Go Make a Name for Yourself — 5 Steps to Creating a Brand Name

Your name is the face you present to the world. Making a good one is the difference between being lost in acronyms and having a viable presence in your market. I work for Deksia, a marketing agency that specializes in brand identity. We work with small businesses, helping them rebrand, expand into new markets and standout in their current one.

Creating a new name is often a part of the rebranding process. A company can need a name change for any number of reasons. Because the company has grown past the purpose stated in the original name, no one is going to Chair Co. for ladders, or because the company is trying to stand out in a sea of similar brands. Any number of circumstances can lead to the need for a name change, which may seem simple at first glance but takes real effort and should not be done frivolously.

With this in mind we set out to create a useful resource to not only help pick a good name but help lay the groundwork for getting established with that new name. Working from the same steps that we use in the rebranding process;

1. Consistency

2. Brainstorming

3. Evaluation

4. Research

5. SEO

We will be using real clients as examples for some of these steps. Chop a tree cutting service Deksia separated from its parent company and gave its own identity. Uptime Lift Management who do lift machine maintenance rebranded to be more noticeable in their market. Yello Dumpster a trash hauling service, whose business model we took and completely turned on its head. All three of these businesses had different reasons for needing a name change but we were able to create new identities for them that distinguished them as unique brands.

1. Consistency

Get out some paper or create a word doc and write down your core brand ideas, your name should represent and emphasize these ideas in some way. Are you friendly, efficient or a quality product? The qualities of your brand along with the product or service you provide should be somehow shown or emphasized in your name.

A good example of a core brand ideas used in a name is Uptime lift Management, providing repairs for lift machines. The name Uptime Lift is a play on Uptime cutting lift machines downtime to zero through fast repairs. If you can fit the point of your brand into the name and still make it sound unique. You know you have a good name.

These ideas should be represented consistently. Take one guess what the primary color of Yello Dumpster’s website is (look up). Their brand is about emphasizing friendliness in an industry that is usually not thought of as friendly. Whenever someone answers the phone at Yello Dumpster they say “Yello.” Consistency in branding is huge. And your name is the tip of that, getting the point across with the first impression. Your name should be consistent with the tone, overall feel and message of your brand.

2. Brainstorm

Now with that out of the way, make some space and write as many of your competitor’s names as you can and see what they have in common, hopefully this will give you an idea of what you can do differently. Along the same lines write down everything related to your product/service. Now use that to start coming up with names. Unique is best, if every one of your competitors has the word construction in the title, don’t.

Chop is a good example of a company that stands out in a field saturated with similar sounding names most of which include “lawn” and “care”. The company needed to set itself apart from its parent company Procare while also creating a unique name relevant to tree removal that sounded different from its competition. So keeping the company’s core service in mind we created a name centered on the fact that Chop deals specifically in tree removal, “chopping” them down, while being short and easy to remember, with low competition for online search results which we will dive more into later. For now get as many names down as you can.

3. Evaluate

Now with your list of possible names it’s time to narrow it down. Here are several questions we ask when talking about a potential name. Is your first impression of the name strong? Is it easy to read? Does it feel right when used in multiple sentences? Are quick associations positive? Does it relate to the primary benefits of the company or service?

Thesaurus is going to be your friend here. Want to emphasize fastness in the name? Go to thesaurus and find a more obscure word that’s less commonly used and stands out.

4. Research

No matter what product of service you provide it’s going to need an online presence of some sort. Its time to check that the name and domain are actually available, Use GoDaddy or a similar site to find if the domain for the name is available. You can have the most amazing brand name ever but it won’t do any good if the domain name is taken. All the company names mentioned in this article were chosen with low domain competition in mind. You may have to compromise and settle for a slightly different domain then the name but this can be used to your advantage, Chop’s domain name is “we-chop.com.”

When Apple computers was founded in 1976, they ignored the fact that the Apple brand name was already taken, by Apple records the Beatles — founded record company. This would result in four separate lawsuits between 1978–2006 and was finally settled in 2007 for over $500million. To avoid Apple’s mistake check that the name has not been trademarked at the USPTO website.

It might also be a good idea to check the definitions of whatever words you are using. It might sound unnecessary but it could save you later then you find that merde does not mean metro in French.

5. Check SEO/Adwords

With the research done on the name itself it’s time to determine how much traffic your name will get online. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is about increasing website traffic and ensuring people trafficking your site want to be there. Use Google Keyword to estimate how much traffic the site will get and if its got a lot of competition. When someone googles your name you want your site to be the first result they come to. For access to keywords sign up for a Google AdWords account (its completely free) and look under tools for the keywords program. Keyword will give you an estimate of how many searches your name gets and if other people are competing with you using similar words.

Creating a name fore your business is walking a tightrope between originality and messaging. Creating a name that is unique and actively represents your brand is a daunting task that takes a tremendous amount of consideration.