You see hundreds, maybe thousands, of business names a day. You read shopfronts as you drive to work, and you’re inundated with ads for startups and other businesses the algorithm is sure you’ll love on social media. How many of those business names do you remember?

Yeah, not many. 

So what does that mean for naming your business?

Basically, you have to get it right. An epic business name is memorable, simple, and importantly it reflects your brand values.

In a saturated digital environment you need to stand out and you need to show potential customers what your brand is all about. And you need to do it quickly! According to Nielsen, you have about 20 seconds to make an impression.  

But I’m not here to scare you! I’m here to help. At Squadhelp, we have done this naming thing more than 35,000 times. And through all that experience I can tell you there are three key steps to a strong, brandable name that will stand out amongst the competition. 

1. Know Your Brand

A name is the most significant aspect of your brand. So, there’s no way that you can circumvent  understanding your brand while naming your business. Your venture is what you do. Your brand  is how you want to be seen.  

Let’s take the example of Accenture. What do you envision as soon as you hear or see the  name? To me, it sounds classy, modern, and high-end. This works extremely well for one of the  world's leading consulting firms. Yet, you could not name a household tech product like the iPad  or Alexa the same. The name would not be in sync with who they are or what they do.  

Hence, the first step to naming your brand successfully is to have exemplary brand imagination.  It is the most underrated tool for naming. Brand imagination is the ability to visualize your  brand’s personality.  

• What does the brand look and feel like?  
• What are its values?  
• What tone does it embody?  
• What kind of emotion does it want to evoke in customers?  

 Imagine if Slack had misunderstood their brand identity. They could be… clickety clack (too whimsical) or WorkChat (boring and formal). This is the kind of thing you’re risking if you don’t fully understand your brand identity. 

 Another fun example? SquattyPotty. They know there is an inherent level of comedy in their product, even though it is arguably medical. Who Gives a Crap, which sells ethically sourced toilet paper is another great example. They know what they’re selling - they know bright colors and puns are the way to go!

Ask yourself the questions above, as well as thinking about your customer and competitors. Toilet paper is super boring. What the Crap changed that. 

This ‘fun’ is the brand’s tone. Brand tones are theoretically infinite, but I usually recommend choosing from:

• Modern
• Emotionally Powerful
• Pragmatic
• Playful and Fun or Pre-eminent

2. Put Your Heads Together For Name Ideas

This is the fun bit. You get to work with the whole team (if you have one!) and throw ideas at the wall. Keep in mind that brand tone you decided on, as well as your brand values, customer base, competitors, etc. 

At this point, there are no bad ideas. Well, there are, but just chuck them out there anyway. Get post-its or a whiteboard and just have-at! You can also work with a naming agency at this point as a springboard for ideas. 

You and the team can work with all sorts here: a thesaurus, favorite mythical beasts, visual name ideas, rhymes, industry conventions. It’s all on the table! And you may find that mixing and matching your ideas is actually the best way to get something exciting. Additionally you can also use root words (basic words that can be attached to other words) to land a  brandable business name. According to our research at Squadhelp, the top 5 words popular  among our customers are gen, omni, case, spot, and door.  

This is also an opportunity to get other people involved. You want your customer demographic to be represented, but also see how names will land with others. A brainstorm is a big job! You might end up with 150 name ideas. That’s okay. You’ll be able to chuck some right out, and work on others.

At this point, you’ll want to build a shortlist. What names best fit your brand proposition and tone? You should have that brand proposition nailed down by now and your whole team should be on board. 

After a bit of debate, maybe some disagreement (hey, it happens!) you’ll have a shortlist of names. This is where we reach out to the outside world and really look at what works. How?

3. Validate Those Name Ideas  

We’re testing at this point. You can A/B test - asking ‘which name evokes X brand value’, for example. You should also keep memorableness in mind when seeking audience feedback. 

You can use friends, family or paid focus groups for this stage.

Just remember to really listen - you might be in love with a name that just doesn’t actually work! You should also check that the name doesn’t have another unwanted meaning in another language or as a slang term. 

Finally, you need to lock down that domain and a trademark. Again, a naming service can help a lot here. A premium domain name is always best, that’s your .coms and .orgs, but keep an open mind for more local (regional) domain. And remember, while your domain name doesn’t have to be your exact business name, you should avoid over complicating things. No long sentences or unexpected numbers! Again, it’s all about being memorable.

The Takeaway  

Your brand name is arguably the most important part of your brand identity. Yes, that means there’s a lot of pressure on choosing a good one! But with enough effort (and following these three rules) you’ll be able to come up with something that’ll send your business flying. And the best part of it? You will learn a huge amount about your brand in the process, so every other aspect of building your business and finding your customers will be easy as pie.

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 such as Nestle, Dell, Nuskin, and AutoNation. 

Calligraphy pen photo created by garetsvisual

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