Life
Active group texters explain how they came up with the monikers.
Your desire to throw your phone against the wall is never stronger than it is when the darn thing won’t stop vibrating with group chat notifications. And a keyboard-smash as a group chat name is all fun and games until you need to pull up the thread quickly to send everyone an urgent life update. Part of the challenge of crafting the perfect group chat name is figuring out how to balance the ridiculousness of your friend group’s inside jokes with functionality.
“Having different group chats with different colleagues can be #stressful,” says Cort, 33, an administrative assistant at a university. “The other secretaries and me send each other memes that no one is trying to send the higher ups, so keeping our chats orderly with solid names is a must.” Not to mention, having a well-organized list of group chat names helps Cort know which chats to mute, without having to sort through the list of contacts to figure out which is which.
A group chat is better than playing literal telephone with your kid sister, your uncle, and your mom to coordinate your dad’s birthday party. But that doesn’t mean it won’t get messy. Figuring out how to create appropriate group chat names for every one of your squads can go a long way toward making group texts easier to keep track of — and maybe even a little bit pleasant.
1
‘90s Song Lyrics
Whether you’re making a group chat with your siblings or your millennial colleagues, lyrics can speak volumes. “I shudder to admit this, but ‘oh my God we’re back again’ was the name of my family reunion chat to coordinate getting together after we all got vaccinated,” says Zoe, 31. Backstreet’s back, alright?
2
[insert family last name here] Chat
“Sometimes you’ve just gotta cater to the old folks,” says Julie, 32, whose grandmother insisted that she wouldn’t know what the family group chat was if it wasn’t “properly labeled.” So they stuck with the family last name to keep things simple. Want to mix it up, while still appealing to Grandma’s need for clarity? Try calling the chat something like, “[Last name] Family Reunion” or “It’s [Last name] Time.”
3
Keep It Changing
Jessi, 28, says that she and her roommates have never had the same group chat name for more than a week or two at a time. “It started with something bland, like ‘roommate chat,’” she says. “But then one of my roommates ran into her ex and she changed it to some expletive or other, and we’ve kept the tradition up.”
4
[insert emojis here]
Want to keep your text thread names as simple as possible? Stick to emojis. Use the tears of joy face for the group chats where you exclusively drop hilarious TikToks, and reserve the upside down face for that co-worker group chat where you tell each other how that email really found you.
5
Inside Jokes
“I honestly don’t think any of us remember how this became a thing,” says Rory, 31, who’s had the same group chat name, “Colonel Mustard did it,” with their old college roommates for a decade. “However the inside joke started, it’s even better now with time. Like a fine wine.” What’s that one phrase that sends your friend group into peals of laughter? Try making it the group chat name.
6
Use An Acronym
Is one of the things in your text thread not like the others? “I’m the token cishet friend,” says Paul, 27. “So my group chat with my old high school friends is ‘lesbian, gay, trans, and Paul.’” Design your group’s acronym to suit your purposes.
7
Call It Like It Is
There’s no shame in being literal — it might even help your sense of organization. Group chat names like “Jaime’s Surprise Party” get right to the point and make it easy for everyone to follow along. Just don’t add Jaime.
8
Helpful Reminders
“My post-top surgery aftercare group chat with my friends was titled ‘take your meds, b*#@!’ because they wanted to make sure I remembered,’ says Justyn, 26. Hilarious and useful — get you a text thread that can do both.
9
Puppy Love
This one’s versatile. As a colleague pet photo exchange thread or the bestie “oh my God let me update you on my new boo” chat, you can get a lot of mileage out of Puppy Love.
This article was originally published on
