Start with the hook
Listeners search for the words they remember, and the words they remember are the ones they heard eight times. Write out your hook and circle the phrase that repeats. Shorten it to two to four words and you often have the title.
An original example: a hook that keeps returning to “I left the porch light on for you” gives you Porch Light. It is short, it is a picture, and anyone humming the hook can find it. If the hook phrase is too common to stand out, keep its main noun and add one word that only your song has.
Seven patterns, with original examples
When the hook does not give you a title, one of these shapes usually does. The examples were written for this post.
- Modifier plus noun: Quiet Money, Borrowed Summer. Two words that make a picture together.
- A time: 4:12 AM in Lot B, Sunday Night Laundry. Tells the listener when to hear it.
- A place: Exit 9, The Back of the Bus. Grounds the story somewhere real.
- A question: Who Kept the Keys? Invites the listener to find the answer in the song.
- A number: Nine Missed Calls. Specific, and easy to picture.
- One word with a label: Static (Interlude). The usual way to name a short mood piece between full songs.
- A line someone would actually say: Text Me When You’re Home. Natural in conversation, so it sticks.
Get more options fast
The Song Title Generator gives five song title ideas in about a second when you press Generate: two-word singles, an interlude and a time-stamped late-night cut, each with a line on its pattern. It is free and runs in your browser. The seed box is optional; type the subject of the song and the same word brings back the same batch later, while More deals new titles.
Use the results as raw material. Often the right title is one of them with a single word swapped for a word from your own hook.
Titles across a whole project
If the song sits on a tape or an album, the titles should feel like they belong together. The Album Name Generator builds frame-and-place titles such as a diary or a letter set in a city, and self-titled options when you type your artist name. A useful check: under the album title you pick, at least three of your song titles should read like chapters.
Some projects need other names too. The Band Name Generator pairs a texture word with a noun, adds “The”, or builds a front-person name with “& The” if you type one. The Wu-Tang Name Generator is a fan-made style generator, not affiliated with or endorsed by Wu-Tang Clan, that turns a first name into a kung-fu film style alias; it suits a feature credit on a playful track or a character in a skit.
The hook test and other checks
- Sing the hook, then say the title. If it sounds like the answer to the hook, keep it.
- Say it to a friend once and ask them to spell it. If they cannot, it will be hard to search.
- Keep it to one to four words unless the longer version is a phrase people say anyway.
- Make sure no two songs on the same project start with the same word.
- Picture it on a cover at thumbnail size. Long titles shrink to unreadable.
Search before you release
Titles repeat all the time, and a title shared with a well-known track can bury yours in search results. The generators on this site do not check what already exists. Before you release, search streaming services, social handles and trademark records for the exact title.
If a known song already uses it, add a word, change the noun or use the time or place pattern to make it yours. Note the final spelling and capitals, and use them identically on every platform and on the cover.