How To Choose A Creative Business Name
If you are about to start a business, a brand or launch a product then the first headache is to find or create from scratch a unique and creative name. It is really important to have a name that you are proud of and your customers can’t forget it. In the next paragraphs, i explain how you can approach this challenging process.
A new company or startup is like having a new kid in your family. You create a new entity out of nothing and it will carry that name for all of its life. It is a normal situation that naming your business will take more than expected. It is something that happens for every entrepreneur so don’t get discouraged, it is not only for you.
You will not come up instantly with a good name because it is like finding the ideal partner or the house you will live in for all your life. In those cases, you don’t just pick the first one you find but you have many relationships or do a lot of research as far as the house is concerned. Same applies for a good business name, you need to test a lot of them before you decide.
Here is a quick outline of how you can come up with a creative brand name :
1.) You can associate your company’s name with the owner. In that case, you take advantage of the good reputation or the previous experience of the company’s founder. An example can be “Joe Smith investing”.
2.) You can create a name related to your industry or the kind of product you sell. If you choose this option the potential customer can instantly recognize the nature of your business. An example can be: “Rent a Car”.
3.) A nice idea is to use a vocabulary word or phrase such as “Apple” or “Red Elephant”. When you choose this kind of names is hard for consumers to forget.
4.)You can combine 2 words such as “Binance” – a combination for binary and finance.
5.)You can create a name from scratch like “twitter”.This is the most challenging approach but if you got it right you can come up with a catchy brand name.
6.)Another approach is to choose an abbreviation or acronym such as IKEA.
The naming process in depth
Whatever approach from the above ones you choose, you need to follow the next steps:
- Actually creating or buying the name.
Here comes the really challenging part. You should create a list of words that represent your industry or the characteristics of your business.My suggestion is to gather friends, family or colleagues to help with the process. Together you can compose a list of words that represent your company, industry or owners’ vision .For example, if you are a tech company you can include software, internet, cloud etc .If you are a financial services firm you can use words such as finance, payments, invest etc .Then try to mix them or slightly modify them or create a totally new word. Be aware to verify that the names you create don’t have some bad meaning in a different language (you can use google translate).
I believe shorter names have bigger chances of success but there are always exceptions. The name must be easily pronounceable and memorable. If during your internal brainstorming, your team forgets it after 10 minutes then you can exclude it from your list. You can visit my site’s homepage to see some brand names (logo included) that fit those characteristics and buy one of them if you wish to do it.
- Check how many names of your list are already taken.
You need to visit sites like that http://www.wipo.int/branddb/en/ to identify if there are active trademarks and existing brand names that use your potential future company name(s). It is always good practice to consult a legal professional for this kind of issues but doing a bit of research before that is not harming anyone.It will be a huge setback to start your business by using a name that some other company uses too (even if you are not in the same country). Don’t overlook that step and take it seriously.
Then you can perform google searches to see if there is a business with that name online. Don’t forget to use the potential name in brackets too “…….” when you perform the google search. If the domain is taken there is a chance that you can still buy from the owner so don’t get discouraged. You can always use a different extension such as .net but in my opinion, is better to use domain names that end with .com.You can use sites like godaddy.com to check if a domain name is already taken and what extension is available.
- Importance of domain name
As you already know most of the people use the internet for shopping or getting information for any kind of issue. By having a website people will trust your brand more and of course, it will look more professional. There is a huge advantage of having a website even if you don’t sell some product online. The first thing a potential customer will do when finds out about your company is to search on the web to find more information about it. A good looking site that helps the customer to understand more about founder’s and company’s culture, background and experience will boost your reputation and potential sales. Choose a domain name that can’t be easily misspelled.
- Famous company names list and how they got their names
I present you this list so you can get some inspiration on how to name your company.
IKEA – It is actually an acronym that consists of the initials of Ingvar Kamprad (name of original founder), Elmtaryd (a farm where he was raised), and Agunnaryd (the town where he was born)
Google – It is a misspelling of googol which is a really big number (1 followed by a hundred zeros!)
Twitter – There are 2 original meanings for that word: call consisting of repeated light tremulous sounds (by a bird) and a series of short sounds . Both meanings represent exactly what the company wanted to achieve.
LEGO – It is a combination of 2 Danish words: leg godt which means”play well”.
Conclusion
I hope the article will help you with your decision even slightly. Don’t get stressed in the beginning the process seems overwhelming but as the days pass things will be more clear in your mind. You should be excited about starting a new business and naming is only the start of a great journey.
