How I Used best-name-generator to Create 100 Good Names in 10 Minutes

This article is not about theory. It is about how to actually use best-name-generator in a real workflow.

Imagine this situation:

• You are building a tool for indie hackers
• The core feature is: "help people generate good names automatically"
• You want a brand name that feels modern, trustworthy and a bit playful

Here is how I would use best-name-generator to generate and refine a lot of good candidates in just a few minutes.

Step 1 – Start with a messy idea, not a perfect brief

You do not need a perfect description to begin. You only need:

• A rough idea of what you are naming
• A rough sense of what you absolutely do not want

Some good starting prompts could be:

• business name generator for indie hackers
• AI name generator for SaaS tools
• startup name generator, trustworthy but modern

On the frontend, you simply send this text as user_input to:

• POST /api/names/generate

The API will:

• Analyze your scenario and guess the context
• Generate an initial_guess about your use case and style
• Return a first batch of names
• Provide a set of clarifying questions for the next round

At this point, you already have usable names you can review, but the real magic happens in the next step.

Step 2 – Let the questions sharpen your taste

The response from /api/names/generate includes:

• questions: a list of questions with multiple‑choice options
• generated_names: the first round of name candidates
• session_id: the ID for this ongoing naming session

In your UI, you can simply render each question as a group of radio buttons. For example:

• For brand names: target audience, price level, brand personality
• For fantasy / character names: character type, setting, gender, moral alignment
• For projects / tools: tone (serious vs playful), level of technical flavor

The user just clicks through what feels right. Internally, you collect those choices into a user_answers object and send them to:

• POST /api/names/regenerate

Together with:

• The session_id you got in the first call
• The original initial_guess and questions

This second call does not just add more randomness. It uses the chosen options to narrow down the style so the names feel much closer to what the user actually wants.

Step 3 – Read the explanation, not just the name

With every call, you get a list of NameOption objects. Each one is like a micro‑profile of a name, including:

• name – the candidate itself
• meaning – how it should be understood in context
• origin – what it sounds like culturally or linguistically
• popularity – common, moderate or rare
• pronunciation – how to read it out loud
• phonetic_score – how smooth and memorable it sounds
• cultural_notes and safety_check – potential red flags

When you are choosing between candidates, these fields are gold:

• Use meaning and origin to check if the story behind the name matches your product
• Use popularity and phonetic_score to balance uniqueness vs memorability
• Use cultural_notes and safety_check to avoid embarrassing mistakes

In your frontend, this works great as a grid of cards where each card is one NameOption with a short explanation.

Step 4 – Iterate quickly without losing context

Because every interaction is tied to a session_id, you can:

• Show a first batch of names
• Let the user tweak answers to the questions
• Regenerate new names while keeping the same high‑level intent

From a UX perspective, this feels like a conversation:

1. “Here is what I am naming.”
2. “Here are a few options and some quick questions.”
3. “Based on your answers, here are better options.”

All of this happens through just two endpoints, but the experience feels much richer than a one‑shot generator.

Step 5 – Use strict errors as signals, not annoyances

best-name-generator is built with a fail fast, fail loud philosophy. That means:

• If the data is wrong or incomplete, the API will tell you
• It will not silently fall back to some default behavior
• It will not try to "auto‑fix" the output behind your back

This might feel strict at first, but it has real benefits:

• You always know when something is off
• Bugs and misconfigurations are easier to find and fix
• You can trust that the data you see is exactly what the system meant to produce

When you are building serious products, this kind of transparency is much more valuable than a fake sense of smoothness.

Putting it all together in your own project

Here is what a simple end‑to‑end flow looks like in practice:

1. User types a natural‑language prompt about what they want to name
2. Frontend calls /api/names/generate
3. You display:
   • The first batch of names
   • The clarifying questions
4. User answers the questions
5. Frontend calls /api/names/regenerate with session_id, user_answers, initial_guess and questions
6. You display a refined list of names, each with rich explanation

From here, you can add:

• Favorite / bookmark buttons
• Side‑by‑side comparison of 2–3 names
• Export / share options for teams

All powered by the same simple API.

Why this matters

Good names are extremely high‑leverage:

• They change how people remember your product
• They affect how seriously others take your project
• They make marketing, storytelling and word‑of‑mouth easier—or harder

best-name-generator does not replace your intuition. It amplifies it by giving you:

• More high‑quality options
• Deeper explanations for each one
• A structured way to explore different styles

If you have a project in mind right now, try running it through best-name-generator once. You might not pick the first name it suggests—but you will almost certainly discover options you would never have thought of alone.