Question
Is Realpha a bad company name?
Answer
This is not a good name, and it's not a subjective opinion. It violates several empirically validated branding principles like making your name pronounceable in an obvious way, being tasteful about social descriptors etc. Would you attend a university called "Elite University?" or one called "Great Job Fairs for Seniors University?" Or an exclusive nightclub that calls itself "Exclusive Nightclub"?
You can be direct and obvious if you are selling industrial fasteners, but if you are selling a lifestyle narrative brand and a piece of social identity, you have to be a lot more subtle. EVEN if you are selling (as it appears you are) a very unsubtle social label like "caveman."
Also, don't try to be clever or punny. It gets old real fast. And don't be super narrow. Put a stake in the biggest market you might want to occupy, but not by creating a direct and broad attack (EverythingForRealMen.com would not be good), but by signalling indirectly. ESPECIALLY don't try to talk about "scoring" or PUA directly in the name, even if that's part of the market you're going after. That's just plain tacky.
All that theory aside, here are a few candidates off the top of my head (haven't run a whois, this is just to give you an idea):
This bunch uses one decent approach: connoting the community you want by reference to the "social objects" of the target community. Even if you don't like any of these, my point is, there are systematic brainstorming techniques for getting at the connotations and positioning you want with the right level of subtlety and indirection.
This set emphasizes the primal alpha tendencies and primitivism. Depending on what aspect of the community you want to emphasize, several other name-brainstorming heuristics exist. You could go with proper-name stems, geographic connotations, verb-stem names... there's lots of angles of attack.
I wouldn't attempt to do this directly. I'd start with a positioning exercise (see Al Ries' Positioning) to figure out what crevice in the prospect's mind you want to occupy, and THEN try several disciplined brainstorming exercises against each of the top few positioning variables. You should work through a list of at least a hundred candidate names and spend at least half a day with a whois search engine before picking a name. Al and Laura Ries' 22 Immutable Laws of Branding or 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding should help you with the naming part after you've done the positioning part.
You can be direct and obvious if you are selling industrial fasteners, but if you are selling a lifestyle narrative brand and a piece of social identity, you have to be a lot more subtle. EVEN if you are selling (as it appears you are) a very unsubtle social label like "caveman."
Also, don't try to be clever or punny. It gets old real fast. And don't be super narrow. Put a stake in the biggest market you might want to occupy, but not by creating a direct and broad attack (EverythingForRealMen.com would not be good), but by signalling indirectly. ESPECIALLY don't try to talk about "scoring" or PUA directly in the name, even if that's part of the market you're going after. That's just plain tacky.
All that theory aside, here are a few candidates off the top of my head (haven't run a whois, this is just to give you an idea):
This bunch uses one decent approach: connoting the community you want by reference to the "social objects" of the target community. Even if you don't like any of these, my point is, there are systematic brainstorming techniques for getting at the connotations and positioning you want with the right level of subtlety and indirection.
This set emphasizes the primal alpha tendencies and primitivism. Depending on what aspect of the community you want to emphasize, several other name-brainstorming heuristics exist. You could go with proper-name stems, geographic connotations, verb-stem names... there's lots of angles of attack.
I wouldn't attempt to do this directly. I'd start with a positioning exercise (see Al Ries' Positioning) to figure out what crevice in the prospect's mind you want to occupy, and THEN try several disciplined brainstorming exercises against each of the top few positioning variables. You should work through a list of at least a hundred candidate names and spend at least half a day with a whois search engine before picking a name. Al and Laura Ries' 22 Immutable Laws of Branding or 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding should help you with the naming part after you've done the positioning part.