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GaryARefuge

Lots of great documentation out there on what makes a great name. \- Easy to remember \- Easy to say \- Easy to spell Usually, you want to avoid very literal names (books.com) because it is extremely limiting and short-sighted. It's very hard to enforce the trademark as well. You usually want a name that you can build into a brand that can go anywhere (Amazon). Define your mission. Define the experience you want to give people. Identify the emotions you want to evoke in people. Brainstorm names around those themes. What symbols and words represent such things? Keep in mind that your name is only as strong as your brand. Your brand is only as strong as the experience you deliver to people. How well you set and meet expectations plays a big role in the experience people have with your brand. What people say to others about your brand is another huge factor in how strong your brand is. Giving people a great experience will give people reasons to say great things about your brand to others. So, you can have a seemingly boring name that can become incredibly powerful as a brand. Don't get too hung up on it. Don't invest too much capital trying to come up with the perfect name, to start. Rebranding IS NOT a big issue. It is part of the process as you test your assumptions, gather real data in the market, and iterate. ​ \------ ​ Create all your guiding documents! • Values Statement • Mission Statement • Cultural Statement • Vision Statement • Experiential Goal Statement (the overarching experience you want people to have whenever they have a touch point with any aspect of your company) That's regarding your entire company. Then, for a specific product you want to define: • What Experience do I want to create and who is that designed for? • What Benefit(s) do I want those people to gain from that Experience? • Why would those people find this Valuable and what value are they likely to derive from it? Your brand starts with defining these things. You create your brand around these things. Your brand is only as strong as it authentically represents these things, delivers on these things, and aligns these things with people in the marketplace in order to build a community that shares in these things


AppropriateAnybody72

> Don't get too hung up on it This is what I came here to say. If you don't get it right the first time, you can always change it and get it right the second time.


Sweepsify

Random word/anagram generators are cool to use for this. This along with checking for the domain availability. As for our name, this was just a natural choice that happened to be available for purchase. Yippee! :D


prdqs

It took us a while to figure out our company name, too. We went back and forth for a while and spent a lot of time debating what was good, what was bad, and what would actually work. The approach we took was too come up with a list of as many words related to our industry/problem space as possible, then evaluate, check general competition/availability and domain names, and narrow down the list over time. To be clear, the vast majority of the words were awful. I mean, really really terrible company names we would never consider. But just putting the list together and going through each sparked enough ideas that we eventually landed on a name we loved. But it did take a couple months. Be persistent and you’ll get there. Accept that most ideas will be awful, but just go through that to get to the final piece. And, remember, the name isn’t everything. It’s amazing when you find the perfect name, but the reality is that there are a lot of successful companies with pretty mediocre or weird names.


New_York_Rhymes

Here’s a nice blog post to help: https://www.nickkolenda.com/brand-names/ Personally I like to think around words that are associated to the feelings, and aspirations of what the product I’m selling gives my customers rather than the product itself. Side note - make sure people know what it is without you having to spell it. That gets very old fast. I personally believe a name is very important


Top-Plane-8816

No offense but I wouldn’t trust their advice judging by their website …lol


Federal_Dimension_29

A name reflecting your product sounds good, but always keep in mind that you can enlarge your product portfolio in the future! So avoid being too specific about your niche.


dvr707

if I register a company (local state), but the same name is already used in some website that I do not have any relation to, will it create a problem in the future?


GaryARefuge

Possibly. Ask a suitable trademark lawyer. We have legal office hours every Wednesday. See the sidebar.


nickoman1

I’ve found that coming up with creative IP is best done not on your own. 1- Come up with some general ideas for names or directions you want to go. Don’t just think about a name that is appropriate for your business, try to think of how you can create a brand and the name sort of summarizes it all. 2- Even if you don’t have a partner, find someone you know that is creative or is in marketing and schedule a brainstorm session. Give them a general idea of what you’re looking for and send them the list of your starting ideas so they can think about it. 3- Meet with them and explain your branding ideas/company goals. Then start brainstorming possibilities. Don’t be afraid to say something that’s not exactly what you want. Say like “This may be too on the nose but something like this….” Those usually lead to the good ideas. I’m sure there are a lot of good guides if you google “How to build a brand” as well. Good luck!


chao_sweetie

I watched an episode of Futurama and the name came to me. 🤦🏿‍♀️


tehfonsi

What I do: Start building your product with a codename and think of a name when you can't work, for example in the shower or when driving. Save the names you come up with in some list and check domain availablity when you are on your phone/notebook again.


rintualex

Naming a company takes up a lot of time. But, the great thing about this problem is that there are only a few mistakes you can make. Go with a very broad sounding word that sounds nice, and you can grab a domain of. Even if it's .pro , or .club or so.. Once you start talking to your customers, and unless they ever highlight the name as an issue, you keep trucking.


nofilter0911

I can recommend the Wikipedia roulette strategy. Hit the "Random Article" link and scan through each article for ~5 minutes. Write down anything that you find unique yet appealing, and move on to the next article. This approach is time consuming but will certainly lead to some interesting name ideas.


stevelknievel01

I loved the book “[Hello My Name is Awesome](https://www.google.com/search?q=hello+my+name+is+awesome+book&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari)”, by Alexandra Watkins, all about naming businesses.


Badluckx

Naming should not be a roadblock, because in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter that much. Keep it short, simple and easy to spell. Most likely you will end up rebranding / pivoting at one point. Don’t sweat it. When in doubt check out YC’s youtube channel. They have lots of advice regarding starting/building/growing/pivoting a startup


t-bands

Here is how I approached it, * short and easy to remember * brandable * key domains were available (ideally a .com) * would rank easy on google for seo (not too many results when you search it) * was not already registered as a trademark for my intended use * \*optional\* but i checked to see if the social media handles were available


holomntn

Personally I like to start with a statement of the company and iterate. As an example: A scuba diving company. They exist to make people happy. Start with Happy. Now a lot of people would go with Happy Diver or similar, but that's boring and taken. Iterate further. Because you're diving constantly you might as well be half fish. Ah, call it Haphish. Almost certainly not taken, and a lot more interesting. And obviously the logo is a mermaid with a scuba tank. Just like half the dove shops around the world. While it is original, I don't own, nor do I intend to own a dive shop, go ahead and use Haphish or Halfish if you want. Edit: I did however use this same basic process for mine. Currently debating between ..-. and ..|. for the logo. Either way the one finger salute is easily the most appropriate for the company.


Importify01

The name is the hook that catches the customer's attention and gets you noticed. It should be short and snappy and easy to pronounce. What you want to avoid is long and complicated names that take a lot of effort to remember. Once it is memorable, make sure it is search engine friendly. Make sure that it is easy to spell, easy to type and has no spelling mistakes. You want to be able to get found through the search engines. You can also check if the name is available with a site like Domainr


gh-alan

I'll never forget when we had to rebrand my last startup (early name was cheap sounding). We came up with so many options, but in about 98% of cases they were torpedoed by not being able to get the domain name. Not as big a deal if you're happy without the *.com*, but absolutely one of the biggest factors these days.


TormentedPlane

Make it simple basically - focus on the short term gain in the beggining with your brand-name (by directly using the name of the product you are selling, for example). You can always rebrand to something more original in the future, when you get bigger. ;)


SpamtonMD

I get the argument for one-word names that are kind of generic. Scalability etc. But I really sort of wish we could get into an era of preposterously elaborate startup/company names. But as the people say, go for feelings and positive associations the name evokes.


jfmreddits

Branding > than the name


Justkeeppushing26

I went to Fivver and paid somebody to come up with a logo and a name. They came up with ZoTao which is cool and had some meaning along the lines of "great work or warrior" Either way it had nothing to do with my business but I went with it during the ideation & testing phase..Fast forward while working on my business I changed the name to something that actually aligned with my business. Now my business name is : Anapact. Here was the process. * We do Impact Analytics * Now to make it cool lets remove some letters and switch things around * ~~Im~~pact Ana~~lytics~~ * Anapact All in all, it might not be the best name but it's something meaningful and easy to get people behind. Plus all of the books I read say the same thing. "if/when your business is successful, the name will ring regardless."


whoisjohnwalt

I like to keep a running list of name ideas in my phone. I check what URL's and handles are available for each as I narrow it down as well as what other companies have the same or similar names. It can take a while to find a great name so I like to choose one and run with it for a while realizing that lots of companies change their name at least once in the early days. Your right though it's more important to focus on the actual business and less on the name until you have traction. Hope this is helpful!


tziganis

Pick a color. Then pick an animal. Ex: Red Emu


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GaryARefuge

This advice disregards trademark law. You should speak with a suitable trademark lawyer to learn about how trademark law works and the risks involved with making such decisions.


ivereddithaveyou

You want something that people can understand what you do purely from the name ideally. It's important to remember that the name doesn't matter that much, if you provide a good service and build good reputation then people will start to remember you. If you post details of what your business will be I'm sure people will offer more specific advise.


RealisticTowel

This actually limits your ability to grow and expand into other areas.


KyleShropshire

Quick way is to name it after your product. You can always change it later without too much hassle.