It seems like it should be relatively easy to come up with a great company name, but it usually isn’t!
There are a couple of challenges to coming up with a great company name out of the gate. For example, almost no name is great until you do something with it! You could find the most clever, short, easy to say name and it won’t be “great” until you’ve done something with it to make it great! Another challenge is that there are already a lot of companies with a lot of great names, so for you to come up with a unique, standout company name is quite difficult. Complicating matters further is the fact that you’ll likely want to try to get the URL (website) for the business name, and many of those have already been reserved, too … not to mention the associated social media names!!
So, what SHOULD you do to come up with a great name for your company?
First, let’s talk about some of the characteristics of “great” company names:
- Shorter is usually better.
- Easy to remember is always better.
- Easy to say is a positive attribute.
- Resulting in an acronym that makes sense and meets the other attributes is a plus.
- Not offensive is almost always a plus, unless offending is part of your strategy.
- Unique, particularly in your industry.
- Doesn’t violate anyone else’s intellectual property, such as trademark.
- The URL (web address) or something very close to it that makes sense is available in the .com version.
- The social media sites that you plan to use most have the name, or something close, available.
- Its relevance is not dependent on a trend that could disappear at any time.
There are more, but the list above is a good place to start. Now, let’s see if we can add some more ideas and clarity, so you can come up with a great company name for your venture.
We’ll take them in order.
- Keep it short. For example, Coke works. It’s a lot better than calling your company “That Sweet Caramel Drink Company”. That said, there may be situations where you want to go with a longer company name. Use your judgment and market research and feedback for your particular industry, in the context of the products and services you expect to offer.
- Keep it easy to remember. The reasoning for this is pretty obvious — you’d like to have prospective customers remember your company’s name when they’re about to make a purchase or recommend a company to a friend. Here’s a good Forbes article on making your company name memorable.
- Keep it easy to say. This one is straightforward. The easier it is to say, the more likely people will be to say it, even to themselves. That will likely also affect how easy it is to remember.
- Keep it acronym friendly. This is not to say you want people to use the acronym rather than your company name, but it is to say that you don’t want the acronym to be anything offensive or odd. This is obviously not an issue if the company name is a single word.
- Keep it unoffensive. It’s understood that entrepreneurs sometimes make their company name somewhat (or a lot) offensive in order to draw attention to it and stand out. This is generally not a great idea. If anything, perhaps make an offering name a bit offensive (that’s often not even a great idea), but not the overall name of the company.
- Keep it unique. It will be tough to come up with a company name that’s completely unique. Most important, though, is that it’s unique in your industry. Often times, the easiest way to make the name unique is to use an invented word. This doesn’t always make sense, and usually you lose the chance to make the name descriptive, but sometimes it is the way to go.
- Keep it legal. You don’t want to end up in litigation because you’ve violated someone else’s trademark (for example). Worse yet, you don’t want to go through all the effort of setting up a website and putting together all your sales and marketing materials, then realize that you’ve violated another company’s intellectual property. You’ll need a lawyer to determine conclusively, or as conclusively as possible, that the company name you’ve come up with works legally, but at a minimum, take the initial steps of doing a Google search and checking the U.S. Patent And Trademark Office basic trademark search.
- Keep it website friendly. Check to make sure the URL (website address) is available, ideally in the .com version. You can check this out at GoDaddy or any number of sites. If the exact .com version is not available, find something close. As with the company name, keep it short and memorable if possible.
- Keep it social media friendly. Check to make sure the name is available on the key social media sites where you intend to market and promote your company and your products and services. You can use sites such as Namechk or Checkusernames for that research.
- Keep it relevant. Again, this is pretty straightforward. You don’t want to name your company based on something trendy that could disappear at the drop of a hat. If you’re going to name something based on a trend, you’ll want to save that for a particular product, service, or promotion, but the company name should be able to stand the test of time.
Good luck as you endeavor to come up with a great name for your company. It won’t necessarily be easy, but then again, few things worth doing are easy.
Image by Markus Winkler from Pixabay
