Naming your company is as much a source of debate as naming a child. Try adopting the mindset of instead of a child, it is a pet. A chihuahua, a goldfish, a snake or a kitten. Instead of Michael or Jennifer, which draws nothing into the imagination, go with Fluffy, Luna, Rocket or Apple. Be a little playful, and in the end come up with a name that is visually appealing and memorable. Our memories are just like goldfish, if a potential customer sees your logo, reads or hears the name, but can not draw a connection to an existing memory, they won’t remember it. I settled on Emerald because it provides the other person with an image of a dark green gem far down in the depths of the earth, or paired with diamonds on the neck of Audrey Hepburn. These images I would like to associate my brand with – raw, natural product of the earth, top of the line quality craft design and with the potential to last forever.
If not visual, then it should be short. Our phone numbers are only 10 digits for a reason, the human brain likes things in sets of threes when it comes to new information and choices – the bronze, silver and gold packages on a website. There is going to be no benefit to have a name longer than 10 characters. As a brand designer I also do not enjoy designing an identity with a descriptive company name as it will not be a pleasurable experience for me to work it with any style. I have refused to work with clients that insist on a grand all encompassing company name. Less is more. I helped a client go from the initial idea of “Regenerative Eating” to “RGN” – which one will you remember?
There are a lot of company names that are not connected to a visual image, like Nike, but then they will have a visually strong logo mark that is easily recognizable and memorable. I love to abuse the online and free thesaurus to help clients find a good match. Naming brands has also turned into an entire speciality in itself due to the limited number of domains available and social media accounts not claimed yet by some random person 5 years ago as a joke. Visually strong names will also make it easier to pop out against the competition, when your customers are giving word of mouth referrals DropBox will be recalled better than Zoho Docs.
