Before beginning their search for a great name, every business owner should have a clear understanding of the type of brand name that would work best for their startup and niche.
But what if you have no clue where to begin? What if you have trouble awakening your imagination? Or maybe you’ve spent days, weeks, and even months, but still, your names aren’t creative enough?
If this seems like something you’re having trouble with, then rest easy. We know how brutally challenging naming can be for new business owners, so we’ve created this quick naming guide based on the knowledge we gained from helping over 35,000 businesses discover the perfect name.
Let’s get into it.
Three Crucial Steps in Choosing the Best Company Name
1. Understand Your Brand
Your business name is the most critical part of your brand. And so, it’s impossible to ignore understanding your brand’s identity when naming your business. Yes, your business venture is what you do and the services you offer, but your brand embodies your business’s personality and how you want customers to perceive your business.
Think about Accenture, a consultancy company. What images do you envision when you see or hear its name? For starters, it has a smooth, elegant, and prestigious tone. And for one of the top consulting businesses in the world, this works rather nicely.
A typical computer device, such as the iPhone or Alexa, would not have been given the same name because it would be inadequate with its image.
2. Start Brainstorming Exciting Name Ideas
Now comes the interesting part! Gather your team (if you have any), get some pens, a notepad, a marker, and a whiteboard, and unleash your creative imagination. Understand that the creative stage is not an evaluation stage; you don’t need to evaluate name suggestions at the moment. Simply unlock your creativity and ride the flow.
Don’t be hesitant to think and write down terrible names too. We, in fact, strongly suggest you compile a list of weird names. You never know what you could make out of them. Here are some simple resources to help simplify the process:
- Thesaurus
- Business or product name generators
- Visual names, something relating to a color
- Industry slangs
- Rhyme
Additionally, it’s necessary to include a mix of people of different ages in your creative team because their views on modern vs. practical names would give you an insight into other points of view.
Try your best to come up with at least 200 prospective names by the conclusion of the brainstorming session. Doing this will provide you with a sufficient number of alternatives as we work on filtering the list.
3. Validate Your Chosen Name
We all hope that your top selection from the names you came up with is the perfect company name for you! But before celebrating, your names must first pass a few checks. The validation procedure will assist you in determining whether your preferred name(s) are appropriate and available.
So, verify your name by checking for:
- Audience feedback: When it comes to validating your brand names, customer feedback is necessary. You could do this by asking friends, family, or even random strangers you find at a restaurant or somewhere for their honest opinions on the brand names you’ve found.
- Premium domain name: Every business needs a website. So, ensure you check to see if the domain name you want is still available. In an ideal scenario, you should be able to instantly obtain the nameofyourbusiness.com. This is, however, not usually the situation, and you may have to pay a high price to get it.
- Trademarks: Although you might find this process bothersome, it could ultimately save you a lot of issues later on because most current words are already trademarked in some way. Leveraging the help of a legal expert can help you better ascertain if your company’s name satisfies the trademark requirements.
Conclusion
Brand names can boost your business’s profits and performance, giving you the vital advantage you need to exceed your competition. A great way to make your target audience excited about your business is to choose a brand name that resonates with your business’s identity.
Grant Polachek is the head of branding for Squadhelp.com, 3X Inc 5000 startup and disruptive naming agency. Squadhelp has reviewed more than 1 million names and curated a collection of the best available names on the web today. We are also the world’s leading crowdsource naming platform, supporting clients from early-stage startups to Fortune 500 companies.