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Your brand name can make a lot of difference when it comes to gaining attention. A catchy business name that is easy to remember, whether because it is funny, unusual, a reference to something or someone popular, or simply quirky, can go a long way in establishing your business and earning you visibility without putting extra work into it.
Think of some iconic brands whose names have become generic terms and synonymous to the products they are marketing. Band Aid, Kleenex, Aspirin, Jell-O, Post-it are some of the many brands that managed to leave a significant mark in the business world, so much so that their competition will always be at least a step behind, overshadowed by their memorable trademark. That is how important names are.
However, coming up with an attention-grabbing business name isn’t always easy. There are a couple of things to consider. The first is the message your business name is trying to communicate to customers, be it your story, your vision, or just simply the way you do business, which you will incorporate into your brand identity. The second is your perspective, the place where you start from when creating the name, i.e whether the focus is on the brand itself or its customers.
If there is a well-defined idea that drives your business, use that to find a name that fits into the description of your company’s goals. Customers love a great backstory. Another great option to begin with is to put yourself in your potential customers’ place and figure out what kind of name would be easy to remember and inspire trust in your company.
Thanks to the hard work of computer engineers, the process of business naming has been made a lot simpler. Our online tool can give you that starting edge and help you in creating a catchy business name that customers will not forget. Name generators are valuable tools that are made to save businesses’ time, resources and space. Regardless of the niche, or the size and experience of your company, online tools will help you find the right name for you.
Make It Simple
The simpler your business name, the easier to remember. Short and simple trumps complex and elaborate any given day. Take Apple, for example. The leading brand’s name and logo are currently the most recognized in the world. Steve Jobs came up with this name after returning from an apple farm and thought the name sounded “fun, spirited and not intimidating.”
One simple word. That is all it takes. Even a single word packed with meaning can do wonders for your brand identity. And if you are smart enough to use the name of a fruit as an unlikely allusion to a computer, then you will definitely stand apart from the competition.
Burberry’s founder opted for his surname as the company name, Thermos for the functionality of its products, Kickstarter went straight to the point, and Amazon’s CEO Jeff Besoz wanted to suggest the similarities between the “biggest” river in the world and the “exotic and different” region it is, and his online store.
The options are endless. A short, cool and catchy name can be found anywhere. Look for inspiration in pop culture, mythology, or just look through the dictionary.
Make It Short
Coming up with a one-word name for your brand can be quite difficult, especially when you want to send out a clear message about your business. If you have created a longer name for business, consider an abbreviation with an easy pronunciation or a portmanteau of two or three words you want to feature in the brand name. Famous brands that have settled for abbreviations or portmanteau words are Microsoft, ASOS, Adidas, DHL, IKEA and H&M among others.
Famous brands have features some combination of the initials of their founders or a portmanteau of their first and last name or an abbreviation of a phrase. For example, DHL stands for the initials its founders’ surnames, Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom and Robert Lynn. In the case of Adidas, the nickname of the founder Adolf (Adi) Dassler and the first three letter of his surname were used to come up with a name that’s both easy to remember and pays homage to its founder, and the original meaning of ASOS is AsSeenOnScreen, which is the ultimate description of the online retailer.
When creating a short name for your brand, make sure it’s something customers can pronounce and thus remember it easily. They might not all get a chance to find out what your company name stands for and remember your brand for its full name, but if they can pronounce the initials effortlessly and make it sound like a word, then you know you have found the right abbreviation.
Make It Fun
There are plenty of interesting brand names that conjure up positive images that customers later associate with the brand itself. Yahoo!, Twitter and Tattly are among many recognizable brands on the market that wanted a fun, catchy name that will stick with people.
The search engine/email client features customer experience in its brand name. Twitter uses an imagery to create a connection to nature and make a limiting feature feel natural (talk about 140 characters per post, in the unlimited era of information!). Tattly just decided to coin an adverb out of the word ‘tattoo’ and suitably so, since it sells temporary tattoo stickers.
Fun is universal and as long as your potential clients find your name amusing or easy to connect with something fun, you stand a good chance they will remember you next time they need services that you can provide.
Make It Personal
Nothing works quite as well as adding a personal element to your brand name. Customers love a good story behind the creation of a company or its name. When an email chain that referred to her as a Man Repeller accidentally reached her, Leandra Medine decided to make the most of it. She went on to establish a lifestyle and fashion website and named it nothing else but Men Repeller.
Häagen-Dazs was named with the same idea on mind. Reuben and Rose Mattus, a Jewish couple from Bronx, New York came up with a Danish-sounding name for their ice cream company as a tribute to Denmark, the only country to take in Jews during WWII.
When that personal element you want to add to your business name is difficult to narrow down to a word or a short phrase a business name generator tool can come in handy. Looking trough the dictionary can be very time-consuming, so letting an online tool steer you in the right direction will get you a step closer to finding the perfect name for your business.
Make it Quirky
An eccentric name can be a real attention grabber. Unusual brand names are interesting, new and so out-of-the-box, that people cannot help but remember. There is this quality of stickiness and ‘coolness’ quirky names have that others cannot replicate.
Lululemon, the yoga-wear brand, is a great example for a quirky name. Its founder, Chip Wilson wrote in 2009:
“It was thought that a Japanese marketing firm would not try to create a North American sounding brand with the letter ‘L’ because the sound does not exist in Japanese phonetics. By including an ‘L’ in the name it was thought the Japanese consumer would find the name innately North American and authentic.”
“In essence, the name ‘lululemon’ has no roots and means nothing other than it has 3 ‘L’s’ in it. Nothing more and nothing less.”
Google founders came up with the name after a misspelling of the original name, googol, which is the number 1 followed by a hundred zeros, meaning the engine is able to provide a large quantity of information. Whichever it is, its founders have managed to find quite a distinctive name. Zappos opted for a variation of the Spanish word ‘zapatos’ for shoes, as the company began as an online shoe retailer, but did not want to limit itself to shoes only.
Sometimes the oddest names make the biggest waves in the business world. If you are looking for that gripping effect of your company name, start by searching amusing words that you can enter into a name generator and let it work its magic.
Make it Powerful
If you can add energy to your brand name, that is a welcome bonus. Brands thrive on the idea of empowerment and bringing a positive image in the equation that will get your business to gravitate towards success more than usual.
When Hans Wilsdorf started making his watches, he looked for a name that was short, easy to pronounce and remember and looked good on watch dials. He was looking for a word that combined elegance, exquisiteness and fine craftsmanship. He said that he combined the alphabet letters “in every possible way” and came up with hundreds of names. None of them felt right, until one day a genie whispered the word “Rolex” in his ear.
Nike is another company that turned to power to create a brand name and built an identity around that idea. The company takes its name after the Greek goddess of victory, Nike, and has immersed this idea in their corporate culture, consequently become the clear-cut leader of the industry.
Not everyone knows the meaning behind the names of some of the most powerful brands around the world, but that is of no consequence. These brands have taken the message within their names and built it in their businesses philosophy. Now Nike does not need its customers to associate its name with victory because Nike has made it their job to make customers feel like winners. However, Nike needed this name to become the company it is today.
When brainstorming your company name, make sure it is something that evokes a positive image, something you can be proud of, or even something on which you can build your brand identity. There are hundreds of possibilities when you are looking for a name for your company, but as humans are creatures of habit, it is unlikely you will be able to think of all of them. Unique business ideas are usually not those that come to mind first.
Instead of wasting time and energy trying to find the perfect name for your business, let a brand name generator do its work and find it for you. Although entirely algorithmic in their nature, name generators can still create poetry with their results, helping us find solutions that are not only practical and efficient, but also meaningful and inspiring.