[Alex_Jiang]

I think where this might fork a little is consumer vs enterprise. Dropbox is meant to be understood by a much wider audience than Heroku. For a consumer facing company being easily understood makes you much more accessible to many more consumers. It also makes your service more memorable when your name is: simple, appropriate, and conversation-optimized.

"I'll put it in the Dropbox tonight."

If you treat this as an equation, you want to increase: % of people that 'Get' what you do (off the bat), and % of instances people can easily recall your name, the next time they have that problem you solve.

[mjn]

I'd be interested in any kind of study that demonstrated that rigorously, but I'm pretty skeptical by default. Most consumer brands I can think of are completely meaningless taken on their own, and to the extent they mean anything, it's not even the right thing. What does a "Wal" Mart sell? What do I buy at a "McDonald's"? IKEA?! Is "Siemens" a German condom company? Is a "Safeway" a shelter for victims of violence?

[Alex_Jiang]

http://isbm.smeal.psu.edu/library/working-paper-articles/199...

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296304...

Consequently naming is not the end all be all of branding. But studies have shown that a name's: connotations, imagery, and ability to generate "top of mind awareness", has proven to generate equity and favorably move a company upwards in consumer preference ranking. This may be diluted at when a company reaches a certain critical mass.

But consider this: Why wouldn't you want a name that's expressive to: who you are, and what you do as a company? It makes you much easier to remember and talk about.

If you search brand name in google scholar there's many more interesting studies on this subject.

tldr: It's not everything but it certainly helps.