How To Come Up With a Company Name That People Will Remember

Coming up with the perfect company name or brand is a difficult task that practically everyone serious about branding and entrepreneurship must complete. Even if a great title does not guarantee success in the market, underestimating it can complicate your life in the future. 

How do you develop a company name that will be attractive to you and your customers but will not limit your business in the future?

Many articles and studies discuss the perfect name for your business, brand, or product. A study from the University of Alberta says that customers are inclined to sympathize with characters composed of rhythmic sounding words, such as Coca-Cola, Jelly Belly, Kit Kat or Hubba Bubba. 

However, the truth is that many other, rhythmically worse names have achieved huge success and become synonymous with a product category or even an entire industry. There are several options for choosing a name.

The most used types of names

Abstract names – neoplasms and compounds

Abstract company names represent new innovative words created by changing existing words (often from foreign or less well-known languages), combining two or more words, or creating a unique combination of sounds that have not yet been connected.

Although they provide the most space for your creativity, they are far from easy to create. However, a name made this way can bring huge benefits if you get it right. Abstract words have no associations, only those that you assign to them.

Examples of abstract names: Kodak, Xerox, Nivea, YouTube, TechCrunch, etc.

Descriptive names – descriptive

Names of companies and brands that directly describe the category in which the brand operates are called descriptive. Although they bring an advantage in the form of immediate identification of the company about the product category, they also have many disadvantages. 

Among the biggest of them are:

• Their generic nature.
• Poor distinctiveness.
• Practically impossible trademark registration.
• Unavailability of domains.
• Fixation on a specific category.

Therefore, we recommend avoiding them from the point of view of their usability.

Examples of descriptive names – General Motors, Pizza Hut, Burger King, All Toys

Names with an associative link

Associative or evocative names work because of their existing meaning. They use words that connect with naming other objects, situations, or places and attach a new, indirect meaning to them. They are a better alternative to descriptive business names because they stand above the category and have a broader meaning.

A good example is the Amazon brand, which strives to be the largest online store in the world, just as the Amazon River is the largest in the world.

Examples of names with associative links: Virgin, Amazon

Named after the name of the founder

Probably the oldest type of company or brand name is the use of the name of the founder himself. Although this type is used only sporadically nowadays, there are still cases when it is appropriate to take this approach. The most common reason is a strong knowledge of the founder’s personality before the company’s establishment. However, be careful about taking domains, names on social networks, or pronunciation or meaning in foreign languages.

Examples of names according to the name of the founder: are Ford, Dell, Schill, and Heinz.

Compressed names – Acronyms

Are you planning to launch a new brand? Then avoid the compressed name. Although this type of name is relatively easy to create, it is much more difficult to remember and make a positive association in the eyes of your customers.

The principle of applying acronyms was very popular, especially when rebranding larger companies with historically long names that were impractical and very difficult to use. Companies such as International Business Machines (IBM), America Online (AOL), Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) United Parcel Services (UPS) and many others have gone through this transformation.

Some successful brands also used a combination of the founder’s name and a compressed name (acronym). In this way, for example, the brand name DHL is created, which consists of the initial letters of the founders’ surnames (Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom, Robert Lynn).

You already know what the most used types of brand names are. Now let’s look at what specific criteria your business name should meet to have the potential to succeed.

Criteria for a good name

Uniqueness

Originality is one of the most important criteria for your company name. It allows you to differentiate yourself from the competition, becoming a faster sign in the customer’s mind. In addition, the unique name is easier to search for and will make it easier for you as an entrepreneur to work with reputation management or sentiment measurement in the online environment.

Easy to remember and pronounce

You can recognize a good name because customers can remember and pronounce it correctly. We call this ability the so-called cognitive fluency. The title should have a good rhythm (flow), and at the same time, it should be easy to pronounce, for example, in a telephone conversation. It should be easy to write and pleasant to hear.

Universality

Names tied exclusively to a product, category, or geographic location can cause problems when expanding. Think about it in advance and better avoid names like “Kvety Bratislava,” which could hold you back in the future due to the change in your portfolio. Abstract names or names with associative links are more suitable choices. At the same time, check your name’s meaning and connotations abroad.

Availability and protectability

Before making a media entry for a new title, check to see if anyone has overtaken you. If your name appears here, you will have to keep looking.

Don’t forget to verify the domains, while you should not limit yourself to the .sk extension, but also to others in case of expansion (register primarily our neighbors, i.e., .at, .pl, .cz, .hu, but also general .com or . EU). If your name is prone to typos, reserve the so-called typo domains.

Story and context

Whatever name you choose should reflect you, your company, the brand’s personality, values, vision, and mission. It should represent a story that will be attractive and support the idea of ​​your brand’s reason for existence. In addition, names with an account are remembered more quickly and sometimes stimulate a purchase.

When creating a name, do not underestimate its visuality.

To make it even easier to choose the right name for your company, you can use the following procedure:

The process of creating a title

Longlist

Write all the names you can think of. There can be tens or even hundreds of them. Put on paper everything that comes to your mind.

Shortlist

Choose the ones you like the most from the list. Please consider personal preferences and the rhythm, dynamics, or emotion they express. Then verify the selected names in the registers, and check the domains’ availability or their presence on social networks.

Native

Choose those that are easy to pronounce, memorable and likable from the available names. Say the words out loud, try to test them in a phone conversation, or ask someone to write them down.

Finals Put

in this category, the names that have passed the above filter. Then choose the best one. However, do not hesitate for long. Characters are lost significantly. Likewise, domains and profiles on social networks.

From the scope of this article, it is clear that choosing the right name that will represent your brand for many years is not easy. However, you can do it with a patient and responsible approach. And if it is still too much for you, contact a specialized company that will arrange it for you.

Also Read : The secret To a Successful Logo