Naming a business can be surprisingly difficult. You are trying to find a few words that represent something that may not even properly exist yet, while also hoping the name will still make sense several years from now.
It is easy to get stuck trying to find something clever, original or meaningful. But a good business name does not necessarily need to do all of those things.
It needs to suit the business, be reasonably easy for people to remember and give you enough room to build a brand around it.
Rather than starting with hundreds of random name ideas, it helps to work through the decision in a more practical order.
Start With What The Name Needs To Do
Before trying to name the business, define what you are actually naming.
Write down a few basic things:
• What does the business sell or do?
• Who is it for?
• Is it closely connected to you personally, or should it exist independently of you?
• Is it intended to stay local or potentially operate more widely?
• Could the products or services change later?
• How do you want the business to come across?
You are not trying to squeeze all of those answers into the name.
You are establishing some boundaries so that you can recognise a name that fits when you see one.
A business selling handmade children’s clothing from a local studio has very different naming requirements from a consulting business that may eventually operate across several industries.
There Is More Than One Way To Name A Business
DESCRIPTIVE
The name tells people something about what the business does.
Examples:
a location, service, product or industry combined into the name.
Useful when:
immediate understanding is important.
Watch out for:
becoming too generic or limiting the business if its services change.
PERSONAL
The business uses the founder’s name, surname or initials.
Useful when:
the person behind the business is central to the service, particularly for consultants, creatives and professional services.
Watch out for:
whether you eventually want the business to operate independently of you.
SUGGESTIVE
The name does not literally describe the service but suggests an idea, result, feeling or characteristic associated with it.
Useful when:
you want something distinctive while still giving the name some meaning.
Watch out for:
choosing something so abstract that it needs a five-minute explanation.
INVENTED
A completely new word, unusual spelling or combination of existing words.
Useful when:
you want something distinctive that can develop its own meaning over time.
Watch out for:
spelling, pronunciation and whether people can remember what to type when they look for you later.
Do Not Make The Name Carry The Entire Business
This is where people can spend far too long trying to be clever.
Your business name does not have to explain your services, your personality, your values, your target market and your entire reason for existing.
That is what the rest of the brand is for.
A fairly simple name can become distinctive once it has a recognisable logo, colours, written voice, website and reputation behind it. Likewise, an exceptionally clever name cannot compensate for a business nobody understands.
The question is not:
Does this name explain absolutely everything?
A better question is:
Can I build the right business around this name?
That gives you considerably more room to work with.
Build A Shortlist, Not A Winner
1. Generate freely
Start with words associated with the service, customer, result, location, founder, industry or personality of the business.
At this stage, bad ideas are useful too. They often lead somewhere better.
2. Combine and experiment
Try shortening words, combining concepts, using initials or looking at different ways of expressing the same idea.
Do not decide too quickly which one is “the one”.
3. Reduce the list
Once you have enough options, start removing the obvious weak ones.
You should eventually arrive at a shortlist of perhaps three to five names that could genuinely work.
4. Test those names properly
This is where the decision becomes much easier.
Instead of endlessly asking which one you like most, you can start looking for practical reasons why one works better than another.
Put Every Shortlisted Name Through The Same Test
✓ Can someone say it?
If someone sees the name written down, will they have a reasonable idea how to pronounce it?
✓ Can someone spell it?
If you tell somebody the name verbally, could they reasonably search for it afterwards?
✓ Can someone remember it?
It does not need to be exceptionally clever, but it should not disappear from someone's memory immediately.
✓ Does it still work without an explanation?
Meaning can be useful. Requiring a paragraph to justify the name usually is not.
✓ Does it limit what you can sell?
A very specific product or location in the name could become inconvenient if the business expands later.
✓ Does it sound like another business?
You do not want customers constantly confusing you with an established company.
✓ Does it look good written down?
Type it out. Put it in uppercase and lowercase. Imagine it on an invoice, website header, social profile and email address.
✓ Are there unintended meanings?
Say it aloud. Remove the spaces. Look at the initials. Ask somebody else to read it without telling them what you intended.
Worth checking twice:
That last test has saved more than a few businesses from unfortunate domain names.
Say It Out Loud
This deserves its own small section because people tend to evaluate names entirely on screen.
A business name will not only be read. People will say it on the phone, recommend it to somebody else, type it into Google and occasionally have to spell it.
Try using each shortlisted name in an ordinary sentence.
“Hi, I’m Tamiya from [Business Name].”
“I bought it from [Business Name].”
“Have a look at [Business Name].”
Some names that look impressive written down become remarkably awkward when you actually have to say them. You will probably also notice which names feel natural very quickly.
Ask Other People, But Be Careful How You Ask
Getting another opinion can help, but asking ten people “Which name do you like?” often creates more problems than it solves.
Everyone has different tastes.
Instead, show somebody the shortlist and ask more useful questions:
• What kind of business would you expect this to be?
• Which name do you remember ten minutes later?
• Is anything difficult to pronounce or spell?
• Does any name remind you strongly of another company?
• Is there anything strange about the name that I have stopped noticing?
You are looking for problems you may have missed, not asking other people to name the business for you.
Then Check Whether You Can Actually Use It
Only once a name survives the earlier tests should you start getting attached to it.
A good name is not particularly useful if another business is already operating under it, the company name cannot be registered, or the domain you need belongs to somebody else.
Before making the final decision, you should investigate:
• existing businesses using the same or a confusingly similar name
• company-name availability where registration is required
• relevant trademarks
• domain-name availability
• social-media usernames where they matter to the business
• ordinary Google search results for the name
Importantly, these are not all the same thing. Finding an available domain does not automatically mean you have established that the business name itself is legally available to use.
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Before You Choose The Name
• Decide what the name needs to do before generating ideas.
• Consider different naming approaches rather than searching for one perfect formula.
• Build a shortlist and test each option against the same criteria.
• Make sure people can reasonably say, spell and remember it.
• Think about where the business could go, not only what it sells today.
• Check name, domain and other availability before committing to your favourite.
Your Business Gives The Name Meaning
There is rarely a moment when a business name suddenly feels objectively perfect. At some point, you choose the strongest option, make sure there are no obvious problems with it and start building the business around it.
Over time, the logo, colours, customer experience, work you produce and reputation of the business become associated with those words. That is what eventually gives the name its weight.
The name matters, but what you build underneath it matters considerably more.
