It looks like some people haven't been very lucky lately, getting their names accepted by BrandBucket. On the other hand I seem to be enjoying all time high acceptance rate and I'm grateful for it, so I thought I'd share my latest names that got "green light" from BB, their suggested prices and some extra info in hope that it can be of help.
actada 2015-04-09 Accepted $2,495 - built from "act" and loosely derived from "action"
capiza 2015-04-09 Accepted $2,995 - derived from "capital"
deuxy 2015-04-09 Accepted $5,295 - built from "deux", French for "two"
jetoa 2015-04-09 Accepted $1,395 - built from "jet"
jeunea 2015-04-09 Accepted $1,795 - built from "jeune", French for "young / youthful"
lovago 2015-04-09 Accepted $1,995 - fusion of "love" and "go"
nanoxa 2015-04-09 Accepted $1,895 - built from "nano"
ingrea 2015-03-28 Accepted $1,495 - derived from "ingreat", meaning "to enlarge / to make great"
majexa 2015-03-28 Accepted $1,795 - derived from "majestic"
solrea 2015-03-28 Accepted $1,295 - built around "sol", meaning "sun" in many languages
viviga 2015-03-28 Accepted $1,495 - derived from "vivir", Spanish for "to live"
exudia 2015-03-24 Accepted $1,395 - derived from "exude"
wearza 2015-03-24 Accepted $1,595 - trendy play on "wear"
I'd say that in 4 out of 5 times I pick names based on a keyword they either contain (
wearza,
nanoxa,
jetoa,
jeunea) or are derived from, directly or loosely (capiza = capital, majexa = majestic, viviga = vivir). The best names are usually those built around or derived from English words, but BB also seems to have high appreciation for names with root word steming from Romance languages (Latin, Italian, French, Spanish).
Occasionally they accept names with roots in some other languages, like they did with my Efria (efri = topmost in Icelandic), Nitoa (bind or staple in Finnish) and so on, but I believe such names are accepted mostly for their sonic and visual quality, that is for being succinct, straightforward and somewhat exotic.
Every now and then I go for pure brandables that appeal to me simply for what they sound and/or look like, but not very often. Even then I do my best to find out whether there is a connection to some language, something I can use for my pitch, so to speak.
I haven't had any luck at all with my 4L names so far, roughly 10 of which are spread across 3 brandable marketplaces. Given their ever higher acquisition cost and poor conversion (so far) I decided to stay away from them completely for the time being.
On the other hand 5L and 6L names are literally lying around in troves, freely available and waiting to be plucked. And yes, that means that every single of my 5L and 6L names is a hand reg. I try to stick to these as they are fairly short, but still long enough to be connected to or directly derived from some keyword and hence assigned a proper meaning to. I see that as lending them an extra value in eyes of potential buyers, whereas in case of 4L names people often have to resort to all kinds of explanations to get a point across.
Keywords I look for in my names must convey preferably positive, or at the very least a neutral meaning, and be as wide and universal as possible. For example in the aforementioned list keywords are, from top to bottom: act/action, capital, two, jet, young/youthful, love+go, nano, ingreat, majestic, to live, exude, wear. Most are applicable in many ways and none carry negative impressions such as, I don't know, cry, tears, sickness, fall, crash, burn, drop, lose, hang etc. You get the drift.
Trendy suffixes that I like, which also seem to be popular with all brandable marketplaces are, but not limited to, -xa, -xo, -xy, -za, -zy, -zia, -go, -ga, -ro, -us, -ius. I don't care much for -ly, even though Michael Krell does seem to have a lot of success with it. Hats off for that.
Whenever I go through droplists, I have several tabs open:
1) Expireddomains.net - absolutely your best friend
2) Unibrander - globally wide trademark search (I used Markify before, but it is no longer free)
3) Google translate - unless the meaning is clear, run any word you like, part of it or slightly changed form
through GT and you may be surprised with results
4) Google search - I always check the name I like in "quotes", as it's good to know what number one search engine has to say about it in general and what are search volumes (not that it hugely matters though)
5) Dofo.com - info on past registrations and some extras, like screenshots of previously hosted sites on that domain, estimated search volume
6) Online dictionary of your choice for some of those "elusive" English words
7) BrandBucket - last but not least, once I find a keyword my "name candidate" is based on, I like to run it through BB search in order to see how many names based on that very word have been accepted so far and how strictly do they actually follow the form of a keyword, that is whether they are loosely related or directly built on/from
What else? Well, typos, names with double letters and those missing letters from a keyword I haven't had much luck with in terms of acceptance, not in BB or anywhere else for that matter. I don't have many, but some like Suirl (swirl), Lngua (lingua or lengua = language), Emryo (embryo), Urbbo (urbo as in urban) have never gotten a green light in any of brandable marketplaces. Maybe it's just me and maybe it's sign of times, or trends in this case.
Just to further illustrate that there are still decent 5L and 6L words freely available, here is the list of names that I "collected" over last several weeks, hand regged yesterday and finally submitted to BB for a review:
Apzia - built from "app"
Axyro - derived from "axis"
Baoxy - built from "bao", Chinese for "package", and also loosely reminiscent of "boxy"
Coribo - very loosely reminiscent of "corida", no other meaning, but I simply liked it for its Spanish flavored sound
Cribea - built from "crib"; all things baby
Emveo - built from "emve", Zulu for "back" - think along the line of "holding your back" or "backing you up"
Fivezy - built from "five", as in "top five", "big five", "high five"
Mobzia - built from "mob", so it can be perceived as either "mobile" or mob as in crowd (funding/sourcing)
Nidoro - Latin flavored and built from "nido", Italian for "nest" or "home"
Oasius - clearly derived from "oasis"
Qodus - loosely reminiscent of "code", but otherwise loved for its highly business-like form
Vuvuo - short, soft, baby talk like and with repetitive syllable; no special meaning though
Wavezy - built from "wave", jovial and cheerful
Zizago - vivacious "go" at the end and strongly reminiscent of "zig zag"
Sorry for this wall of text and somewhat brainstormy outline of it. I just kept writing whatever came to my mind without clear respect for structure, but I hope that at least some of it may be of use to you. Good luck