bad phone line removes the consonants that separate similar names: "b" and "d", "f" and "s", "m" and "n". If the name survives being said across a counter to someone with a different accent, it will survive most places. If you serve an international audience, say it to someone who speaks English as a second language, and see which letters they choose.
Hyphens and numbers
Avoid hyphens where you can, since people drop them. Spoken, a hyphen is "dash", and few people remember to say it. Avoid numbers unless the number is the point, because "four" and "4" are both plausible. A name like a shop's street number can work, since people think of it as a number. A number inside a phrase invites a coin toss.
What to look at on your own setup
Run the test with a voice memo: record yourself saying the name and the address, and play it back to someone with the screen hidden. Also dictate it into a phone's voice assistant and read what appears. If the machine gets it wrong, many people will too. Finally, try writing a sample email address, [email protected], on a note and ask someone to read it back.
Quick answers
Does a brand name need to be a real word?
No. An invented word works if it is easy to spell from sound alone. Many good names are invented.
What if the spelling I like is taken?
Resist the urge to alter it by one letter. A near-miss spelling gives its traffic to the owner of the real one.
Is it still worth testing a short name?
Yes. Short names are easy to misspell as well, particularly when two plausible spellings of a sound exist.