How to Name a Newsletter (or Substack)

The Inbox Is Not Forgiving

A podcast name sits on a platform page. A blog name anchors a domain. A newsletter name shows up next to forty other things competing for a reader's attention — most of which they're about to archive without opening. Your name isn't branding in any traditional sense. It's a recurring guest on someone's phone screen, showing up two or three times a week, asking to be let in.

That changes what "a good name" means. Generic newsletter naming advice borrows from branding playbooks built for products and websites. Some of it applies. A lot of it doesn't. The inbox has its own logic: names need to be instantly recognized on return, speakable enough to share by word of mouth, and distinctive enough that "have you subscribed to..." actually lands when someone recommends you at a dinner table.

Clever isn't the goal. Recognition is.

Three Ways Newsletter Names Get Built

Most successful newsletters are named one of three ways. Each has a different risk profile and a different ceiling.

These categories blur in practice. "Not Boring" is a punchy phrase that also functions as a concept — it signals the author's take on business writing. "Stratechery" is a coined word that puts Ben Thompson's identity into the name without literally using his name. The categories are a starting point for thinking, not a taxonomy to optimize.

The Personal Brand Trap

Naming your newsletter after yourself sounds like the obvious move. Substack actively encourages it — the default URL is substack.com/p/[yourname]. But it's a bet that should be made consciously, not by default.

Your-name newsletters work when two conditions are true: you already have an audience who will follow you, and the newsletter is fundamentally about your perspective rather than a specific subject area. If readers are subscribing because they trust your take on things, putting your name on the masthead reinforces that relationship every time they open their inbox.

The bet fails when neither condition holds. If you're starting from scratch with no existing following, your name is noise — it signals nothing to someone who doesn't already know you. And if your newsletter has a clear topic, a concept name will outrank you on Google and Substack search every time. "Personal finance for teachers" is a search query. "Jessica's Dispatch" is not.

There's a middle path: coin something. "Stratechery" is Ben Thompson's word — it says "strategy + technocracy" and implicitly says "this is mine." It feels like a name rather than a description, but it carries a specific enough fingerprint that it's recognizable.

What Actually Makes a Newsletter Name Work

The inbox filter is brutal. Readers skip names they don't recognize or can't quickly categorize. A few patterns show up consistently in names that survive.

Length and Inbox Legibility

Newsletter names that get cut off in preview panes don't get the same instant-recognition benefit. You want the full name visible in the from field before the reader decides to open.

There's a reason Morning Brew, The Hustle, The Diff, and Garbage Day dominate their respective niches. None of them are more than two words. The brevity isn't accidental — it's part of why they travel well on social media and in conversation.

A subtitle can carry the load your short title can't. "Not Boring — Business writing for people who find most business writing boring" works because the subtitle explains the concept while the main name stays tight. On Substack, the subtitle shows in directories and search results. Use it deliberately.

Testing Before You Commit

Name decisions feel more final than they are — you can rename a newsletter — but changing after you've built an audience has real costs. Test early.

1. The stranger test: Say the name to someone who doesn't know your concept. Ask what they'd expect the newsletter to be about. If they're wildly off, your name isn't doing the work you think it is.
2. Search Substack and Ghost: Type your name into both platforms. An existing newsletter with the same name in your niche is a problem — both for confusion and for SEO.
3. Google the phrase: Is something else well-established under that name? A band, a book, a product? You'll be fighting that SEO rather than owning the phrase.
4. Check social handles: Even if you primarily send by email, people will search for you on Twitter/X, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Claim the handles now, even if you don't use them actively.
5. Email it to yourself: Seriously. Set it up as a from-name in your email client and send yourself a test. See how it looks next to your other subscriptions. Does it stand out? Does it read naturally?

The "email it to yourself" test catches things that look fine in isolation and awkward in context. Your name lives in a list. See it in a list before you commit.

One Thing Most Naming Advice Skips

Newsletter names age differently than other brand names. A podcast with an outdated name can still find new listeners if the content is good. A newsletter with a name that's started to feel dated gets that judgment every time it lands in someone's inbox — which is potentially hundreds of times per year if you publish weekly.

Avoid anything that pins you to a moment: year stamps ("2025 Market Brief"), trend references ("AI Weekly"), or platform references ("My Substack"). The first two become awkward quickly. The third makes you sound like you haven't committed to the format yet.

The names that last tend to be slightly abstract or concept-oriented in a way that doesn't date. "The Margins," "Dense Discovery," "No Mercy / No Malice" — none of these will feel dated in five years. The topic may have shifted; the name still fits.

If you're also building a blog or broader content presence around your newsletter, our blog name generator covers the same descriptive-versus-branded tradeoff for written content — and most of the logic applies directly to newsletter naming. For newsletters you're positioning as a standalone brand with potential to expand into products, courses, or events, the brand name generator is worth running your shortlist through to pressure-test the concepts.

Common Questions