Company naming hurts. Here are 9 great sites that make it hurt less.

Let’s face it, brand naming is tough. It’s hard to come up with names that aren’t already taken, hard to know which of the options you brainstormed are the strongest, and then, it’s hard to finally choose one and abandon the others. If you’re trying to do it yourself, you’ll need all the help you can get, so we’ve gathered some of our favorites here for you.

#1. Igor’s Company naming guide
Igor International, one of the world’s top naming firms, has put together an excellent guide to company naming. They generously offer it in two formats: “soul crushing” (122 pages) and “moderately irritating” (28 pages).

#2. Igor’s brand naming tools
In addition to their excellent company naming guide, Igor also provides a variety of useful company naming tools, including taxonomy charts, theory pieces, studies in effective brand naming, and their brand naming blog.

#3. Catchword company naming tools
For the last seven years, Catchword has been blogging about company naming and product naming. In addition, they’ve put together a great set of naming tools, including educational videos, a brand name visualizer, and an excellent brand naming manual.

#4. Wordlab
Since 1998, Wordlab has been one of the most active communities in the company naming industry. With lists of more than 25,000 name ideas, active forums, nine different name generators, and an active blog, Wordlab is a reliable source of inspiration and ideas.

#5. A Hundred Monkeys naming school
A Hundred Monkeys offers an interesting and regularly-updated blog. One of its best features is their “naming school,” which gathers some of the most useful and insightful posts on company naming together.

#6. Lexicon brand naming blog
The company that created the names BlackBerry, Dasani, Scion, OnStar, PowerBook, and Swiffer offers a compelling and in-depth series of blog posts about company naming.

#7. Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS)
While the system is somewhat cryptic and difficult to interpret, a little practice will enable you to quickly discover whether a new company name you’re considering has any obvious existing competition.

#8. Domainr
Once you’ve got a short list of names you’re interested in, Domainr will allow you to quickly check their availability, as well as providing variations you might not have considered.

#9. Yutongo company naming tools
Yutongo, an idea creation company, offers a variety of interesting brand naming tools, including “Magic Letters,” “Nameland,” and “Word Salad.”

If you make it through all those resources and you’re still not feeling it, let us know. We’ve done several naming projects and would be happy to help!