How to Pick a Name for Your Company

Beyond Buzzwords: How to Pick a Name for Your Company, Brand, or Product

You have a brilliant plan for a new business or a sure-to-be-a-hit new product. But what should you call it? The stakes are high. A great name is magnetic; a bad name can be difficult to understand, boring, or even unexpectedly offensive. Or maybe you have a phenomenal idea but you didn’t realize that someone else owns the trademark for exactly that name until you got a cease and desist letter from their lawyer. Argh!!!

Whether you're naming a new company or product, the art and science is the same. The process requires creativity, strategic thinking, discipline, and the ability to peek into the future. It ensures that your chosen name not only sounds good but also aligns perfectly with your brand identity.

Our Baylii team is experienced at developing names and we love doing this work. But if you want to try it on your own, here's our comprehensive guide: How to Pick a Name for Your Company, Brand, or Product:

1. Define Your Brand: Who are you? What do you do? And who are your customers?

Solid strategy is the foundation for all great work. So before diving into name generation, it's essential to have a solid understanding of your brand and your likely customers – whether that’s your overall company brand or the product brand. You could conduct a brand workshop to define:

Your brand or product core values and personality
Identify your target audience – get really specific
Clarify your unique selling proposition (USP): what you do that matters to your audience that your competitors don’t do.
Determine the signals you want your name to send: what’s important to your target audience?

This foundation will guide all subsequent naming decisions, ensuring consistency with your overall brand strategy.

2. Conduct a "Namestorm"

With your brand positioning clear, it's time for a "namestorm" - a brainstorming session focused on generating name ideas.

Key points:

Involve multiple team members for diverse perspectives
Generate a wide variety of options without judgment
Avoid gravitating towards specific names too early
Aim for quantity over quality at this stage

3. Align with Brand Positioning

Once you have a substantial list of potential names, compare them against your brand positioning. Ask:

Which names best reflect our brand personality?
Do these options align with what we actually do?
Which names will resonate most with our target audience?

4. Shortlist Your Options

Narrow down your list to 3-5 strong contenders that you love. Evaluate each based on:

Memorability: Is it easy to remember and spell? Does it roll off the tongue? Is it easy to understand over the phone?
Relevance: Does it connect with your offering and audience?
Differentiation: Does it stand out from competitors?
Length: Long names are tougher to remember and work with graphically when it comes to logo or packaging development. This doesn’t mean you should avoid longer names, it’s simply a consideration.
Consider how you envision your company or product growing. If you ground your name geographically, for example, will that help or hinder your appeal?
Think about search engine optimization (SEO) – how easy will it be to find you or your product in a web search? This can also be addressed in the content on your website, but a great name can certainly help drive search traffic to you. How much you should lean into SEO for your name depends on your specific situation.

5. Conduct Initial Searches

Before getting too attached to any name, perform:

Web searches to check for existing businesses or products or even other similarly named businesses or products. Even similarly named businesses can cause confusion and difficulty for you down the road.
USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) search for potential trademark conflicts. What you’re looking for there is whether another product or company in a similar class of products owns a similar (not necessarily exactly the same) trademark.
For a company, you’ll definitely want to research what relevant website addresses (URLs) are available. You may even want a specific URL for a specific product. A good place to start is Squarespace Domains.
Research available social media handles in the channels you will be in.

6. Gather Feedback

Even if your initial searches look promising, it's crucial to get external input, even if you’re a small company with a limited budget, you can at least conduct some informal research. Remember, insiders can sometimes miss obvious issues that outsiders might spot immediately.

Seek informal feedback from potential customers in your target audience – perhaps friends or acquaintances. Don’t get sidetracked by people who aren’t remotely in your target marketing.
Consider formal research methods such as:some text
- Quantitative online surveys. These can be done relatively inexpensively or they can be more of an investment if you hire a professional to assist. Survey construction, question development, and choice of audience are key to producing relevant results. We’re always happy to help with research projects like this.
- Interviews with target audience members or focus groups. As with any research, the quality of the information you get from your interviews or focus groups is entirely dependent on how the questions are worded and how the interviewer or moderator presents them. For example, inexperienced interviewers might ask, “Do you like the name Brand X?” And that might sound like a good question. But a yes or no answer doesn’t give you much useful information. What you want to know is what Brand X makes you think of, how it makes you feel, and who they think this product is for, among other things.

7. Analyze and Decide

Review all feedback and research findings:

What are the key learnings?
Do they impact your choices?
Is there a clear winner, or do you need to revisit earlier stages?

8. Professional Search

Once you've made your final selection, we recommend conducting a professional trademark search. This thorough examination can uncover potential conflicts that initial searches might have missed, potentially saving you from legal headaches down the road.

Naming is both an art and a science. By following this structured process, you can create a name that not only captures the essence of your brand but also resonates with your target audience. Remember, a great name can become one of your most valuable assets, so invest the time and effort to get it right.

If this process has you wondering whether you should enlist support to name your new business or product, reach out to us. We love these projects and we’re good at them, too. We’d love to talk!

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