The naming part is actually easy once everything else is there.

You just start off by using your npub as name.  The resolver is the powerful thing.  Then there are so many paths.

Nomen was going to be the great solution based in bitcoin, but fiatjaf and semisol wanted to kill it, and so it died.

What you need simply is a fair naming system that is a level playing field and with a wide eco system to ensure a small clique doesnt grab the good domains.  

namecoin got rekt and it didnt allow transfers, which was a glaring mistake.  ENS is very scammy and they raised the prices massively.  the fact that there is a "they" is also a problem.

The only solution to this is naming on bitcoin which is pretty a pretty much solved at this point, you would use an OP_RETURN UTXO runes or a soft-fork of runes with an OP_RETURN flag.  But let's see how it evolves.  Have a look at resource oriented computing on wiki for a more in-depth explanation.  But, the npub resolver alone is huge because it gives you decetralized domains and also SSH keys for free, which is a massive upgrade.

https://stacker.news/items/256435 

 why did they want to kill it? 

but it seems to me the naming part is the hard one. It's not solved and needs adoption to work at all. 

ENS is the only one that has current some scale and adoption.