This past weekend, I was scrolling when I ran into a video of Counting Crows lead singer, Adam Duritz, talking about how Counting Crows got its name. Look them up, kids; their album August and Everything After is fantastic. I’ve been lucky enough to see them live twice.

Here’s the story.

Duritz had put this band together, and he was trying to figure out a band name. Coming up with a name for anything sucks. It seems like every single name you come up with is worse than the last name idea. So, he’s sitting in his living room, watching a movie, and brainstorming names.

In the movie, he’s watching two characters standing outside on a hill, and they are watching these birds fly around, and one character mentions something about “Counting Crows”. He’s like, that’s the name and throws away the paper with all the other names.

Here’s the thing, though.

He knows this name sucks. All the names suck until you make them not suck by being a great band!

He gives the example of the Beatles. It’s cheesy! Using “Beat” as a play on the word beetles (the bug). It’s awful! Until it’s amazing.

I talk with at least 100 new HR Tech startups on an annual basis. I talk with current HR tech companies who have been in business for years. Probably half the time, someone in marketing wants to change the name. “Tim, Google, as a name sucks!”

Yeah, no one knows what the hell that is. Also, no one knows what the hell you do! So, does it really matter what the name is? You being great has very little to do with your name. It has everything to do with you being great or your product or service being great. Almost every name you’ll pick will suck.

Until it doesn’t.