How to come up with compelling company name ideas

Even if you happen to think of a handful of words that you can use, there’s a good chance that your favourite title will be taken by another brand – or if it isn’t, the domain name will be. On top of that, you’re contending with a team of stakeholders who each have different preferences and opinions to offer. It’s no wonder that naming is one of the most challenging parts of the brand-building process

Unfortunately, when you’re naming your business, you can’t make do with just anything. You need a title that perfectly balances personality and individuality with relevance and wit.

To help you start the process on the right foot, we’re going to discuss everything you need to know about coming up with company naming ideas.

Your name isn’t just a way to reference your business.

Take a moment to picture some of your favourite brands. There’s a good chance that their names mean something to you. The word “Lush” used for a luxury, but environmentally-friendly bathing brand reminds us we’re getting great products, without compromising on sustainability. The name “Google” represents a company that specialises in both data, and innovation.

Names have heart. They can either supplement and enhance your brand identity or detract from the image you’re trying to create. Imagine if Innocent Smoothies had been called “Crusher” Smoothies instead. The vibe you’d get from that brand would be very different to the playful and charming Innocent image we get today.

The meaning in company naming ideas is why it’s so important not to just pick any title at random. While there’s more to a brand than a name, it’s difficult to build an image on the wrong foundations.

The best company naming ideas deliver:

• A competitive edge: If your name is the first thing to pop to mind when your customer encounters a specific problem in their life, they’ll be far more likely to choose your brand over the competition. What’s more, that top-of-mind presence will keep them coming back to you time and time again.
• Customer recognition and awareness: The best company name ideas don’t just give your clients a way to identify your business, they also make it easy to discern who you are and what you stand for. Just look at the Innocent example above, customers know to expect a thoughtful, friendly brand.
• Enhanced customer loyalty: Because your clients can use your name to better understand your brand, they’ll start to feel an affinity with you and your business. This affinity leads the way to loyalty, which will encourage people to share your company with others and refer you to their friends.

The right company naming ideas even act as a cornerstone for the rest of your brand, guiding other crucial decisions like, how to build your business, what kind of language you should use in your brand tone of voice, and what your logo should look like.

The pervasive power of the company name is one of the reasons why, as various other elements of your organisation begin to change, your name will remain the same for years to come. Names are one of the assets with the most longevity in your brand. While committing to a title is daunting, the right choice is often the key to start-up success.

Finding inspiration is one of the toughest parts of the naming process.

Fortunately, you can build a strategy that will help to guide you towards the right titles with a few simple steps. The first thing you’ll need to do is decide what kind of company naming ideas are right for your business. There are many different types of name out there, from descriptive words to made-up terms, and even combined titles like Facebook.

Deciding on the sort of name that feels right for your organisation will help to give focus to the brainstorming process and narrow down your final selection too.

Here are just some of the types of corporate company name ideas you can search for.

A descriptive name is a title that offers clarity on the functionality and purpose of your company, product, or service. The biggest issue with descriptive names is that, due to their obvious nature, there’s a good chance that the name you like will have already been taken. For instance, you can imagine how difficult it would be to claim the title “The Computer Shop” for a PC business. On the plus side, descriptive names provide your customers, potential partners, and employees with an instant insight into your organisation. However, they can sometimes feel a little simplistic and boring too.

There are many ventures in the world today that bypass the complexity of searching for a creative name by simply building on the name of their founder. For instance, look at Ford, created by Henry Ford, or the Walt Disney World Corporation. A personal business name can be a good way to reflect the heritage and roots of the company, particularly as time passes, and it’s an excellent way to ensure that your title isn’t too similar to anything else on the market. However, a person’s name rarely conveys much about their business, so you may find that your customers don’t understand what it is you do, or what your organisation stands for straight away.

Compound company naming ideas work by fusing two different words together to create a name that defines your organisation. Examples include titles like “FedEx,” “Facebook” or even “SnapChat.” This style of naming is popular because it allows you to use some creativity, without compromising on the descriptive benefits that come with real-world terms. Compound names offer some context into your values and personality as a business, although they can be a lot longer than some of the other ideas you come up with.

Abstract naming is a process that uses real-world names and words that people are already familiar with. Those titles can then be tied to a specific brand and that organisation’s mission. For instance, the name “Amazon” was used to convey the exotic and broad nature of the products that the online marketplace has to sell. On the other hand, the name “Apple” conveys various ideas, including associations with Isaac Newton, the Bible, nourishment, and creativity. The drawback of trying to use an abstract real-world name is that many of the most compelling words will already be trademarked. Additionally, you might find it hard to rank for a word that’s used regularly in everyday language when you start working on your SEO strategies.

Finally, if existing words or even parts of words don’t make sense for your business, then you can take your creativity to the next level with made-up names instead. In this naming process, you come up with a never-before-heard term like Google, Kodak, or Verizon. The terms you choose might sound similar to existing words but use different spellings to convey a unique meaning. While these are certainly some of the most brandable company naming ideas to choose, they’re also the hardest to come up with. It’s often difficult to make up a word that says the same things to a wide variety of different people. If you’re struggling here, Naimeo might have a name for sale that just perfect for your brand.

Once you’ve decided what kinds of company naming ideas, you’re most interested in, you can begin to work on the next stages of your creative process.

When chosen carefully, the best business names help customers understand your brand, give credibility to your message, and even ensure deeper connections with your audience. It’s essential that you don’t take the value of your business name for granted when you’re building your organisation.

A creative and strategic brainstorming process will help you to unlock a flow of inspiration for your team while ensuring that you don’t go “off-brand” with your final choice. Here are our top tips for the initial idea-generation process.

While it’s tempting to jump straight into the naming process – particularly when you want to launch your venture as quickly as possible, take some time to sit down and think about what you want to accomplish. It’s easy to lose focus with a creative campaign like coming up with company naming ideas. The more guidelines you have in place, the more structured your results will be. Ask yourself:

• What do I want the company name to represent?
• What emotions or feelings do I want to evoke in my target audience?
• What are the priorities in naming for my organisation right now?
• How many syllables should I include in my company name?
• What are the principles that best define my business?

The answers to these questions will form the basic guidelines of your naming process.

Deciding what kind of company naming ideas you’re going to focus on is only one element of building out your creative criteria. It also helps to develop a project statement or “mini brief” that you can use to focus your efforts. For example:

• We need a modern, made-up name that captures the idea of connectivity and gratitude.
• We need a descriptive name that highlights our value proposition as a user-friendly software company.
• We need a combined name that establishes us as a heritage brand but also shows our commitment to the environment.
• We need an elegant name that immediately evokes thoughts of luxury for our high-end fashion brand.

A mission statement for your naming process will help you to get started on the right track, while you’re waiting for inspiration to strike.

Once you have all the right resources in place to inform your company name ideas, the next step is to get your creative juices flowing with a brainstorming session. Bring as many different people together as possible for this part. The more perspectives and opinions you have, the more likely it is that you’ll come up with a compelling range of names to choose from.

Make sure that everyone understands the guidelines that you’ve created, and remind your people that at this point, there’s no such thing as a bad idea. The aim is to come up with as many words as possible that resonate with your brand, services, personality, and products. Start with the following lists:

• A list keywords that describe your company which should include technical terms, words that strike a chord with your business, or terms that people have frequently used to define the way they feel about your product.
• A list of names used by your idols, competitors, and other people in your space. Take these names apart, analyse them, and find out what makes them work, or what you don’t like about them. This will help to develop your own naming strategy.
• A list of associated names that match the “themes” that resonate with your company. For instance, if your brand is usually associated with words like “comfort,” or “luxury,” find out what that term means to other people, and build your ideas from there.

Coming up with original and creative company name ideas is difficult and daunting at times. However, the key to success is making sure that you’re not afraid to stand out from the crowd. Use your competitors as inspiration, but don’t be tempted to create a name that’s just a version of something else that’s already on the market.

If you find yourself veering off track when you’re listing new company naming ideas, bring yourself back into focus by looking at your brand guidelines again. If you discover that after a few days of listing terms, you still haven’t found anything, and your inspiration is running thin, try these simply exercises:

Certain sounds naturally inspire positive feelings in consumers and result in better brand connections. By exploring the way that certain sounds make you feel, you can improve your chances of coming up with compelling and unique company name ideas.

Think about the words that you use in everyday life that you might associated with specific sensory experiences. For instance, the name “Google” is fun to say. There’s a playful element to the word that matches perfectly with the company’s logo and helps to give depth to the brand as more than just a search engine company.

Even if you’re a start-up still waiting to launch, you still have a story that led you to wherever you are today. By exploring that narrative, you may be able to find more company naming ideas that are infused with meaning for you brand.

Exploring your history, and your values as a company will help you to come up with words that you might not have considered when you were first looking at descriptive terms. Often, the company naming ideas that are linked with your values as a business are the most effective and timeless. Here are some of the main elements to consider in your story:

• The character: You and your product – look at your USP, the values you hold as a business, and your personality.
• The theme: What’s the theme or mission that surrounds your story? How do you differentiate yourself from other brands?
• The plot: Where did you begin on your path to building a business? What’s your mission statement or vision for the future.

Run through each of these elements and see if anything crops up that can inspire you and your team.

Exploring the details of your business and your brand identity is a great way to start coming up with company name ideas. However, it’s also worth looking at your organisation from the perspective of your audience too. Knowing your target market inside out is critical for an effective naming process. If you haven’t already developed some buyer personas, now might be the time to start.

An in-depth look at your customer will help you to think about how your products, brand, or service will help to address their needs and pain points. You can then use those elements to inspire your company naming ideas. Ask yourself:

• What kind of person is your customer? What sort of things do they like and dislike?
• What’s the personality of your ideal customer? Are they trendy, sophisticated, quirky, fun, or intelligent?
• What other brands do your customers like? Are there any trends among the names of the brands that your clients gravitate towards?

Finally, if no matter how many words and combined terms you jot down, you still can’t seem to find a title that captures the essence of your brand, you might need to take a chance. Remember, language is an ever-evolving concept. There are new terms and slang appearing in the world all the time.

Try coming up with brand-new words of your own and adding them to your list of company naming ideas. Make a note of the feelings that you’re trying to convey with the term but keep that information to yourself at first. To make sure the word resonates, ask other people on your team what it makes them feel, then see if their definition matches the impact you were aiming for.

A lot of businesses make the mistake of thinking that coming up with company naming ideas is easy. Of course, when they get down to the actual brainstorming process, things quickly change.

Every entrepreneur has their own vision of what the ideal list of company name ideas is. Some business leaders will test and brainstorm and explore until they’ve exhausted virtually every option. Other executives might decide to simply stick with the first name that makes sense so that they can launch their venture as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, both of these strategies can be dangerous. Spending too much time on finding company naming ideas means that you end up suffering from limited capital. Without a name, you can’t get your organisation off the ground, or start earning profits. On the other hand, spend too little time on your names, and you end up with something you regret, and potentially rebrand within a matter of months.

For many organisations, naming is one of the toughest things they’ll have to do to bring their company to life. That’s why so many business leaders prefer to fast-track to company name ideas provided by experts like Naimeo. Whether you ask a specialist to handle the complete creative strategy on your behalf, or simply want to buy a pre-made brand name from an experienced organisation like Naimeo, there are ways to simplify the path to a strong branding foundation.

With the help of a branding specialist to enhance, transform, and deliver your company naming ideas, you can ensure that your business has the assets it needs for a successful launch, without the stress.

Leave the naming to the experts and focus on what you do best – bringing your new venture to life. Discover a wealth of company name ideas at naimeo.com today.