Two Tools To Help Come Up With Podcast Names
Hey there, it’s Dave Jackson, and in this episode I’m revisiting the challenge of podcast names —a topic I haven’t covered since 2019! I share a simple test I use for show names: I tell people the name and ask what they think it’s about. If their answer matches my content, I know I’m on the right track.
I talk about how it’s tempting to get cute with names (like “The Dugout” for a baseball show), but if you skip keywords like “baseball,” your show might not appear in searches. If you want a clever name, adding a clear tagline can help.
I also cover practical tips like making sure your podcast name is easy to say and spell. I learned the hard way when I called a show “Podcast FastPass”—it was tricky to pronounce and easily confused. And be wary of names with tricky spellings or multiple possible formats (like “2” vs “two,” or double S’s).
Don’t forget to check if your domain is available—I usually try for a .com, but if that’s taken, I recommend adding “show,” “radio,” or “cast” to get a unique domain. And of course, Google your proposed name to see if someone else is already using it.
In this episode, I also mention two tools to help brainstorm names: one from PodPage, and a new one from Buzzsprout.
Podpage Podcast Name Generator
https://www.podpage.com/podcast-name-generator/
Buzzsprout Podcast Name Generator
https://www.buzzsprout.com/podcast-name-generator
Need Help With Your Podcast?
If you’re stuck on names or need help moving forward, come visit me at schoolofpodcasting.com! I’ve got tutorials, a supportive community, and consulting to help you succeed.
Let’s create something great together!
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Dave Jackson:
Naming your podcast can be quite the challenge. We haven't talked about it since 2019, and I've got some tools for you that might make it even easier.
Yeah, it was back a while when we talked about naming your podcast. I have a simple test for this. That's where you say, hey, I'm doing a podcast called Blank. What do you think it's about? And when their answer matches your content, you've got a pretty good name. People try to get cute. They'll call their show the Dugout, which does not have the word baseball in it. And then they wonder why my show doesn't show up when you type the word baseball. Because the word baseball is not in your title.
It's not in any of your episode titles. It's not going to show up. So if you get cute, then add a tagline. But I wanted to bring this topic up because that's, for me, that hasn't changed. Tell people I'm doing a show like this. Then you want to do things like make sure it's easy to spell. Make sure it's easy to say, I at one point called my podcast consulting podcast fastpass, and you had to pronounce it that way. Otherwise it sounded like I was saying, I don't know, podcast Sassafras or something.
But I would be like, podcast FastPass. And then you sound like one of those really smart child actors that you love, but with compassion, want to mildly punch them in the face. Yeah. So nobody likes that. You want to make sure it's easy to spell. So if you say things like forever, or this too shall pass, is it the number two? Is it the number four? What is it when you have S's back to each other? So it's the podcaster's studio. Is it podcaster studio or podcasters studio? Things like that. And you always have to make sure that if you do things like School of Art, that when you spell it, you notice, hey, wait, that says school of Art.
Yeah, don't want to have that either. Make sure the domain's available. All this in mind, and what I usually do is I will narrow it down to a couple and then I'll make sure the domain is available. I try to get a dot com. If the dot com is not available, then Try tacking on the word show or radio or cast or something like that to get the domain. I think it's not as big a deal as it was, say, six years ago to get the dot com. But it does seem like if you don't get it, you're like, oh, it's davejackson.net, which is not available either. People like, oh, yeah, he missed out.
Yeah, she missed out, whatever it is. But I wanted to alert you to not one, but two websites that can help you pick a name for your show. The first one is for the company I work for called PodPage. You can click on, you type in some information, it'll spit out some names, and it's actually not too bad. And then the other one just got released by Buzzsprout. It's got a little more. A few more options on it, but also will give you some great content. So just go to podcastconsultant.com 223 and you'll see a link for those, because the domain for those, it's a little long for that.
But this is one of those things where for me, you want keywords, you want it to be obvious, you want it to be things that people, maybe you're searching for, and then more importantly again, you want it to be obvious. And does it make people click? That's really, for me, the bottom line. And then what you can do is if you're like, Dave, I got it narrowed down to 2. Type the name into always do this no matter what, but type the name of the show into Google to make sure somebody else isn't using it. And then if nobody's using it, which one had the more results? Because that's going to be the more popular term. So keep that in mind as well. But that's kind of step number one. You.
Dave Jackson:
You come up with the topic that you want to talk about. I want to talk about this and how people are doing this and whatever it is. Great. What would people type in to find content about that that might be the name of your show? Go check for it, see if the domain's available. Is it easy to say? Is it easy to spell, et cetera, et cetera? And again, for those tools I mentioned, go out to podcast consultant.com2 23 now if you need more help with this, you're like, dave, I got a name. I just need some help with microphones or whatever. Come visit me over@schoolofpodcasting.com I've been doing podcast consulting since 2005. 5 where the oldest dedicated site for podcast education.
Dave Jackson:
You've got great tutorials to really from Idea to World domination. You've got an amazing community and you've got five hours of consulting with me every single month. For more information, again, go over to schoolofpodcasting.com use the coupon code Listener when you sign up to save on either a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription. And of course, that comes with a 30 day money back guarantee. I'm Dave Jackson. I help podcasters. I've been doing this for 20 years and I can't wait to see what we're going to do together because I want to be your podcast consultant.
