Game Names
A great game title tells players exactly what kind of experience they're in for before they press start.
Famous Game Names That Nailed It
Real-world names that became iconic. Here's what makes them work.
Four letters, one syllable, pure threat. 'Doom' was chosen in a scene from The Color of Money — and it's perfect: it promises the player an experience of relentless, apocalyptic action without specifying a single mechanic. It aged not at all.
The most evocative one-word game title of its era — it promises an experience, not a genre, not a mechanic, just the feeling of travel and discovery. It's almost impossible to name another game that does more work with fewer letters.
Two words that should have nothing to do with each other, combined to create a perfect title for a game that's about the collision of high culture, popular culture, and political failure. The title is the game's thesis in miniature.
A video game's name is the first gameplay decision the player makes — before they see a single frame of footage, the title has already begun shaping expectations, tone, and desire. The best game names achieve something remarkable: they communicate genre, mood, and unique selling proposition in a word or two while remaining memorable enough to survive years of word-of-mouth marketing, streaming thumbnails, and search engine results.
Game naming has its own conventions by genre. Action games favor punchy, aggressive names (Doom, Rage, Hades). Exploration games favor evocative, mysterious names (Journey, Abzû, Subnautica). Narrative games often use proper nouns or evocative phrases (The Last of Us, What Remains of Edith Finch, Disco Elysium). Roguelikes use systems vocabulary (Spelunky, Rogue, Hades). Understanding your genre's naming conventions — and knowing when to follow them vs. when to break them — is fundamental to choosing a game title that lands.
Browse 30+ game name ideas below.
Tips for Choosing Game Names
Test your game title as a Twitch stream title and a YouTube thumbnail — these are now the primary discovery surfaces for games, and a title that reads clearly at small sizes and generates curiosity in those contexts has a practical marketing advantage.
Check Steam and the App Store for your title before you commit — not just exact matches but phonetically similar names, because games with confusable names compete in search results.
The best game titles work on two levels: the literal level (what it describes) and the thematic level (what it means). 'The Last of Us' literally describes the surviving characters; thematically it describes humanity's remnant and its moral cost.
Avoid titles that are too genre-generic — 'Epic Quest' or 'Battle Warriors' tell players nothing distinctive. Even within genre conventions, your title should have a specific angle that belongs only to your game.
Consider how your title abbreviates — players, streamers, and reviewers will shorten long titles, and you want the natural abbreviation to work in your favor. 'What Remains of Edith Finch' becomes 'Edith Finch,' which is actually a better title in many contexts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Most successful game titles are 1-4 words. Single words (Doom, Journey, Celeste) are the most powerful and memorable. Two-word titles (Dark Souls, Half-Life, Mass Effect) are the most common for major releases. Longer titles (What Remains of Edith Finch, Disco Elysium) can work when the length itself is expressive — but they require the individual words to be doing significant work.
Either can work, but the most memorable titles tend to describe the experience or the feeling rather than the mechanics or setting. 'Journey' describes neither mechanics nor setting specifically — it describes the emotional experience. That said, genre games often benefit from titles that signal the genre clearly, because discoverability on storefronts matters.
Yes — many iconic games use proper nouns as their titles (Hades, Celeste, Hollow Knight). Proper nouns work especially well when the name doubles as a narrative element (Celeste is both the mountain and the protagonist's name). They create a specific, ownable identity that's harder to compete with than generic vocabulary.
Search Steam, the Epic Games Store, the App Store and Google Play, and do a general web search. Also search for trademarks if you're releasing commercially — a game with a trademarked name creates legal complications that can be extremely costly. The USPTO trademark database (for US releases) and the EUIPO database (for European releases) are the primary resources.
Marketable game titles are memorable, searchable, pronounceable, and genre-appropriate. They work as hashtags, as stream titles, and in press coverage. They have a hook — something that makes a person who hears the title once want to repeat it. And they scale: they work equally well on a box, a thumbnail, a banner ad, and a Twitch stream title.
The Complete Guide to Naming Your Video Game
Genre Naming Conventions
Every game genre has naming conventions that players have learned to read as genre signals. Understanding these helps you decide whether to follow or subvert them.
- Action/FPS: Aggressive single words or two-word combos — Doom, Rage, Quake, Bulletstorm
- RPG: Proper nouns, world names, or epic phrases — Skyrim, Elden Ring, Final Fantasy
- Indie art games: Evocative nouns or short phrases — Journey, Flower, Inside, Limbo
- Horror: Unsettling combinations, proper nouns with dark associations — Silent Hill, Outlast, Amnesia
- Puzzle: Often playful or cleverly descriptive — Portal, The Witness, Braid, Fez
- Narrative: Character names or evocative phrases — The Last of Us, Disco Elysium, Gris
Single-Word vs. Multi-Word Titles
The structure of your title does its own work before the words even register.
- Single-word titles signal confidence and simplicity — they claim a concept entirely and dare competitors to claim the same word
- Two-word titles (the most common structure) allow you to create tension between words — Dark + Souls, Half + Life, Mass + Effect all gain meaning from the collision
- Three-word titles allow for subject/verb/object or article + adjective + noun structures that feel more narrative
- Longer phrases work when the length creates a tone — 'What Remains of Edith Finch' sounds like a journal entry, which is exactly right for the game
- Never use more words than you need — every extra word dilutes the impact of the others
Checking Availability and Protecting Your Title
Before you commit to a game title, do the legal and commercial groundwork.
- Search all major storefronts: Steam, Epic, App Store, Google Play, itch.io — note similar and exact matches
- Search the USPTO trademark database for exact and phonetically similar marks in International Class 41 (entertainment) and Class 9 (software)
- Do a general web and social media search — an active game, studio, or brand using your name creates confusion even without a trademark
- Consider filing a trademark before announcing your game if you're making a commercial release — announcement creates public knowledge of the name but doesn't protect it
- Reserve your domain and social handles immediately after choosing a name, even before you're ready to build a presence
Testing Your Game Title
Before committing, put your title through these practical tests.
- The thumbnail test: mock up a game page thumbnail with your title and see if it reads clearly at 460x215 pixels — the standard Steam capsule size
- The word-of-mouth test: tell someone your title verbally and ask them to spell it back — if they can't, you have a discoverability problem
- The genre test: show your title to someone who doesn't know your game and ask what genre they'd expect — if their guess is right, your title is doing its job
- The longevity test: imagine reading your title on a retrospective list of classic games in 15 years — does it still feel right, or does it feel dated by a trend?
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