7 Proved Ways To Choose a Strong Brand Name
Most of the world’s leading brand names can be split into seven different categories. Which category suits your brand best?
A successful brand must have a strong name. Whether it’s a car company, a washing machine manufacturer, a diet, or a mobile game, the name should stand out and evoke the right associations and emotions. It should sound cool and be easy to pronounce. Not an easy task, right?
The Difficulty in Choosing a Brand Name
Choosing a name for your company is one of the more challenging things to do. Often, you only have one chance to get it right, so there’s every reason not to rush past this step.
If it’s a large company, you can always hire a brand agency. If you’re a smaller player, you often have to do the job yourself, and in those cases, there’s good reason to be inspired by how others have approached the subject.
7 Ways to Choose a Brand Name
Coming up with a brand name that stands out and creates the right associations can be challenging, especially considering it also needs to be short.
By examining the top 100 highest valued brands in 2024, I could conclude that:
- 53 percent of the brands consist of six letters or fewer.
- Only 19 percent consist of ten letters or more.
- The average length is 6.94 letters.
So what ways are there to find a brand name both unique, strong and short? Looking at the biggest brands, most can be divided into one of these seven categories:
1. Brand names based on abbreviations
If you start out with a long name, you can always create a neat abbreviation. However, names based on abbreviations rarely convey any information about what the brand stands for or what type of products or services the brand provides. It means a certain uphill struggle where you have to teach your audience what they should associate the brand name with.
Some examples of brand names based on abbreviations:
- AT&T
- 3M
- BMW
- H&M
- NBC
- UPS
- KFC
- IKEA
- WWF
- IBM
2. Brand names based on unconventional spelling
A clever way to create a unique name that still contains associations is to deliberately change the spelling of an existing word. It also increases the chances that the name is not already taken. The downside: A university study found that consumers respond less positively to new products when their brand names use unconventional spellings of real words.
This occurs because consumers perceive the choice of an unconventionally spelled name as an overt persuasion attempt by the marketer and thus view the brand as less sincere.
Some examples of brand names based on existing words, unconventionally spelled:
- Lyft
- Tumblr
- Flickr
- Netflix
- Play-Doh
- Kool-Aid
3. Brand names based on nouns, verbs and adjectives
A creative way to create a strong brand name is to take an existing word and use it in a new, and sometimes unexpected, context.
Examples of brand names based on nouns:
- Apple
- Amazon
- Intel
- Threads
- Telegram
A classic naming strategy is to also incorporate an adjective into the name:
- Red Bull
- General Electric
- General Motors
- Best Buy
By inventing a new verb, or using an existing, the brand can both evoke the right associations and create a sense of urgency:
- Snapchat
- Tweet
It can also go the other way around: A successful brand can become so established and associated with a service or a product that people start using it as a verb:
- I will google it
- I will tweet it
- I can photoshop it
- Can we facetime?
- I’m waiting for the xeroxing to complete
4. Brand names based on combinations of words
Another common way to create brands is to combine two words into a new word.
Some examples:
- YouTube
- Snapchat
- Netflix
- Microsoft
- MySpace
- Instagram (Instant camera + telegram)
- FedEx (Federal Express)
5. Brand names based on personal names
A classic way to create a brand name is to simply use the founder’s name. If the founder doesn’t have a brand friendly name, you can also simply invent a name, or look up a name in the history books that brings the right association to your products or services. Think Tesla.
Some examples of brand names based on personal names:
- Dior
- Armani
- Aston Martin
- Disney
- Chevrolet
- Chanel
- Nestlé
- Ferrari
- Tesla
6. Brand names in latin
The daring can always take a word from another language that has a relevant meaning and a nice sound to it. The downside is that your audience most likely will never understand the actual meaning of the word.
- Volvo (“I roll”)
- Nvidia (from invidia = “envy”)
- Sony (from sonus = “sound”)
- Acer (“sharp”)
- Nivea (“snow”)
Special mention to Verizon, which is composed of the Latin word Veritas = “truth”, and the word “horizon”.
7. Brand names that are plain gibberish
If you’re not cultured enough to be interested in latin, you can always just invent a new word. If you do it right, the invented word can evoke the right associations and feelings, but in many cases, it will just be a word — and that might just be good enough.
Here are som examples of brand names that are just cool sounding gibberish:
- Häagen-Dazs
- Xerox
- Kodak
- Pepsi
- Exxon
- Spotify
- Kleenex
Let’s Summarize
Creating a strong brand name is challenging, and it can be a good starting point to examine different ways to approach the subject. Most of the world’s strongest brand names can be categorized into one of the following:
- Abbreviations
- Unconventional spelling
- Nouns, verbs and adjectives
- Combination of words
- Personal names
- Names in latin
- Gibberish
These categories and examples are a good starting point for brainstorming a strong brand name. Try to come up with multiple alternatives in each category and then compare them against each other. Hopefully, this will help you find your perfect name. Good luck!
