Advertising campaigns and the promotion of the company as a whole are built around the name of the brand, product, or service. It is how you are recognized and remembered. It is important not only to come up with a big name but also to think about how it will be used in marketing and communications. That’s why naming is one of the key processes when you start a business. So coming up with a brand name is complicated, time-consuming, and expensive. From this article, you will learn in detail how naming works, what companies need it for, and what modern concepts and principles of naming exist.

Why a company needs naming

Developing a name is the starting point in creating and reinforcing a brand image in the market. A company name is needed to stand out from the competition and be remembered by the audience.

Successful names evoke a lively response from the audience. Remember what emotions you get when you mention the name Bounty? You don’t even need to specify that we’re talking about chocolate because you’ve already thought of «heavenly delight» and delicate coconut flavor. And at the same time, you remembered the positive brand image you had previously formed.

The name is the key to the whole positive brand experience. Naming determines what place you will occupy in the market and the minds of consumers, how you will set yourself apart from your competitors, and build communication with consumers. So developing a brand name is a critical process for businesses that want to succeed. 

Developing a brand name

In isolation, a name is a simple set of letters and words. Only in the context of the whole brand is the real meaning of naming revealed. No matter how cool-sounding and insanely original the name is, it must, first of all, fit the positioning and target audience of the company. Therefore, to create a name for the brand, it is necessary to connect marketing, linguistics, and jurisprudence.

  • Marketing helps research audience demands, competitive offers, and market trends.
  • Linguistics is needed to develop a name and analyze it at the semantic level (including the translation into other languages).
  • Jurisprudence helps to assess the possibility of registration of the name at the legislative level with the possibility of subsequent protection.

It is important to understand that there is no clear algorithm for creating a successful name. It all depends on the creative thinking and imagination of the creators. Nevertheless, there are several basic naming techniques:

  1. Naming after yourself. Everyone is familiar with the brand Gucci or Swarovski. So if you have an original name or an interesting last name, you can use them as a company name.
  2. Borrowing fictional or historically significant names. In literature, history, or mythology, you can find a lot of attractive options for the name of the company: «Captain Nemo» for a business related to marine products, «Hemingway» for a bar, or Tesla for electric cars. But in such cases, it’s important that the name relates to your company’s business and that there are no legal impediments to use.
  3. Associative Naming. Names can be made up by association with what you do. For example, the bookstore «By the Shelves» the cat cafe «Fluffy Paws.» Sometimes the association is reinforced by a metaphor («Door World») or a superlative («Maxihouse»).

Modern brand name development relies on several of the most commonly used models. These include Word compounding, Narrative name, Neologism, Culturalonym, and Abbreviation (or truncation). 

Tips on how to choose a company name

First of all, take note of the simple fact – the name you choose in 99% of cases will be used as a domain name (or part thereof) for the official site. And this should be taken into account in the process of brainstorming, as, checking the domains for availability, you can immediately screen out some of the options that will not work. Well, now turn directly to the main tips.

Uniqueness and memorability

Every business owner wants to get for his company a name that stands out from the crowd; it was catchy and memorable. By the way, we are talking about these two components because the unique name to come up with is a lot easier than as easy to remember. So do not try to solve this problem in one evening.

Look to the future

Maybe right now, a name that includes your city seems very appealing, but think about what happens if you want to go national or even international in the future?

That’s right, most likely, regardless of the scale and quality of work, in the eyes of clients, you will still be associated with a regional player, who obviously should not be trusted with expensive projects.

Simplicity and ease of pronunciation

Forget about fictitious words and meaningless phrases. Give up acronyms that only you understand and mean nothing to most people. Success – it’s when the name you invented can easily pronounce your grandmother, and remember – a student in first grade.

Don’t limit yourself

No one can predict how your business will evolve in the future. So avoid names that could potentially limit your business by not allowing you to expand your product line. If you only sell sofas now, there’s no guarantee that your store won’t grow into a full-fledged furniture supermarket in the future.

Positive associations

Even if you come up with a beautiful nonsense idea, an important point remains – it has to sound beautiful. And this is even more true when it comes to meaningful names. Hardly anyone wants to buy chicken sets in a stall with a sign saying «Killed Broiler».

Combine words

Perhaps a fascinating way to pick a name for a company is to generate an almost infinite number of results. Try combining words that clearly describe the niche you’re working in with the ones you usually associate it with. Another option is to use translations of keywords in other languages and the same combinations.

Other people’s opinions are not always a good thing

It may seem logical to you that when you think up a name for your company, you should involve as many people as possible – friends, acquaintances, and relatives. But as a result, there may be more problems than good. More often than not, the decision by consensus and a wide range of opinions leads to the choice of not the best but the most neutral and «safe» name. 

Brevity and nice sounding

The name should not be concentrated on too much information. A bit exaggerated, of course, but the point you get – it is desirable that the name consists of one, a maximum of two words. And it would be easier to print on a business card.

Conclusion

The most important thing to know about naming a brand is that it’s not the name or even the design that makes a company successful. It is the product and the service that make it successful. If the product is cool, people will buy it, no matter how weird its name is. People can remember any name and get used to it. But they won’t buy a bad product a second time. So the first thing to focus on is the quality of the product and then the name of the company.