A clever, memorable name can make a potential client think about the company for a few extra moments, which may be all you need to get the edge on your competitors.
1. Determine how important the name really is
Having a clever name isn’t always important. Some companies thrive in industries revolving around government contracts, bidding wars, business friendships, etc., and their name is often just a unique identifier to be placed on legal paperwork.
However, for most companies, their name can be an integral part of their marketing process. A clever, memorable name can make a potential client think about the company for a few extra moments, which may be all you need to get an edge on your competitors.
2. Stand out
The most common mistake made when naming a new business is making it sound like other companies in the industry. This is based on anxiety about whether the new business will be taken seriously. In reality, it’s critical for you to stand apart from your competition and to look at your competitors as examples of what to avoid.
Your company name should feel like asking someone on a date. You should worry about it. You should be nervous. You should be afraid it might be taken the wrong way. You should be afraid of rejection. Indeed, sometimes you will be turned down; but when the answer is “yes,” you’ll be glad you were bold enough to ask.
3. Avoid generic surnames
Unless you’ve got a truly fascinating and memorable family name, or you’re building the company around your own personal brand, it’s usually best to leave it out of the mix.
Examples of what to avoid: Hewlett-Packard, Johnson & Johnson, Archer-Daniels-Midland, Haliburton, Morgan Stanley, Lockheed Martin
4. Avoid descriptive names
Traditional brand naming wisdom long held that your company name should describe what you do so people would quickly understand your business. While good advice at the time, this principle now hurts more than it helps.
These days, there’s plenty of context to help customers figure out what you do. You don’t need to name your new software firm, say, “Texas Software Group,” because people will be finding you by searching Google for “software companies in texas” or by looking you up in the local phone book under the appropriate heading. They’ll often know what you do before you ever talk to them.
Instead of trying to overburden the name by making it do everything at once, take advantage of other ways to explain your business (your business card, your website, your elevator speech, etc.), and liberate the company name from being used to engage and fascinate potential customers.
Examples of what to avoid: American Airlines, United Health, United Parcel Service, United Technologies, International Paper, Northwestern Mutual, Computer Science, Public Service Enterprise, General Mills, International Business Machines, Bank of America, Waste Management, Progress Energy, Continental Airlines, United Auto Group, Fidelity National, Automatic Data Processing, Southwest Airlines, United Health Services, Interstate Bakeries, Advanced Micro Devices, American Financial Group
5. Avoid acronyms
We all know there are too many acronyms in the world already. Don’t contribute to the alphabet soup by coming up with your own.
Examples of what to avoid: BASF, IBM, GE, BMW, AT&T, TIAA-CREF, AFLAC, SBC, CVS, ABC, CNN, MBNA, MGM
6. Avoid faux latin
Latin-like names sound great, and they’re easy to trademark because you can make one up that nobody has used before. Unfortunately, these great qualities have resulted in an overabundance of such names over the past few years. Whenever in doubt, companies lean toward Faux Latin to save the day.
Examples of what to avoid: Abertis, Calibrus, Novartis, Vocera, Nutiva, Pentium, Accordis, Atomica, Altria, Valero, Nantero, Aventis, Axius, Innovene, Veriton
7. Avoid faux latin (Cont’d): -nt names
Without question, this subset of Faux Latin is the biggest joke in corporate naming.
Examples of what to avoid: Agilent, Lucent, Acquient, Alliant, Aquent, Reliant, Thrivent, Aucent, Covisint, Guidant, Consilient, Levilant, Naviant, Conexant, Candescent, Telegent
8. Avoid spaceless names
It was clever the first half dozen times it was done. After that, it was trite.
Examples of what to avoid: RetroBox, SimpleFire, MessageOne, BlueArc, BeSonic, TeamWorks, ChevronTexaco, MetLife, BellSouth, AutoNation, FleetBoston, PacifiCare, FedEx, InterActive, AutoZone, WellChoice, RadioShack, LandAmerica, HighBeam, JetBlue, BlackBerry, FatSplash
9. Avoid “Tech Power Synergy” Names
This type of name was saturated even before the dot-com area, so your chances of using it effectively are almost non-existent now.
Examples of what to avoid: Certegy, Spherion, Viacom, Sysco, Intel, Avnet, Centex, Omnicom, Dynegy, Cinergy, Qualcomm, Omnicare, Biotechonomy, Initech, as well as e-anything, i-anything, or anything.com.
10. Find examples to emulate
Search out examples of great, evocative, powerful, memorable, witty names, and keep a list of them handy. They’ll give you avenues for finding new names, and a familiarity that will help you spot the right name when you see it.
My own partial list of names I admire: Ludicorp, Skype, Vigilante, Old Navy, Broad Daylight, Cruel World, Breadbox, Front Porch, Ithaka, Alfalfa, Left Field, Bandwagon, Chuckwalla, Clutch, Iroko, Ironweed, Jamcracker, Jamoka, Makoro, Steelhead, Talisman, Zatso, Subway, Snapple, Oreo, Opera, Firefox, Virgin, Wendy’s, Jack in the Box, Caterpillar, Banana Republic, Restoration Hardware, Stingray, Safeway, The Gap, Staples, Chubb, Sprint, Anthem, Fifth Third, Apple, Amazon, Ikon, Starbucks, Quiznos, Jetboil, Rhino, Rivet, Method, Smartwater, Octopus, Heartstring, Antidote, Igor, Gulliver, Moreover
Very good article…BUT Avnet is a family name…Charles Avnet started company 1921 selling radio parts in NY City. You are not the first person faked out.
Al: Good catch! I didn’t realize that was a family name. Thanks for the tip!
for launching company in retail field provide some name .
If company started on these word -p ,y,d is so good for us
What’s a good name for a lip balm?
Ryan, I’m going to forward your question to Kim Higdon, the world’s leading authority on lip balm naming. Please stand by.
Hi James
What’s a good name for a medical services company in Sub Saharan Africa
Thanks
Hi,
Very good article!
What’s a great name for an architecture and design company?
Thanks.
Im looking to set up a joinery and building company but i want a real catchy name. Im 20 years old so something young and catchy would be great.
Thanks
hii..!!
can u help me 2 give great and unique name for Fiba Network support and computer maintenance? in East African some where called Tanzania
‘coz i need to open my company which support that issue.
I need your help and some advice from you.
sorry for my language ‘coz am not good on write.
is there aby think wrong with the names such as Fast Trading and Services? i want to name that to my company soon. please advise.
Why does everyone seem to think Marketing agencies should provide them company names for free?
i need your help in naming company, i would like to start small company in Uganda that is in east Africa . but i will be dealing in saber cafe, and studio, plus dealing in fresh milk that is daily and fresh meat that is dealing in fresh meat . thanks for your advise .
so at one point you say avoid spaceless names, then on your list of favorite name you list no less than six such names, this is what i call article fail.
hai i want to start computer hardware shop so i decided AITECH is the uniqname so is it right name to pronounce easyly tell me fast
PLEASE provide a good name..i deal in cleaning of grains
HI JAMES,
i have heard a lot about your dedication towards business
i just want to open a company,
i do real estate,buying and selling of cars,computer service,managing events.
so kindly suggest me a good company name for these collective business.
waiting for your reply
thank you
Great article… I just have one question… when using examples of what NOT to do, why do you list companies that are extremely successful? If naming my company somehting dumb gets me as successful as HP, Alcatel-Lucent, or half of the companies you listed, isn’t it worth it to have a dumb name?
Bill, that’s a frequent question. Naming doesn’t make or break a company, but it can stack the deck in your favor. There are plenty of successful companies with bad names, just as there are successful companies with bad CEOs, bad websites, bad marketing, bad processes, etc. Still, if you can make all those things good, it helps! (The other thing to keep in mind is that many of the successful companies started in an era where some of those names weren’t yet cliches, so they sneaked in under the wire. What worked 50 years ago might not work for a new startup today.)
You may want to re-title the article: 10 Ways I Justify Calling My Company ‘Forty’
I agree with the other guy, you listed a ton of great, admirable enough companies, many of them with catchy names, many with names that give a great feeling of their services and culture, and on and on. Great article idea, yet……
It can help to think about company names almost like baby names. In one era, a name like “Edith” may have been completely normal, but over time it acquired connotations of being old and frumpy. If you try naming your baby Edith now, people are going to treat her differently than they would have in, say, 1920.
The larger point of the article is that it’s worth looking beyond the knee-jerk reaction of “Successful companies have names like GE, HP, and IBM,” and extrapolating that to be successful, you should also give your company an acronym name. What worked for them may not work for you, because the times and contexts are very different now, and the competitive landscape has changed dramatically.
Most of the categories I listed here aren’t intrinsically bad. They’re simply clichés that reduce the chances of that company’s name actually standing out in the minds of consumers. (“Apple” has a natural appeal that “IBM” doesn’t.)
This was a great article despite some of the criticism. Thanks for writing it!
my husband would like to start a marketing company . can you suggest a good name