It’s not easy naming a business. In fact, it’s not easy coming up with names for anything. Parents may know straight away what their offspring should be called: they gaze at their wrinkly new-born and instantly think “Trevor” or “Matilda”! But that is probably rare.
Much thought needs to go into a child’s name and, instinctively, it has to feel right. The same goes for your business.
Let’s look at two well-known brands.
How did Amazon come up with Amazon. Before that internet disrupter came along, the word Amazon conjured up rainforest, or South American rivers.
Clearly, the powers behind the brand did a lot of work before they settled on the name – or did they? In actual fact, Amazon was originally an online bookstore called Cadabra (as in Abracadabra) but founder Jeff Bezos thought the reference was too obscure. As the story goes, he started ploughing through the dictionary, wanted a word beginning with A and alighted on Amazon – so named what was to become the world’s largest book store after the world’s largest river.
What about Volkswagen, the German car brand associated with reliability. Founded in 1937, and owned by Hitler’s Third Reich, Volkswagenwerk translates as ‘the people’s car company’ evoking the nationalism of the time. An early example, perhaps, of a brand spelling out precisely who it was aimed at.
But why is a name so important? Well, it is all about those first impressions, then building that brand awareness. Get it right, and your business name – your brand name, in other words – could slip into common parlance. How often do we say we are “doing the hoovering” yet we may well be using a Dyson or Miele? And these days, with video conferencing being the communication method of choice for so many of us, we often say we are “zooming” but we might well be on Teams!
The name itself, of course, isn’t enough. Dyson alone doesn’t mean anything, but add it to the messaging (the revolutionary bagless vacuum cleaner) and the colours (remember the early models were all grey and yellow, then purple and green?) and you are starting a story.
To build you story you need to make an emotional connection with your audience. Think Nike, and you think of more than the name: you think of the swoosh, the ‘just do it’ tag and how the brand makes you feel.
But you still have to start with a name…
If you are naming a business then here are our five tips on how to go about selecting a moniker that suits your brand, your ethos and your audience.
Tip one: how does it sound when said aloud
Let’s wind back to Jeff Bezos and his rejection of Cadabra. One reason cited was the magic reference was too obscure. But a second reason – and this is key – when said aloud it could be mistaken for ‘cadaver’ and who wants their brand to have that association.
So rule one: whatever you choose, make sure it sounds OK when spoken.
Tip two: make is snappy
Short, snappy names go down better than long turgid ones. Think Apple, Nike, Coke (OK, so that’s short for Coca-Cola, but it’s still pretty short). If you have to spend ages every time you give out your company name, spelling it and respelling it, then it’s probably the wrong one for you.
Tip three: avoid homophones
Here we are talking about picking a name that sounds like another but is spelled differently.
So, for example, you might think it’s a good idea to called you company Dye-son (especially if you produce dye products) but it really isn’t. And in fact, you could potentially get into legal difficulties because the name is so similar to Dyson.
Also avoid names that sound similar to or rhyme with the name of a bigger, more famous business. When people are looking for you, Google will probable just send searchers to the famous brand and your site will literally get lost in translation.
Tip four: Is the name available
If you are setting up a limited company, then it will need registering with Companies House but you also need to make sure you can secure the right domain name for your business – perhaps several domain names.
Interestingly, B&Q’s domain isn’t B&Q.com, it’s actually diy.com, although of course any searches for B&Q will naturally point to the correct website.
There are many more interesting suffixes now than in the ‘old days’ when the choice was pretty much limited to .com or .co.uk. Now there are some really creative ones like .tech .learning and even .diamonds. At Danny&co our name is incorporated into the domain name – take a look!
Tip five: getting the name right
There’s no magic solution for this, but here are a few ideas for you to try:
1, Brainstorm. On your own, or with your team, or with your branding experts, bung everything down on a mind map, or post-it notes, or scraps of paper – however, daft, write it down. Something may emerge, some themes may come to the fore. Use lots of paper, and lots of coloured pens, have fun!
Take a break, then go back and look at what you have produced. What stands out? What feels right? What feels wrong (and stick those ones in the recycling).
2, What about using your name? It’s worked brilliantly for so many brands: Marks & Spencer, John Lewis Partnership, Ben & Jerrys. You don’t even have to use your name, if you don’t want to. After all, the pub chain JD Wetherspoon isn’t named after the founder, Tim Martin. He picked the JD from a Dukes of Hazzard character and Wetherspoon was the surname of one of his teachers in New Zealand (cool name, we think).
3, Combine two words. This has worked for brands like Facebook, Microsoft, YouTube… could it work for your business? You take two words that mean something to your sector and mash or combine them. So maybe something like Big Trucks (for haulage), Smart Suits (clothing).
4, Misspell a name (intentionally of course), like Flickr or Vimeo, it can make the name more memorable simply because it is so nearly like another word.
Of course, for help you could also resort to the dictionary (it was good enough for Amazon) or thesaurus and check out synonyms. Also, there are many free resources out there that help you generate ideas for business names. Worth looking at, if only for a starting point.
And if you really are stuck, you could hand the whole exercise over to professionals and engage an advertising agency or branding expert.
Whatever method you choose, remember: the name is just the starting point – then you need to build your brand.
To chat to the Danny&co. team about all things branding, or if you want to run some ideas for names past us, then do get in touch.
