What’s in a name?

When I talk about branding, you will often hear me talking about the more visual elements such as fonts, colour palettes and logos.

But, when starting a business – and a brand – from scratch, you will also have that task of giving it a name.

If it was as straight-forward as just picking a name, that would make it slightly easier but there are so many other things to consider, such as is it available as a website domain or on social media as a username/handle? Is it available at Companies House? Is it trademarked already?

Brainstorming

What leaves you inspired? Where could you look for inspiration for a company name?

Here are some things to consider when brainstorming names:

• Does it get across what you do?
• Is it memorable?
• Will everyone know how to spell it?
• Should you use your own name somewhere in the business name?

Ideally a company name should reflect what it is you do, but this isn’t essential. There are lots of big brands whose names actually tell you very little about their products or services – think Virgin, Nike or Apple.

It needs to be memorable though. Shorter names of one or two words are easier to remember. It also needs to be easy to spell, or you will end up spelling it out to everybody! Or worse, they won’t be able to find you online and could end up going to a competitor.

Should you use your own name?

When it comes to using your own name as part or all of your business name, you need to consider your involvement in the business and your future plans. Will it always just be you? Are you happy to be at the centre of your business? Are you happy to build the whole company around you? It might make your company appear smaller. Or it might actually invoke a great deal of trust with potential clients to have your name in there, you might be well-known and well-respected in your industry. So, there are a few pros and cons to consider.

Keep it simple

We’ve established that keeping the name to one or two words that are easy to spell will make your business name more memorable, so I think the key thing to do when finding the right company name for you is to keep it simple. And if you want to be clever, try a cheeky pun or some alliteration.

Nike and Apple, for example, are simple and easy to remember. Alliteration like Coca-Cola, PayPal, Dunkin' Donuts and Costa Coffee all sound great too, don’t they? And, of course, Logo Lady!

Acronyms and inventions

I'm not a massive fan of acronyms personally but there are some huge brands out there that use them – for example BBC, IBM and AXA. Do be careful though, that whatever initials/acronyms you use are easy to remember and not too long.

You could always look at inventing a word too. Google, Groupon, Ikea and Sony all invented their own words. Or you could consider changing the spelling of an existing word, like Netflix, Reddit or Xero.

Future proofing

Think long term. Is your company name going to still represent you in the future? For example, if Amazon had started out as The Online Bookstore, which is essentially what they were back then, they would have struggled to grow. But Jeff Bezos had the foresight to think bigger and pick a name that would grow and change with the company.

Process of elimination

Once you've considered all of the above, grab a piece of paper and a pen and just throw all your ideas down on it - as many as you can get down in one sitting. Then filter. Chuck out the ideas that are not so good and build upon the ones that are. And if you need more help, check out my How to Design a Logo course. The course comprises six modules, with one of them devoted entirely to naming your company.

To find out more, visit www.logolady.com or email hello@logolady.com.