Give Your Tips on How To Choose a Good Name for a Business

[LowPrices.uk]

Hi Guys

Please give your tips on how to choose a good name for a business. I will start:

- A good name will be easy to say and spell.

- A good name will pass the radio test, i.e. people can remember the name from hearing it and will know how to spell it.

- Alliteration in a name can be beneficial to name recall, e.g. Magic Maps.

What are your tips?

Thanks

 

[HarrisShubert]

One tip is think about how easy it will be to find you online. You want a company name that's unique and not linked to anything.

For example don't name your company 'UK Property Experts' as you would never get found online. Almost be ambiguous as it allows you to control your page 1 and more importantly your reputation.

 

[LowPrices.uk]

Things that can help with recognition include using the names of colours and animals in your business name.

 

[Ashley_Price]

One tip is think about how easy it will be to find you online. You want a company name that's unique and not linked to anything.

Well, as someone who had a call answering service, with the name "BananaOffice", I have to agree with that.

 

[BigTree]

All depends on the sector but if it's an online shop I search to see if the .com and .co.uk are both available. No dashes in the url. When I have a short list I then google to check if people are using the name.

If these to main domain extensions aren't both available I scratch the name altogether or choose a slight variation.

If all is good then I usually choose a name that contains the main products name or sector, second part of name needs to be unique and catchy.

I find if I make a list one always stands out from the crowd. Look at it from a customers point of view.

You also should think about the character of the business in choosing a name. What kind of language are you using in describing the business. For example if you're descriptions/about us/adverts are all very professional sounding, direct and serious you want to reflect that in your name. If you're coming across more fun and relaxed you should look at a 'crazier' name.

If your name/brand is very unique I also apply for the word to be trademarked. As opposed to just the logo.

For me a company name is a major part of the business so it's import to work on your marketing strategy first. Knowing your market, demographic etc will set out your language which will then set out the type of name.

 

[Pish_Pash]

Whatever name you choose, I'd say make sure the Limited Company name is available at companies house, the domain name is availabe *and* the ebay username (assuming you intend trading on ebay).

Also stick with a name where once the spaces are removed is still be readable (names are more readable when the last & first letter of each word aren't normally seen together), for example

Norma Stits Ltd wouldn't work well as Normastits.com as it has the potential to be misinterpreted as an unintented domain name!

whereas Filthy Zebra Ltd works fine as Filthyzebra.com (because a Z wouldn't normally follow a Y , our brains manage to pick the individual words out....even without the spaces)

I totally agree that - to be find-able - the name should be an odd mixture of (preferably) non common words... for example if I was starting a company selling car parts, the worst name possible would be car parts UK (try finding that in amongst the internet's white noise) .... probably better to go with something slightly left field like Emporium of Car Bits (ok, ok....but you get the picture)

 

[LowPrices.uk]

Any new name you choose should be free from any Trademark restrictions. You can search for existing Trademarks online via the websites of the various Trademark organisations, for example, the UK one is at:

https://www.gov.uk/search-for-trademark

 

[Peter Durrant]

Two words, which roll nicely off the tongue but unlikely to have been heard before.

 

[b_lyne]

3 syllables

 

[Trademarkroom]

Check you chosen name is both a) registrable as a trademark ( i.e. it complies with trademark law) and b)it is free to use. If you can protect your brand name with a registered trademark it can increase its value.

 

[LowPrices.uk]

There is a lot to be said for using a distinctive name, that is unique and unusual, so that you get noticed by your customers and get remembered. It may be the case that for uniqueness, you decide to make up an entirely new word. An example of this might be Netflix.

In the domaining (domain name investor) community, there is a category of domain names referred to as "brandables", or "unique brandables", whereby the domainer makes up an entirely new word for a unique brand name. Some examples of such names can be found at BrandBucket.com. A new and unique name can set you apart, but make sure you bear in mind other factors such as the radio test mentioned earlier, and ease of spelling.

 

[pickaweb]

First of all I would search and see if the actual domain name is available.
A domain name will be the website address.

It can be very annoying if you register a company and then when you try to buy the domain name you see that it is already taken by someone else.

Also you need to decide what domain name extension you would like to use.
Which Domain Name Should I register .co.uk or .com? Explained
Hope it helps.

 

[Robin_Denis]

shopify's brand name generator may give some inspirations

 

[HarrisShubert]

The points about domain names are very important. Before you commit I would make sure that you can get your company name across a number of social assets:

LinkedIN
URLs
Twitter
Facebook
Google+
YouTube
eBay etc

You want your brand/company to be credible. Also having all the above would instantly fill your google page 1

 

[Julie M Davis]

There's an interesting article on entrepreneur.com - about 8 mistakes not to make when thinking of a business name. I would post the link, but the forum won't allow me to yet!