The Graffiti Name Guide

Pick a name you'll still want to write in twenty years.

Eleven chapters, a letter tier chart built like an engineering matrix, and a database of 31,422 real writer names — so you pick with evidence, not a hunch.

Your graffiti name is the word you'll write tens of thousands of times. Most writers choose it in an afternoon, find out two years in that one letter fights them every time, or that someone in their city had it first — and start again.

This guide is how to not do that.

Who it's for

• You're starting out and want a name with legs, not one you'll bin in six months.
• You've got a name and a nagging feeling about one of the letters. This tells you which, and what to do about it.
• You're a few names deep and want to pick the last one.

What you get

Every letter, ranked — and the reasoning.
All 26 letters scored on the six things that decide whether a letter works on a wall: negative space, flexibility, material and weight, variant characters, position vulnerability, and how far writers have already developed it. Five tiers, from the letters that carry a name to the ones that drag it down. Tap any letter for its drawn forms, its scores and the breakdown — so you can argue with it.

31,422 real names to check it against.
The biggest graffiti name database ever put together, from 107 countries. It's where every number in the guide comes from: which letters writers actually use, where in a name they sit, how long names run, what follows what, and how many countries a name is already painted in. The chart says what a letter does. The database shows whether writers agree.

A Name Analyser that reads your shortlist.
Type a name. Every letter is scored against the chart, the name gets its weight and shape read, and the database says how many countries it's already documented in. You get a band — Safe, Good, Tricky, Hard — and the notes that explain why, letter by letter.

Five routes to a name when you've got nothing.
Your real name, the anchor, suffix and prefix, the word grab, the anti-name. Plus the unwritten rules: who you don't bite, and why a name that's taken in your city is taken.

Two writers worked through every chapter.
Kieran and Ellis start with a blank page and finish with a name and a sheet. Tap in at the end of each chapter to see every rule applied to a real shortlist.

How to grow it once you've got it.
Extensions, short forms, second names — so you're not bored of it in five years.

Why trust it

Before JOSHGRAFX I was a process engineer. Most of that job was building scoring matrices: break a machine vendor down into what actually matters, score each factor, and let the ranking fall out of the numbers instead of someone's gut. I pointed the same method at the alphabet I'd been drawing for over two decades, then built the database to check it. No letter sits where it does on opinion.

Format

Eleven chapters plus the data appendix. Interactive — opens in your browser on phone, tablet or desktop. No app, works offline. Instant download after checkout. Yours to keep.

Common questions

I already have a name. Is this for me?
Yes — run it through the analyser and read its letters' pop-ups. You'll know which letter is doing the work and which one is costing you.

Isn't a "good letter" just opinion?
The ranking is a scoring matrix, not a list of favourites, and every claim is checked against how 31,422 writers actually chose. Where opinion comes in, the guide says so.

Is it a PDF?
No — it's interactive, which is what makes the analyser and letter pop-ups work. It opens in any browser and needs nothing installed.

Not sure yet? Run a name through the free analyser first.