How to name a Business -7 Easy Ways to Choose your

Business Name!

Naming your startup or business is no easy task and one of

the most important aspects for successful branding and

marketing. You need to have a powerful, informative and

unique name that people will only associate to your specific

company. Of course, that is a lot easier said than done !

From choosing acronyms to coining new terms for your

company this presentation will help you in selecting the

best name in 7 easy ways !

1. Name by Desire

Advantages

• Getting the main benefit of your business into the name.

• This way people already have a good idea of what you do, before they know

anything more about your business

• Examples of business names based on what people desire are

I. Body Trim,

II. Sugarfree,

III. Sleepwell

2. Alliteration

• In Alliteration, you pick two words that start with the same letter. The first word should be something that defines

what your business does or what category you are in. Then you go through the dictionary and find another word

starting with the same letter.

• Tip -It’s better if the other word is an action word or a word that describes one of the benefits of your product.

• Examples of business names based on Alliteration are

i. American Airlines,

ii. Paramount Pictures,

iii. Business Blueprint,

iv. Slide Share

3. Own a Word

• This is where you pick one word that is commonly known in the

English language (that is ideally somehow linked to your product) and

then you aggressively go about attaching that name to you

• If you can nail this it’s a wonderful thing because every time a

person thinks of that word, they are also thinking about your

business

• Examples of ‘own a word’ are:

i. Apple

ii. Amazon

iii. Yahoo

iv. Sharp

4. Coining a Name

• Making up a new word for the company name that doesn’t currently

exist in language

• Clearly it does involve strategic thinking. The name might evolve

from a founder’s name, from an acronym or by simply putting two

very short words next to each other

• Examples of ‘own a word’ are:

i. Oreo

ii. Facebook

iii. YouTube

iv. Electrolux

v. Qantas

5. Word Mash

• Word mash is similar to inventing a word,

however it’s easier to create because your

word comes from mixing together parts of

two other words.

• List all of the different things your company

will do and all of its features and benefits in

one big long list. Then you play mix and

match to see what new words you can create

by piecing together parts of words.

Examples of companies that have used the

word mash method

i. Microsoft (microcomputer + software)

ii. Skype (sky + peer-to-peer)

iii. Wikipedia (wiki + encyclopaedia)

iv. FedEx (federal + express)

v. Walmart (walton + supermarket)

6. Word Twist

• With word twist, a company can pick a word (or two) and then change the

spelling, add an extra letter or write the word phonetically.

• Another way to word twist is to add an extra vowel at the beginning (e.g.

iPhone) or you can do the opposite and remove vowels (e.g. ‘N Sync). This

way they are able to secure an available domain name and they can have

something that they can trademark right away.

• Here are some popular word twist examples:

i. iTunes

ii. Netflix

iii. Digg

iv. Fotolog

v. NYTix

7. Name by Problem

This one is similar yet different to naming by desire.

However instead of focusing on the thing that you do

or the thing people want, you instead focus the name

around the main problem you solve

Again the benefit of a name like this is your selling

point is in your name and if done right people will say

“that’s exactly what I want”. This then makes the

process of selling 10 times easier.

Some examples of business names by problem

include:

i. Streak Free Windows

ii. The Groutinator

iii. Fat Blaster

iv. Never Lost Pet Tags

v. No-Nicks Razor Oil

Thank You.

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