Relax. Your brand name isn’t that important.

We spend a lot of time and money naming our brands. At my agency we typically (with a wink and a nod) tell our clients it takes anywhere from three months to three years to name a brand. The reason we spend all of this time, and money, is that we believe that the success of our brand hinges upon having a great name. This idea is drummed into marketers from our early “principles” classes at University. We are regaled with stories of epic naming failures, like the Chevy Nova, and naming successes like Kleenex and Google. The lesson: bad name = failure and a lifetime of being a cautionary tale in marketing textbooks; good name = wild success and your brand becoming a part of the cultural lexicon and maybe even a part of the English language. With those outcomes as possibilities it would seem that we couldn’t spend enough time and money on our brand name.

But, as with everything in branding, that’s simply not the case. Naming is not a pass/fail undertaking. A great name does not guarantee success and a bad name does not mean certain failure. So we need to treat a name like what it is: a part of the brand, just like the product design, customer experience, logo, color palette, website, etc. And nobody ever taught a case study about how a brand failed because of a bad color palette…although I’m sure it’s happened.

So, if the idea is that we need to put less emphasis on the name of our brands, how do we know it’s good? Let’s look at a few examples of popular brands that have been around for awhile:

<And before we discuss their names we have to admit that a majority of people, even the brand’s customers, don’t know what these names mean or where they came from.>

Nike — Greek Goddess of Victory; interestingly the original name was Blue Ribbon Sports, so the “victory” theme always existed

Reebok — named after a rhebok, a type of African Antelope; the metaphor being speed

Adidas — a portmanteau of the founder’s name Adolf “Adi” Dassler

Puma — references the big cats, a metaphor for speed and power

Under Armour — a functionally-oriented, descriptive metaphor for the product

Five successful sportswear/lifestyle brands with multiple different naming approaches. Two that are named after speedy animals, only one of which is immediately clear to a potential customer, one named after the founder, one a description of the product, and one named after a Greek God. Outside of the context of their brands, ex: Nike’s Air Jordan and “Just Do It”, it would be impossible to argue which of these names is “best.” And if you were able to find someone who had never heard of these companies and asked which one sounds like the best sportswear company based solely on their name we could all imagine that there wouldn’t be a clear favorite. So what should we do.

If we look at the typical approaches to naming a brand: founder’s name, history, location, animal, gods, functional description and experiential metaphor we have to ask “which is best for our brand?” The answer is simple, all of them. You can name your brand in many different ways and achieve success. Other than meeting basic functional needs: readability, pronunciation, inoffensive and ownability (trademark, URLs, etc.) there is only one thing a name has to do: start.

The best names are the start to a brand. The best brands are successful when everything works together. Nike’s “Victory” pairs well with their innovative products and “Just Do It” advertising to tell a story of motivation and drive to succeed. Under Armour’s evocative functionality pairs with their aggressive advertising and hi-tech products to tell a story of a brand for hardcore athletes.

So when you’re developing a name for your new brand, don’t try to find the “perfect” name, find the name that’s the perfect start to your brand.