How to plan the perfect world-class business name

Selecting a business name can be intimidating especially if you are starting your new business or when you want to rebrand your old regular business name into a brand name. So here is some of my research on how to select a business name why business names are important and things you need to avoid while selecting a business name.

Why Business names are important?

It Sums up what your company is all about

A business or brand name is the collective meaning of the company and what the company is all about and even if doesn’t explain everything the business does the name of the business triggers the things your business does for your customers.

for example when you hear names like Google, Apple, Nike, KFC what are all the words that came into your mind? Are you getting it right?

If you are like me when you see Google – You think of search engine and it has answers to all my questions

When you see Apple Company Name – You think of Smartphones, MAC and about new technology, innovation, and products it brings to our life and the grand legacy of Steve Jobs.

Similarly with Nike – its an athlete company which produces sports wear and its sports community.

Finally, KFC – Kentucky Fried Chicken says everything and it also triggers the thoughts of juicy and crunchy chicken nuggets and that thought itself brings your taste buds to life.

So every company name has its own personality and meaning for it and explains everything it does by triggering our thoughts.

It says how unique you are in the industry

Every business can say what it does and how it does but very few businesses can really explain Why they do what they do.
If you ever wondered why only limited businesses gain traction and be able to get all the attention and the drive this is the reason, I really love how Simon Sinek explains this concept beautifully both in his ted talk as well as his book – Start With Why.

Have a look at both of them you will understand what i meant and get some ideas to say the why of your business.

The First thing people see and hear

Yeah obviously this is a no-brainer, but did you observe how powerful this is? every business has its own character personality and most importantly its own reputation, the first thing people see is just the name and then get to know about the brand you are building.
So when you going to decide on a name think well before you just say ahh! it’s just a business name who is going to notice this.

Some facts about business names :

Do you know ? Google was originally called BackRub

How to select a business name?

1. Brainstorming & Using Resources Online

Brainstorming can be an effective tool to create a list of names without feeling judged you can do this with your business partner or with the help of your friends, search every possible way and note down all the name which can be suitable for your business.

You can use a simple piece of paper for doing this. or my personal favorite is using google docs which is a great resource for collaborating with people.

There are quite a few online resources that can spark your ideas for generating a lot of names and create a list.

Online Resources To Generate Business Name Ideas :

• Business Name Generator
• Namelix
• NameMesh
• Namesmith
• Dot-O-Mator
• NameStation
• Naming.Net
• NetSubstance.Com
• Shopify Business Name Generator

1. Brainstorm and list out more than 50 names…
2. Select the top 10 names you like and by checking the availability of name/domain name.
3. Answering the questions below will give you some ideas about the word choices you can use to decide a business name.
4. Make sure you follow and try different combinations and select the top 3 names and get to the one name you want to use as your business name.

Questions to answer before you start selecting a business name:

• Who is your target audience/ customers?
• What do they do?
• What is their age group?
• What are their interests?
• What are the pain points (Major Problems) we are solving through our company?

2. Acronym Names

An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase, usually using individual initial letters

Some Famous Examples –

• IBM – International Business Machines
• BP – British Petroleum Company
• UPS – United Parcel Service
• BMW – Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
• MTV – Music Television
• GEICO –  Government Employees Insurance Company is an American
• HP – Hewlett-Packard Development Company
• LIC – Life Insurance Corporation
• ICRISAT – International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics

3. A Name Which Has Some Meaning Attached To It

Examples –

• Coca-Cola: The two main ingredients were Coca leaves and Cola berries
• Pepsi: From the digestive enzyme ‘pepsin’.
• China National Petroleum
• General Electric
• metlife – Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife
  

4. Meaning From Different Languages

Examples :

• Canon: Adapted from Kwanon (Japanese name of Buddhist Bodhisattva of Mercy).
• Volkswagen: Means ‘People’s car’ in German.
• Reebok: Derived from the Afrikaans spelling of an African Antelope, ‘Rhebok’.
• Nikon: Short for Nippon Kogaku, which means ‘Japanese Optical’.
• Lego: Derived from Danish words ‘Leg Godt’, which means to ‘play well’.
•  Sony: Derived from the Latin word, ‘Sonus’ (meaning sound) and an American slang word, ‘Sonny’ (meaning bright youngster)
• Fanta: The head of the German Coca-Cola team asked them to use their ‘Fantasie’ (imagination) to come up with the name. That did not take long though.
•  Nivea: Derived from the Latin word ‘Niveus’, which means snow white.
• Nintendo: Transliterated from Nintendou. Nin in Japanese means ‘entrusted’ and Ten-dou means ‘heaven’.

5. Your Name Or Any Name As A Business Name

Examples –

• Nike: Name for the Greek Goddess of Victory.
• Adidas: Named after owner Adolf Dassler whose nickname was Adi. Adi Dassler became Adidas.
• Nokia: Started as wood-pulp mill, it expanded its business to producing rubber products in a city in Finland called Nokia.
• Adobe: Named after a creek that ran behind the co-founder, John Warnock’s house, called Adobe Creek.
• Starbucks: Named after a character in Moby Dick, Starbuck.
• HP (Hewlett Packard): William Hewlett and David Packard flipped a coin to decide whose name would come first.
• Toyota: Named after founder Kiichiro Toyoda. The name was changed to Toyota because Toyoda literally means, ‘fertile rice paddies’.

6. Made Up Words

Examples :  

• Cisco: Not actually an acronym. They just removed San Fran from San Francisco.
• Budweiser: Beer has been brewed in Budweis, Bohemia, since 1245. Budweiser means ‘of Budweis’ and was developed as a ‘Bohemian-style beer. Founder Adolphus Busch was inspired to create the beverage after a trip to the region.
• Dasani: The Coca-Cola Company created the name Dasani for its brand-new bottled water in 1999. It doesn’t have any meaning or greater significance behind it — Dasani was chosen because “the name is relaxing and suggests pureness and replenishment,” according to consumer testing.
• Thibstas – Think Big & Start Small

7. Inventing A Word

Examples :  

• Vodafone: Voice, Data, and Telefone.
• The name Verizon combines the Latin word veritas, meaning truth, with the word horizon.
• Exxon
• Kodak
• Xerox
• Google: Derived from ‘googol’ which means 1 followed by 100 zeros.
• Pixar
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Electrolux
• Oreo
• Qantas
• Ironfish
• Ikea

8. Name A Problem You are solving

You business name can be directly explaining the problem you are trying to solve through your business.

Examples :  

• Toys R Us
• E*Trade
• General Motors
• YouSendIt
• The Weather Channel
• Hotels.com
• Bank of America

9. Owning A Word

Example –

• Apple
• Amazon: CEO Jeff Bezos wanted a name starting with ‘A’. He chose Amazon because it is the biggest river in the world, just what he wanted his company to be.
• Borders
• Yahoo
• Lego
• Proactiv
• Pandora
• Sharp
• Crust
• Yelp
• Ikea

10. Word Mashing

Combine up to 2 to 4 words into one unique word. You can make an unlimited amount of word combinations by putting in or taking out words.

Example –  –

• Intel: Short for integrated electronics
• Skype: Originally the idea was ‘Sky peer to peer’, which later became Skyper and finally Skype.
•  Durex: Durable, Reliable and Excellence.
• eBay: Originally called Echo Bay. The domain echobay.com was already taken. So it was shortened to eBay.
• Microsoft: A combination of the words Microcomputer and Software.
• Wikipedia (wiki + encyclopaedia)
• FedEx (federal + express)
• Groupon (group + coupon)
• Band-Aid (bandage +first aid)
• Walmart (Walton + supermarket)
• Webjet (website + jet-setting)

Tool For Word Mashing – WORD UNSCRAMBLER

11. Word Twisting

pick a word (or two) and then change the spelling, add an extra letter or write the word phonetically. Another way to word twist is to add an extra vowel at the beginning (e.g. iPhone) or you can do the opposite and remove vowels (e.g. ‘N Sync). This way they are able to secure an available domain name and they can have something that they can trademark right away.

• Dunkin’ Donuts
• Krazy Glue
• Sizzler Steakhouse
• Krispy Kreme
• Flickr
• Tumblr

12. Alliteration

• It’s basically where you pick two words that start with the same letter. The first word should be something that defines what your business does or what category you are in. Then you go through the dictionary and find another word starting with the same letter.

Example :

• Weight Watchers
• American Airlines
• Paramount Pictures
• Fitness First
• Body Bronzer
• Business Blueprint (my business name)
• Creative Capital
• Slide Share
• Dr. Drip

13. Name As You Like

You can name your company with what ever word combinations you like with what you are interested to call your business .. there are no one who is going to stop you but make sure you go through the things to you need to avoid which are discussed below.

Example –

•  IBM: Founder TJ Watson Sr wanted to be a step ahead of his former employer’s National Cash Register’, so he decided to call his company ‘International Business Machines.
• Virgin: Because the business was new and the team members were virgins at business. This was suggested by a girl in Richard Branson’s team.

Things To Avoid While Selecting A Business Name :

Don’t pick a name that could limit your business growth

When you pick your business name make sure that it is not too specific thag you dont have any other chance use that name in other aspects or when you expand later in your industry on to other niche markets. So when you look for a name try finding a name which could be used as a brand name that can be used along the way as your business expands

Check and see if the .com domain is available for the name

This is really important your first priority should be .com, even if it’s not available you can consider other options such as .NET, .co, .us, or .org but my suggestion is to go for the .com domain and make sure you have the domain name booked on your name as soon as possible after deciding the business name because the probability of losing it is really high & when you consider buying a domain name you can prefer the platforms such as Hostgator, Godaddy, Name.com, Domain.com & Google Domains, you can select according to your desire.
I Personally use Godaddy and Hostgator for buying my domains, go give it a try, search for your domain name.

Do a trademark search – to avoid legal issues

I have seen so many people facing legal issues when they try to grow their business because someone had already used a similar name like them and now they want to sue the business which is imitating their name .. so whenever you are ready with few names you can approach your advocate or a charted accountant and ask for confirmation that if you can use this name .. and check of there are no other businesses which trademarked the name you want to use. Trust me this can save you a lot of sleepless nights and frustration.

Check if there are no such businesses on the same name

Even if there are no businesses that trademarked the name they might have taken a business registration and even that could affect your business in the long run .. because when they want to promote and you too want to promote your business and if both you and your competitor are in the same industry your customers or prospects will be confused .. make sure you avoid such mistakes to avoid wastage of time and money.

Selecting Names with more than 3 sounds

If the name you are going to use has more than three sounds it might be harder to remember for your clients, make sure the name your choose is with is two sounds i.e recommended. You can use a name with 4 or more sounds when there is some meaning associated with it or when it is really easy to remember.
Example – Mc Donald’s – 3 sounds, Google – 2 sounds, Mozilla – 3 Sounds, Wipro – 2 sounds.

Too long name

It is really an obvious thing that lengthy names are hard to remember but that not it totally, Using a lengthy name means , lengthy business brand name , lengthy domain name, social media profile names.
Just dont forget your business name will be used every where so select it wisely by thinking long term.

Avoid Inappropriate/ controversial names

When selecting the name, keep in mind to not use ant sensitive or controversial names and symbols which can increase your risk of getting sued by some one.

Conclusion

In the end, just understand this, business names are important but not as much as the other aspects like operations, sales, and finances, etc, whatever the situation lets keep in mind an average business name with excellent business processes can sustain and become a brand in the long run than a business with an awesome name with faulty operations.
Just make sure you have put enough taught on your business name before you launch but over obsession for perfectionism can be a reason for your failure.
All the best for your latest venture.
For branding and marketing support visit : Thibstas Media