When we launched Digidop in early 2021, as first-time entrepreneurs, there were many things we hadn’t anticipated. And one of them was the pronunciation of our brand name.
Almost five years later, we’re looking back at that choice and the challenges we’ve faced along the way.
The story behind the name
DigiDop is a blend of Digital and Doping.
The name came quite “naturally” from the company’s promise: boosting businesses through digital. And when Thomas and I settled on it… the decision was made pretty quickly:
Step 1: Say it out loud once or twice to see how it sounds.
Step 2: Check if the .fr domain is available.
And that was it. (We didn’t even think about the .com — we bought it six months later, luckily still available 😅)
The strengths of the name Digidop
Beyond availability, Digidop worked well for us because it conveys:
- an energy that matched two 24-year-olds launching a company straight out of school,
- the ability to easily create catchy nicknames: Digiteam, Digi’, Digidopeurs, DigiSéminaire, etc.,
- and a strong visual icon: DD. (DigiDop)
But looking back, the name Digidop also came with a few… enriching challenges.
Two challenges with our brand name
1. The existence of a homonymous product
A DigiDOP is also a medical product.
It still holds a place in SEO results—not dominating, but enough to confuse Google Images and pollute some LLM mentions for Digidop.
2. A pronunciation that’s not always simple… Digidop, Digipop, Digitop, Digidrop
The pronunciation of Digidop can be tricky, especially internationally.
Our name suffers from paronymy—a phonetic or graphic resemblance with other names. (For example: collision / collusion, or digitop / digidop.)
Possible consequences for our brand’s development
Losing potential leads
Today, the largest source of traffic on our website is direct—people searching for “Digidop.”
So, we can assume this comes from:
- our brand reputation work,
- referrals mentioning “Digidop,”
- or targeted searches following LLM-generated mentions.
And that’s where paronymy can become a problem.
Imagine this situation:
John is looking for an agency and asks his friend Julie for a recommendation. Julie mentions us, but when she says “Digidop,” the pronunciation or understanding is slightly off.
John hears—or thinks he hears—Digipop or Digidrop. Later, he types Digidrop or Digipop into Google. Unfortunately for us, both of those names belong to companies offering similar services:
- Digidrop: a web agency
- Digipop: a digital consultancy
The result? John visits a site he believes was recommended to him—without realizing he’s knocking on the wrong door.
Losing visibility due to misspelled mentions
Many backlinks or brand mentions end up being of lower quality simply because of typos in our name.
The solutions we adopted at Digidop
To deal with homonymous products, we quickly learned to optimize our SEO to coexist intelligently with these results and strengthen our digital identity.
And regarding pronunciation, thanks to consistent communication around our brand name over the years, our brand is now more established and often cited correctly.
Still, it’s a daily effort—one that could have been avoided by following a few best practices when choosing a brand name.
Our tips for choosing a brand name wisely
- Make sure the .com domain is available
- Check that there are no (or few) homonymous products/services online
- Keep the pronunciation clear and the spelling simple
Conclusion
Digidop embodies our values, but it’s challenged by both a homonymous product and paronymy. Could we have fixed these earlier through a rebrand? Probably.
But Digidop is also a well-established brand within our ecosystem—associated with a strong reputation, real projects, and a solid team. Changing the name now would require a major effort, not aligned with our short- and mid-term goals.
So, we’ll keep going—with our “Digitop,” “Digidrop,” and “Digipop”… with smile :)
