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