Everyone calls it Vase

168 models on MakerWorld are titled "Vase", ignoring case. Just that, one word. On Printables it's 331. It's the most common title in our sample on both sites, which tells you something about how much thought goes into naming a vase.

We studied 1,004,137 public models from MakerWorld and Printables, two of the biggest sites for sharing 3D printing files: 327,759 from MakerWorld and 676,378 from Printables. Every number here describes those models, not every model ever posted.

Repeated titles

Behind "Vase" on MakerWorld come "Earrings" with 105 models and "Phone Stand" with 104. Printables has 294 models called "Phone Stand". Most of the list is desk stuff: pen holders, organizers, phone holders. "Spiral Vase" adds another 58 on MakerWorld.

The calendar shows up too. "Christmas Tree" is the title of 64 MakerWorld models and 106 on Printables. Every December they all show up in the same search, under the same name.

Still, most models have a title of their own. Our MakerWorld sample holds 314,472 different titles across 327,759 models. 5.9% of MakerWorld models share their title with another model in our sample, ignoring case and extra spaces. On Printables it's 8.6%, or 58,408 models.

A shared title isn't a copied model. Plenty of different vases are just called Vase. It does mean someone searching for one gets a long list of identical names and has to pick by the photo.

Title length

Leave out titles in Chinese, Japanese or Korean, which don't put spaces between words, and the median title is 4 words on MakerWorld and 5 on Printables. Both run 28 characters.

On MakerWorld, models with one- or two-word titles have a median of 11 downloads. It climbs with every step: 18, 22, 24, then 36 for titles of ten words or more. That last group is small, 1.4% of models.

Printables moves much less. Free models with the shortest titles have a median of 33 downloads and the longest 43.

These are plain medians. Someone who writes a ten-word title may write a careful listing too, so the words alone aren't doing all the work. But a one-word title gives search almost nothing to match. "Vase" competes with every vase on the site. "Spiral vase with drainage hole, no supports" competes with far fewer. Which words in a title go with downloads is its own story.