What are the pros and cons of a startup with a domain name that actually means something?

I believe what the others meant are not "short", but "simple" and "catchy" names. Searchwolf is an ok name, easy to remember, but like they said, not really cool. But again, coolness differs from region to region, depending how people perceive it. For me, I would like to use something like http://thehound.com or http://thewolf.com more, because the name itself is a definition of how you perceive your company (and how people perceive you), it represents your vision and commitment. Wolf or hunting dog are good symbol for a search engine, because that is like ... what they do right? Tracking, finding and hunting targets (search)

Seureka is probably not a great idea since I doubt people can easily convey it in speech.  You're going to have a bad time if people have to Google your product's name in order to find it. For some cases where there is a deliberate misspelling, such as Flickr, they often also purchase the correctly spelled domain name and have it redirect to the other.  Tumblr does not do this.

To help you in searching a name (and a domain name) you can use services from here: http://DomainGroovy.com (names and domain names generators - especially http://NameStation.com). Maybe you can find other names, other than Searchwolf or Seureka, and compare better.

Have you ever considered that both names could sound terrible? I personally agree that Seureka sounds weird, so no wonder searchwolf is a winner. And therefore it doesn't mean that it is a good name. Btw. why have you opted for only these two names? Also why not to do a survey on one name alone to see if it is any good. Also what I think is that it might be a better idea to have something easy and short - google yahoo bing - all consist of 4 letters and people are lazy to type. Of course most people have it as a homepage or bookmarked but I think that the first 3-4 visits of your website might come out of situations when you are dissatisfied with google and there is that site you once visited or read about. I am just judging from my experience, as I sometimes get annoyed with google and there is that site http://duckduckgo.com that makes me type one word twice which feels annoying (its ridiculous I know but it feels that way ) comparing to bing which feels nice and easy. You likely won't get a decent 4-5 letter domain but it still might be something easy to type

Trademark law is a powerful motivating factor for choosing a name which isn't explicitly descriptive. The best names are those that are neologisms yet still convey important meaning. My personal favorite is travelocity; a portmanteau of travel and velocity.

As I look at the websites that I frequent most, it seems that the ones I feel comfortable with are those that tell me what their function is in part of the name. i.e. Facebook YouTube Wikipedia PayPal Microsoft However, some sites I frequent, the names have absolutely nothing to do with what they do, but the name has become synonymous with who they are.  i.e. Google Twitter Amazon eBay GoDaddy Yelp I would say the pros are that your name will be easy to remember and recognize in the beginning if it is something that signifies what the website is supposed to accomplish. However, I think in the long run, not nessarily a made up name, but an unusual, easy, catchy name is the better way to go.  None of the names above are just a mishmash of letters with some dots thrown in here and there for fun.  I hate websites like that. Also, in looking at the list above I see one word names or two words turned into one word names. Now, take a website name like Tumblr.  I don't like misspelled words.  I don't mind something like Nite or Krispy but a blatant misspelling drives me nuts.  Secondly I have no idea what the name means.  I don't know what the site does, and I have no reason to go there to figure it out.  OK, curiosity got the better of me, I went there.  OK a few clicks here and there and I see that it is billed as "The easiest way to blog."  Aren't Blogspot, Blogger, and WordPress already out there?  Don't their names kinda let you know what they are for? Let's look at photo sharing sites.  Webshots, Photobucket, Flickr (here we are with the missing E again...) dotPhoto.  The names all pretty much have to do with photography.  I think it depends on what the website is about but more importantly who the website is marketing.  I just looked up sites that allow you to text message from your computer instead of your cell phone.  Most of them have "text" in the name along with other stuff.  i.e. onlinetextmessage.  Personally, considering who will be using these sites, I would go with something more text acronym related but without the word text in the name. So based upon the trend i.e. the site Tauntr if you want a good name take the E out of Tiger...

Dear Questioner,   From a trademark perspective, a name that is more unique than descriptive is an easier name to maintain a trademark. A brand needs to be distinctive and let consumers know "who you are". You may or may not want a website domain name to be directly associated with your business name, but when you deal with the issue of websquatters and copycats, having a unique name with a strong trademark helps. Make sure to reserve the entire "name space" around your domain name, including common spelling errors, as well as ".com/.org" etc... A good name is probably not merely descriptive.   Take care, -Matthew

I've had three companies - and just named them pretty randomly. Katugas means thorn tree in Singhala - sort out your thorny problems.  Trevanian Legg is family names, and could have done anything.  Churnbar is stopping churn - a bit of a geeky joke. For the last two I read everything available on http://igor-international.com on company and brand naming and then went with gut instinct. So do what you think is best.

I'm sorry.  You should consider abandoning both names, but remember: That's just one man's opinion on Quorawolf.