I love choosing strong brand identities for my projects.
Some examples
InsecRes
When Google started to punish sites without SSL, I had to move to HTTPS, but some resources of my site still pointed to HTTP resources, mostly images and archives. So I came up with an idea to develop a console tool which would find all HTTP (insecure) resources on a site. The tool got the InsecRes name, aka Insecure Resources Finder. It resembled insects living in some old houses which people find and destroy.
Responsila
When Responsive Web Design was a thing, I was so impressed by it that I decided to focus on building responsive sites for clients. Responsila consolidated my freelance and agency efforts under its roof. Also, "sila" means strength in some languages.
HookAny
No, it was not a dating platform, as you might have guessed :)
When I was really into Drupal CMS and community building, Drupal had the concept of hooks. There were more than a dozen defined hooks in the system, such as hook_menu, hook_page, etc. To solve my local community problem, I developed a job board, dedicated to Drupal, which I called hook_any (HookAny). It meant for me something like "find any developer you need".
Dexteny
You'll be surprised how many business ideas I've tried already. Dexteny meant Drupal Extensions and Destiny. It was my brand for selling Drupal modules and themes on Envato. I even sold a few times there.
Juniors.to
I initially created Juniors.to when I actively mentored Junior people who wanted to enter the Tech industry. I wanted to create dev.to for Tech career starters to help them with career development.
From Juniors.to to ToJuniors.com
I wrote about the situation which happened with Juniors.to in more detail here, if you're interested. Briefly, when Namecheap registrar asked me to find another home for my domains, I had to give up on Juniors.to and move to ToJuniors.com. The ToJuniors name was Okay but not as strong as Juniors.to. Moreover, after mentoring a few junior people in person, I realized that I want to narrow my focus down to the area which resonates with me more - freelance, independent business and product development.
From ToJuniors.com to Nitrolancer.com
I spent some time choosing a new name. If you have ever searched for a domain, you know that the best domains are busy or cost a fortune. Other names can potentially violate trademarks of existing brands. So it's quite the challenge to find a suitable name. But luckily after brainstorming some names with my friends, I finally came up with a solid one - Nitrolancer.
Nitrolancer combines Freelancer with Nitro. Nitro oil is used in car racing to accelerate the engine. When we combine these two words, it's supposed to mean a freelancer on steroids - wiser, better, more successful.
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Tell me about your approach for choosing brand identities for your projects in the comments.