The task of finding a name for your brand may seem like something you could leave as an afterthought, after all, you have your product or service, you know your market and everything is set to go.

WRONG.

Think of choosing your new business name as important as naming your child – assume it’s going to be with you forever, since your business will be extremely successful and will certainly impact on the way that people respond and interact with them. Unfortunately, there is no simple baby name book to the rescue in the case of your brand and believe us, it’s a jungle out there. That’s why we’ve put together a guide, to help you navigate your way through and recognise the potential pitfalls.

Make a stand with your new brand.

As with most difficult tasks, there is always a paid service that will offer to save your bacon. Alternatively, you can also ask AI to find you a quick solution, as you can with practically anything these days. Depending on the nature of your business and potential market value, this may or may not be of interest to you in terms of investment.

According to Entrepreneur, hiring a professional to name your brand could cost you up to £55k. In the UK, Peek say it can cost you anything from  £1,000 to £50,000, depending on the complexity of the project. If you do a quick google search, you’ll quickly come across many different platforms offering this service such as Atom, Eat my words and Spellbrand to name just a few (the clues are in the names). Monika Naming, for example, claim that for $5,000 you can have a highly creative brand name in a matter of days powered by AI.

But like with most things, you CAN do it for free.

Since we are assuming that you are in the process of trying to name your new product or recent business launch and not a multi-billion dollar deal enterprise (although who knows?) we will assume that you are not planning on investing a great deal of money into the naming of your company. That doesn't mean that you should take that task lightly. Getting it wrong could leave you:

→ With no domain name for your website
→ Potential clients having no idea what you offer or worse,
→ assume you sell something completely different

Therefore, you will quite probably be trawling the internet for ideas and most likely struggling to settle on a final name not only that is functional, but that you actually like.

Have no fear, there are many different strategies and tactics that can be used to come up with a powerful name that will stick in the minds of your target market.

1. A Name is for Life, Not Just for the Launch

You may be forgiven for thinking that it doesn’t matter if you decide to change your company name a little later down the line when you feel a little more inspired.

The main reason we wouldn't recommend it is simple:

Any change to the business at this level is likely to cause bureaucratic chaos.

Just imagine how tricky it was to set up the business and imagine repeating this, with the additional stress of undoing what is already undone. Consider it a bit like getting a divorce, with everyone watching your every move...

Other than that, there are a fair few other key reasons we wouldn't recommend it:

🙃 Brand consistency matters - A strong brand identity builds customer loyalty, and changing your name confuses your audience (who wants to be writing 'formerly known as' on EVERY email, unless of course you are Prince?).
🙃 Affect your web traffic - Any SEO (search engine optimisation) juice you have created will be lost.
🙃 It's not cheap - Unilever spent an estimated £2 million to change Jif to Cif in the UK market alone (Wall Street Journal)
🙃 Domain name availability - you really should buy the domain for your brand straight away, if you don’t, you may find that it becomes unavailable later down the line.
🙃 Legal and bureaucratic chaos – Changing your name means redoing everything from your website to legal registrations, trademarks, and social handles

Essentially, a brand is, well, literally a brand - the word brand means ‘to burn’ and comes from the traditional act of producers literally burning their mark onto a product ref. In short, chopping and changing brand names is as complicated and a million times more expensive than a full sleeve tattoo cover-up.

That said, many famous big brands have changed their names, such as Backrub, Research in Motion and Brad’s Drink (read here to find out what they became).

2. Trademarking issues

Unlike naming a child or pet, you can’t simply pluck a name out of thin air and use it freely (there are few things free in this life). You might love the idea of having a pet called Mr Squiffy, or a child called Diamond-sparkles and that’s wonderful, but in the world of business, there are a few more hurdles to jump. Actually, I decided to check trademarks for Mr Squiffy and guess what? It’s already registered.

You can check existing registered trademarks (in the UK) by searching on the official government website and following instructions. In the case of Mr Squiffy, you can see that it’s already been registered, according to the Intellectual Property Office, as it has a registered trademark number. Make up your own name to avoid trademark problems.

3. Emotional value

This bit is for family and friends. Check the name with everyone you can, all ages, genders, everyone.

We used 'Beers in the Barrio' for an event organised weekly by Makers of Barcelona, a coworking space to call home, because we wanted both locals and nomadic coworkers to connect in one space. Barrio means neighbourhood in Spanish, we could have equally called it 'Beers in the Barri-o' to be more inclusive of the Catalan community in the area.

Visualise the name:

→ What images does it conjure up, are they positive or negative?
→ Check the emotional response to the name – what do people think the brand represents, how do they imagine it?
→ What products or services does it sell? You have to check with humans on this one because the lexical complexity of words sometimes cannot explain why some words may sound like porn star names instead of an organic food brand (sorry).

Remember also that putting two names together (like your first pet’s name and your first street name) can conjure up strange images.

4. Association is the antidote to creation

It’s really important to check that your name doesn’t have any kind of negative association that you’re not aware of. That's tricky. This may sound pretty ridiculous, but you’d be amazed at the number of mistakes made simply by not having a quick google before deciding on a company name.

Often, this issue can be resolved by checking with family and friends – it can be a generation gap or cultural gap that causes you to name your business after the Spanish meaning for a Roman orgy, because, quite understandably, you had no idea of the meaning of the word in another language. The same can happen with cultural references, without mentioning names, a friend named his indie band after a bold and sex-obsessed tom-cat, entirely by accident. The Mitsubishi Pajero is a personal favourite - it was absolutely NOT called that in Spain.

What do you want your name to communicate? It should reinforce the basis of your business values/concept/product. Entrepreneur has the following advice:

Firstly, you’ll already be aware that there are many different types of a company name, that is, that they may have different linguistic and semantic routes. According to Marketingmo the common types are the following:

• Use the founder or inventor’s name (Ford)
• Describe what you do (British Airways)
• Describe an experience or image (Whizz Air)
• Take a word out of context (Apple)
• Make up a word (Etsy)

Here are some more I added to the list:

• The double name: Bread bread (for an artisanal company) and here’s the Spanish version too, PanPan. It’s all about emphasis on the word to bring a whole new meaning to it.
• Anagrams: A word, phrase, or sentence formed from another by rearranging its letters 
• Palindromes: A word or a number or a sequence of words that can be read the same way from either direction, be it forwards or backwards.

And don’t forget, just like Brit point out, it’s not a coincidence that Steve Jobs picked the name Apple (it ranked higher in the phonebook than Atari). Tinder actually has a much more innocent origin than perhaps you might expect, coming from a quick consultation of a thesaurus for ‘matchbox.’

So…to get to naming your brand. This guide is by no way definitive since the subject of brand naming is a very much debated issue. Here, we would like to present you with a process that does its best to cover all aspects of business naming strategies in an attempt to leave no corner uncovered and to get you to think about your name from a variety of perspectives – business-related and otherwise. We would recommend that you start the process from the beginning and try to find what works creatively for you.

If you prefer a professional opinion, at Studio Ayl, we also offer a basic naming package as part of our complete branding (told you nothing in life is free).

Ready? So here are the stages we suggest to come up with that all-powerful name in the event that it doesn’t come to you whilst you’re sat on the bog.

1# Write a list of company names you like and research how they came up with them. Since you’re brand falls under a specific industry, it would be best to investigate other similar businesses to see what you’re up against and automatically assume that all the ‘good’ names are probably taken. Here is where AI could come in handy (if it doesn't start telling you porkies, that is). Equally, the same goes for the reverse task – check out all the dodgy names and why you don’t like them.

2# Write a list of 100-200 words that you associate with your business. Don't think too much about it, this exercise should flow quite fast. This could be anything from values to products and services, even words relating to your target market, emotions, values or anything of the sort. Remember that you want your brand to sound, ideally, a little bit like what it actually is.

Note: Brand Archetypes can be a powerful tool when coming up with your brand’s personality.

3# Make a list of keywords relating to your company, that highlight how your business differentiates from others in the sector. The key word here being DIFFERENTIATES. If we have another client who says they want to be like Apple as a reference... You may find that you offer something that represents a gap in the market, and you’ll definitely want to and absolutely should take advantage of that.

4# Have a scroll through Wordporn if you like more ‘intelligent’ names with unexpected meanings.

Leave no domain unturned, no google search unchecked, no AI chat's ear un-chewed. In terms of the interest in growing as a business itself, you want to make sure that the obvious is covered. The domain name must be available. Yes, it’s a pain in the bottom if it’s not, but believe us, if it is, you’ll be saving yourself a whole load of hassle. In fact, some brands may start by checking for available domains BEFORE writing the lists, as essentially failure at this stage could stop you in your tracks.

Use any of the following sites either for initial inspiration, or to check availability. Or any web hosting service, such as Go Daddy, Wix, Squarespace, Framer, etc.

1. Leandomainsearch
2. Domainr
3. Buydomains

Google your name

If you didn’t do it earlier, Google your name and variations of it. You don’t want anything negative associated with it, too many similar business names, or any scandals that could be confused as pertaining to your business activity.

Check a thesaurus AND a dictionary

In the case that you didn’t just invent your brand name, it’s always a fun task to see what other words are associated with the name. You may even find a better name in the process. It’s also a great way to make sure that you are 100% sure of what the name means. The word ‘Disperse’ for example can be associated with the dissemination of seeds and growth, but can equally refer to a person with a scatty mind in other contexts.

Change the language

Let’s face it, some languages just sound sexier and more appetising. Try translating the name to see how it sounds in another mother tongue to see if you can add even more jazz to your brand identity. N.B. Be VERY careful to complete the previous step in this case and the following one…

My favourite of all the tests, and one on which I subsequently failed epically by using a part of my name for my own branding. The Bar test.

I) The Bar Test: Imagine that you’ve just registered your new business name and you pop down to the pub to celebrate your victory in life, but there’s a live concert on. Someone asks you what your new enterprise is called, so you shout it in their ear.

Will they be able to:

1. Remember it?
2. Spell it?
3. Pronounce it?

My favourite name change, for this reason, is the case of what Brits will lovingly remember as the brand of the household cleaning fluid, Jif. In 2000, after over 25 years on the market, Jif became Cif overnight because other European countries had a hard time pronouncing the brand.

II) Readability test: Readable reaches a whole new level of geek in terms of name choosing, however, well worth a quick check. Pop the name into the online tool to check readability – the site also provides you with some excellent little SEO tips and tricks. If you like this kind of thing, you can run the name through a few other scientific tools for the ultimate check (we're a bit geeky).

III) Common Sense: Invented names should be short - like Etsy and eBay. Any longer and the human capacity to use them begins to fade. I really like the artist SBTRKT but I REALLY struggle to spell it correctly, since it has no vowels.

Sometimes, it all goes wrong, just… well, because.

From ISIS chocolates to the YMCA, we can’t always predict what external influences may bring our brand name down in flames ref. So, don’t be disheartened if you find it all to be a bit of a struggle.

If we can help you with naming your brand, just give us a shout 👋

This is an updated rewrite from the original article we wrote for Printsome, titled 'How to come up with an authentic name for your clothing brand.'