A Comprehensive Guide To Naming Your Business
So, it’s come time to name your business. The business idea brewing in the back of your brain is finally ready to make its mark on the world and you need a name to match its epicness. We know it can seem daunting to tackle such an important task, but rest assured our Comprehensive Guide To Naming Your Business is here to save the day. Let’s start by covering some basics.
What is a brand name?
A brand name is the primary identifier for an individual company, product or service. It is the term or set of terms that differentiates one company from another. A brand name is typically paired with an accompanying trademark, .com domain and logo.
What are the steps to naming a brand?
Great question. Let’s keep it high level before we dig into the nitty gritty. As brand naming experts, these are the 5 steps we consider when naming a brand:
Perform some initial research.
Let your mind go wild with a creative brainstorm session.
Determine brand name availability.
Test your brand name and gather feedback.
Register your winning brand name.
How does one know if a brand name idea is any good?
That’s a complicated one and the answer varies based on who you ask, what industry you’re operating in and how you want to position yourself in the market. That being said, our team follows our very own SCORE method to ensure we’re covering the most important elements for a quality brand name:
Scalable: Fits even as the brand grows and evolves.
Catchy: Sticks in the minds of your audience – easy to say, spell and type.
Original: Distinct in your industry, unique when compared to other household brand names.
Relevant: Makes sense for what you’re offering and is relatable to your target audience.
Evocative: Moves people, visually evocative and inspiring.
Now that we’ve covered some of the standard questions you’ve been itching to answer, it’s time to dig deep to find a winning brand name for your business. Let’s work our way through the 5 steps.
Perform some initial research
Prior to brainstorming, it’s important to get your bearings and tackle some low-level research. Some critical components to cover include:
Get familiar with the types of business names (as we see it):
Real-Life Brand Names: These might be inspired by a product benefit, historical reference, geographic region or founder’s name. Examples include: Whole Foods, Tesla, American Airlines and Kelloggs, respectively.
Evocative Brand Names: Typically abstract and metaphorical, these brand names are built for emotional impact. Examples include: Nike, Amazon and Dove.
Lexical Brand Names: These brand names rely on wordplay to stick. They may be compound words, puns, alliterative or even onomatopoeias. Examples include: JetBlue, DunkinDonuts and Zoom.
Acronym Brand Names: As the name suggests, these brand names are defined by acronyms. Examples include: GEICO, BMW and 3M.
New Word Brand Names: These brand names are often defined by misspellings and abbreviations or are portmanteaus. Examples include: Flickr and Groupon.
List your competitors:
Before beginning your own brainstorming session, get familiar with your competitors’ brand names. Understanding what works for them can help guide your thought paths. For example:
Take a look at common identifying terms. For example, if you’re naming a carpentry company, that might look like NAMEConstruction, NAMEWoodworks, or NAMEBuilders.
List down the top 5-10 businesses operating in your industry to be sure your ideas are distinct from their brand naming approach.
If you’re a localized business, determine if there is already a business in your area that’s coined a brand name that reads NAMELocation. For example, let’s look at that same carpentry business that, say, is operating throughout the state of New Jersey. Has another player already claimed the name “New Jersey’s Carpenters?” If not, that angle might help narrow down your search as characterizing yourself as NJ’s go-to carpenter team is a pretty strong positioning strategy.
Have a 1 hour brainstorming session
Alright, here comes the fun part. When guiding our clients, we always tell them to begin with a timed one hour brand name brainstorming session, with your initial research takeaways in mind of course. Beyond those, let your mind go wild for an hour. The goal should be to come out of this exercise with 4-5 solid brand name ideas. Make sure you’re comfortable and prepared with a fully charged computer, pen and paper, drinks and some snacks. While we encourage you to follow your own creative flow, here are some helpful tips to maximize your brainstorming session:
Close your eyes and visualize:
Picture your ideal customer shopping for your service or product. What words come to mind? Colors? Environment? Emotions?
Consider your story:
Think about your own personal story. What led you to the point of building this business? What family members, mentors or partners guided you to this moment in time? How might you tie these memories and people to your brand name?
Try word association:
Write down several random words that come to mind freely. Then, work to pair each with another word that makes a brand name that’s relevant to your business’s vision or purpose.
Break out the thesaurus:
When it comes to brand naming, synonyms are saviors. Again, begin by writing down a number of random words that come to mind when thinking about your business. Then, identify two or three synonyms of each to create a larger word bank.
Create a mind map:
Break your brand name brainstorming into categories. In the center is your business while each idea stemming out represents a name concept from a varying brand name approach (ie: Evocative, Lexical, etc.) Then, create more ideas stemming from each of those categories.
Remember the SCORE method:
As your brand name brainstorming session comes to a close, ask yourself these questions about each of your top contenders:
Scalable
Does the idea avoid current trends?
Is the idea too literal?
Catchy
How does the name sound when spoken aloud?
Is the idea on the shorter side?
Original
How does the idea compare to the competitors I listed earlier?
Have I heard of any similar brand names beyond my immediate industry?
Relevant
Does the idea fit my business mission?
Is the idea too narrow?
Evocative
Does the idea make me feel something?
Determine brand name availability
Hopefully, following your brand name brainstorming session, you’ve taken a short break. If you haven’t, do that now. Then, come back and circle the top 4-5 ideas that stemmed from your brainstorming and prepare to get your heart broken. In today’s day and age, available domains (especially .com) are few and far between, the majority of social media handles already taken and trademark applications often denied. While this step isn’t the most fun, it’s important to ensure you avoid a potential lawsuit from someone who registered your brand name idea first.
Check domain availability:
Use a domain registrar like GoDaddy to research domain availability. Type in each of your brand name ideas and determine if the .com domain is available. Why .com you ask? A matching .com domain has been a primary indicator of credibility since the inception of the internet, giving you a leg up when you launch. Jot down which of your ideas are available. If none are, consider adding an industry pairing word (ie: Name+ Builders). If you’d rather have a matching domain, you might consider going back to the drawing board or trying another TLD (top-level-domain) like .co or .io.
Research social media availability:
Even when the standalone .com is available for a brand name idea, oftentimes the accompanying Instagram, Facebook or Youtube handle is taken. Don’t fret. Sometimes, they are indeed taken by an established business (ie: 5K followers+) who doesn’t own the domain for one reason or another. In those cases, it’s best to scratch the brand name idea to avoid confusion. Mostly, the social media handles are taken by personal or inactive accounts. In those cases, we recommend adding a simple pairing word such as @NameCo or @ByName or @WithName.
Check trademark & local availability:
Visit your country’s official online intellectual property office to determine if your brand name ideas are available for registration. For those in the United States, that’s the USPTO, an easy to use platform that’s almost always up-to-date.
Once you clear that step, find your state or territory’s brand name database to ensure you can register your LLC or Corporation locally.
After completing these steps to ensure availability, we hope you still have a few brand name ideas left to begin testing. If not, we suggest trying alternate versions or starting fresh with a follow-up brainstorming sesh. Even with some verified brand name ideas, you might want to continue brainstorming for a while before moving on. Choose your own journey.
Test and get feedback
First, you’re owed a pat on the back for making it this far. At this point, you have a few brand name ideas that not only are you pumped about, but have proven available and ready to register. Before passing go, we recommend surveying some people to ensure you’re on the right track. There a couple of ways to do this:
Ask friends & family
This is the easiest way to gather feedback on your brand name ideas. If possible, share your thoughts with people in your life that have no background on your business. Ask them:
What emotions come to mind?
What industry do you think the business is in?
Write it down for me. (Helps ensure easy to spell & type)
Then, tell them what your business is all about and ask for their unfiltered feedback. Do this with at least five or six people, preferably of different ages and backgrounds.
Survey your future customers
Consider tapping into a service like Voxco to survey your brand name ideas with strangers. Services such as this allow you to survey individuals who will fall into your target market, allowing you to gather opinions from actual future customers. Surveying strangers also helps to avoid the bias you might experience when surveying people who know you personally.
Register your brand name
Yipee! You’ve brainstormed and researched then brainstormed some more. You’ve tested and surveyed and it’s brought you to this door. Let’s talk about registering your brand with a comprehensive checklist:
Register your business: File to become an official LLC, Corporation, etc. with your state or territory to begin doing business with your new brand name.
Buy your domain: Secure that .com before somebody else does! Note, you’ll pay an annual leasing fee for your domain so be sure your credit card stays up to date.
Secure social media handles: Determine which social media channels you’ll use for your business and sign up for profiles for each, keeping in mind the available handle exercise we discussed earlier.
File for a trademark: Download the relevant application, consult a trademark lawyer if need be, and begin filing to ensure you’re protected.
The rest is history. Questions? Reference our blog for more small business tips.
