How To Name a GenAI Chatbot for an Institution like JPL

And encourage early adoption

Problem

One day I was approached by some software engineers looking to index files for a Travel intrasite chatbot. Then I heard someone else was working on an AI project out of Gemini for our new Timekeeping system. And learned yet another genAI project was being built into our internal searc. I knew I had to get everyone together.

Process

Months later we had successfully reduced replication for cost savings, but there was still a lingering problem. We were calling the project via summary, the “JPL genAI Chatbot”. Oof. I knew there was a better name. So I swapped my Comms Strategist hat for my Brand Writing cap and set to work generating names.

Thematically. Phonetically. Alphabetically. Even etymologically and more. I went through multiple brand naming frameworks, exercises, free associations and just good ol’ fashion flow state writing. And then something magical happened.

Impact

Well, 399 names later, I had developed effective names to accelerate Lab-wide adoption. At right you can see some of my exercises in gif form, and below please enjoy my process overview which shows the extent of naming I went to and an in-depth look at the expertise I bring to writing, branding, and the most enjoyable work I know I will ever do - brand naming.

Skills Used:

  • Design Research

  • Ideation

  • Brand Naming

  • Refinement

  • Stakeholder Comms

1st Round of Naming Highlight

2nd Round of Naming Highlight

Generate. Validate. Repeat.

Use etymology:

  • encroyable > credibilis >
    croire

  • marvelous > miralalis >
    mirari

  • wondrous > wundra >
    wundar

If your brand could be represented by one
object, what would it be?

  • Rover

  • Clipper

  • Perseverance

  • Voyager

Naming while on a walk around JPL:

  • stalagmite

  • specie

  • mage

  • charco

  • cenote

  • aglow

  • voltaic

  • chori

  • lenticular

  • fabulate

  • arboreal

  • aurora

  • intransigence

Lost in translation:

  • atari - receive something fortuitously

  • nanakorobi yaoki - resilience

  • Hsi nao - thought reform

Free associate on ontology:

  • Dreams

  • Liminal

  • Gansfield

  • Eurka

  • Flow

  • Semiotics

  • Diaphanous

  • Membrane

  • Stretching bands of thought to radiant stars

Out of context combos:

  • Liminal loading

  • Animal Bridge

  • Rainbow Bridge

  • Idea Spillway

  • Information Gorge

  • Data Hollow

What are your competitors’ names?

  • ChatGBT

  • Claude

  • Nano Banana

  • Gemini

  • Runway

  • Sora

  • Midjourney

  • Copilot

Insight: these are descriptive, abstract, names, nouns, and spoonerisms; name “and”

What’s your brand’s animal
role model & qualities?

  • Fox: clever, sly & fast

  • Owl: aloft, well-sighted, silent

  • Octopus: problem-solver, camo

What’s your brand’s animal
role model & qualities?

  • Fox: clever, sly & fast

  • Owl: aloft, well-sighted, silent

  • Octopus: problem-solver, camoid

These exercises, and yellow reminder cards, are all courtesy of brand naming agency “A Hundred Monkeys” and their card deck called Go Name Yourself.

Approaches include the metaphorical, free association, essence-based, recognizing patterns and dozens more. I’ll call out some of my favorite prompts like:

“Write jargon & buzz-words…and avoid them like the plague.”

The most meaningful way you’ll affect people?

Improve knowledge, advance science, fix an important (space hardware) problem, track climate change, heal the Earth and improve daily lives

Non-descriptive competitive advantage:

  • (Ruby) Rover - go getter, deep thinker, cool

  • Marvin - martian on a mission

  • Blue Star - shining a light on what you need

  • Vox Loop - research on repeat

Interesting words from the book “Deep Time:”

  • Epoch

  • Monolith

  • Dynamic

  • Logarithm

  • Nebula

  • Diffraction

  • Kiosk

  • Radioactive

  • Black Hole

  • Grid

  • Nano

  • Magnetic

Do you need a name that explains what you do if the context does that already?

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