How Writers REALLY Name Their Substacks

Why you freeze over something as ‘small’ as a title

Photo by Raymart Arniño on Unsplash

Picking a name for something is the hardest thing ever.

I’ve started and deleted that first sentence three times, before leaving it like that, because it shouldn’t be hard, but it is the hardest thing ever.

Choosing names is sooooo hard.

When I first started writing, I would go straight to search all the baby names from the year my character was born, but it would still take an age.

I would then do the random thing of looking at the last person who messaged or called me, or the last article I read, but honestly, it used to take me days to decide on a name, even for a side character.

When I was choosing the names for my kids it was honestly the most nerve wracking thing.

My son was called something completely different until he arrived and I decided he wasn’t a ‘Tom’ anymore but something else. Naming my daughter was equally hard, so much so, that I had friends and family write name suggestions on letters and then finally got my son to choose.

And even with their names decided, I gave them both middle names so they could switch if they wanted to.
So, when my husband said he was going to start a Substack and asked me what to name it, I was no help at all.

Instead, I asked everyone else how in the hell they chose the name for their Substack and the answers were interesting.

So How DO Writers Name Their Substacks? (Spoiler: Any Way They Like)

There are around 89 replies to this question so far and they vary from lines from a favourite song, to the abstract to the personal.
Quite a lot of people reminded me that you can change your Substack name as it grows, which I did not know!

There was also some great advice about naming things in general, the main themes being:

• Think about the purpose of what the thing is your writing about

• Don’t let it corner you too much into a niche

• Use your name - it will always be relevant to what you write about

• Keep it short and simple and to the point

• And brilliant advice from Claire Venus ‘make it an invitation rather than an introspective statement.’

He finally went with Your Dog, The Guru & The Birds That Prey and you can find it here, (and he would love it if you subscribed) but this whole naming thing…we do it a lot as writers, our stories, books, characters, etc

And then there is the digital marketing side of it all, our author websites, newsletters, social handles etc. that would be good to have keywords and some SEO in. So I took the opportunity with all the good advice from other writers on here, as well as thinking about how I name things to come up with a kind of failsafe plan.

How do you actually choose names without losing your mind?

Also top tip - if you’re writing a book and haven’t got a domain name yet, be sure to register your name (or pen name) ASAP.

I use IONOS (affiliate link) and they have been really great with customer service and someone on the end of the line whenever I need them.

This is because when people want to find out about you, they’ll most likely search your name, and owning the website of that name is a no brainer.

It’s also the first step in branding yourself and controlling what comes up in the search when someone Googles you.

The No-Fail Naming Framework

Back to choosing names, and I thought long and hard about how I go about it, so here’s what I do.