Find the name that fits what your product does and sets the right expectation. Participants meet the concept first, then react to each name you're considering.
The question it answers: what should we call it? Name testing is one of the four kinds of concept test. Use it once the concept is settled and the name isn’t.
Run a name test when you have a shortlist and a launch coming: a new product, a feature that needs its own name, or a rename of something people already use.
It catches the name that sounds great in the room and sets the wrong expectation outside it, where people are disappointed by the gap rather than the product.
The concept comes first. Participants who haven’t met it see it and are checked for understanding; participants who have are asked to recall it, without it being pitched again.
Each name, shown word for word and in a different order for each participant: does it fit what the product does, and what does it bring to mind?
A choice at the end: the name they prefer, and any name that left them unsure what the product actually is.
A concept test report titled by what you ran (“Name test v1”), with the names compared rather than whole concepts. Each section appears when the interviews give it something to show.
Name the idea that survived concept testing.
A name is judged against a settled promise, so settle which benefit you lead with first.
Because a name judged in a vacuum is a reaction to how the word sounds, not whether it fits the product. Participants meet the concept first, so every name is heard as the name of something they already understand. That's what lets the test answer the question you care about: does this name fit what the product does, and does it set the right expectation? A name that sounds great and suggests the wrong product is the one this setup catches.
2 to 5 in one test. Two gives you a clean head-to-head, and a few more lets you span a range, say descriptive against evocative. If you have a long list, cut it to the strongest few before testing. Each participant hears every name in the test, in a different order, so a long list mostly measures patience.
Yes, where you can. Settle whether the idea lands with a standard concept test, then name the version that survived. Naming a concept nobody wants is effort spent on the wrong question. You can still run a name test on a concept you haven't tested, by typing, uploading or pasting it in, but the names will be judged against an idea whose appeal you haven't confirmed.
No. It tells you how your audience reacts to a name: whether it fits, what it brings to mind, and whether it sets an expectation the product doesn't meet. It doesn't check trademarks, domains or how the name reads in other languages. Clear those separately before you commit, ideally before you test, so you don't fall for a name you can't use.
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