I’m starting a YouTube channel / blog. What should I name it?
The name can wait. Try shooting your first video instead.
There are people who like to work, and there are people who like to name. Don’t be fooled by the Namers. They’ll reach heaven one day and still be looking around for something to label.
I remember when I was trying to name my own blog, The Bilal Testament. I wasn’t sure about it. I imagined people mispronouncing it, misunderstanding it, judging it. I asked myself whether it sounded too serious, too dramatic or too much. Maybe it was more promising than I was ready for.
What I was really doing, of course, was trying to predict the future.
We ask names to do an impossible job. We want them to explain us, protect us and justify us. Somehow carry the weight of work that hasn’t even been done yet. We want a few words to stand in for months or years of effort, uncertainty, growth, and embarrassment.
And just when it couldn’t feel more complicated, someone show up. Not bad people. Just people with opinions.
Someone says the name should be “scalable.” Someone else says it should be “timeless.” A third person suggests a poll. By the fourth suggestion, the project still doesn’t exist, but the discussions are fully operational. There are tabs open. There is a seriousness in the room that suggests the name might be doing the work on our behalf. We nod at words we don’t fully understand because everyone else is nodding too.
Meanwhile, the actual work is still sitting quietly, waiting to be perfectly named before it’s actually published.
Here’s the real deal: most things outgrow their names. Much faster than we expect.
The meaning comes later. The weight comes later. A name that feels awkward at the beginning slowly learns to fit, not because it was perfect, but because the work underneath it kept going. We remember the work, then we forgive the name. Growth doesn’t care what you called yourself in the beginning. And neither does failure.
The work always introduces itself in its own time. And the names? They just go by!