Naming your business

[MrTee]

Hi everyone

Does anyone find this part frustrating, depressing and demotivating? I've tried nearly everything trying to come up with a name and nothing I am happy with. I understand the shorter and catchier the better but that is the difficult part as I'm sure most of you would understand. I initially went with a longer name but it's a tad generic and I don't see it as a brandable and marketable name.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers

 

[The Wholesale Forums]

Hi,

Keep it short and simple. Longer names could make it more difficult for you in the long run. Some businesses name themselves depending on their niche, so if you plan to sell just one type of product, then maybe you could start naming your business from there. It could be quite more complicated if you sell varied goods.

Also, be sure that the business name that you choose has an available domain. Who knows if you plan to start your own ecommerce site soon.

All the best,
Erik

 

[HFE Signs]

What do you intend the business to do? Easy to remember and as mentioned above check domains..

 

[DJR51]

This type of thing is often over-thought in my view. But you do need to identify what you want the name to suggest to your target audience:

Does it have to specifically say what the business does?
What image are you aiming for (high end product, cheap and cheerful etc etc)?

I always think of Addison Lee as a good example - they wanted a name that would be near the top of phone books by virtue of alphabetical order and wanted it to sound "a bit posh"... and thus came up with Addison Lee, which obviously has nothing to do with taxis at all, but ticked all the boxes the company wanted from a name.

You also need to check the name looks good as a domain name - the therapist that came up with therapist.com found that out the hard way.

 

[amac]

This type of thing is often over-thought in my view.

Agreed. Look at some of the most valuable companies created in the last 10-20 years - Google, Facebook, Amazon, Ebay, Paypal - these names (Amazon excluded) were pretty much chosen without much thought about branding.

Google? a Googol. Facebook? a book of faces. Ebay? Echo Bay. Brands are empty vessels to begin with right, it's the story of the company that follows that makes the brand what it is.

One piece of advice, if you choose a generic name like i did with my company, you have to be prepared to defend it/work harder with branding.

 

[PinaHQ]

It's really a hard work to find some good-sounding available .com domains these days, so the advice from my experience is to be creative. Playing with words and nuances of their meaning may work (an example in ecommerce industry I have in mind is ecwid, a completely artificial word meaning "ecommerce widget")

 

[Bryan_Centurica]

One option that I've used a couple of times lately is crowd-sourcing. I've personally used SquadHelp for name contests but I'm sure there are plenty of other marketplaces similar to that available as well.

The concept is simple - you launch a name contest and advertise $x (typically between $50 and $150) as the prize for the winning name.

People then submit names (visible only to you) and you can make your choice after the contest ends.

My last $100 contest got close to 1,000 submissions - the majority of them were, of course, absolutely dreadful, but about 5% seem to always be decent, which is plenty to get some great names / ideas for names.

 

[MrTee]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions people.

Maybe I am over thinking this, but I would rather struggle to find a name that I am 100% happy with than settle for a name I'm only half satisfied with. The problem is it's holding me back from progressing with my business plans. I've asked countless friends and family, used domain/word generators, thesaurus's, brainstormed to the point of insanity with no luck. That crowd sourcing seems like it might be worth a shot.

I did read that for certain kinds of retail ecommerce it's useful to have what you actually sell in the domain name, but that it is not as important these days.

Maybe I'll have a Eureka moment and it will hit me when I'm least expecting it.

 

[Root 66 Woodshop]

retailecom

Bonus!

That'll be £50 please!

Joking apart, naming a business can be difficult especially when you have that moment you go online to register and lo and behold it's already taken.

I'd love to start up a new company and just name it after myself (Dave) but it's already taken, then I thought what about my Granddad - George... oh dear... then I thought what about my Mam Miranda ... stuffed again!

Grr!

 

[Websitehandyman]

I had a name for 12 years and was perhaps only happy with it for the first month or so. Since then I've registered perhaps 10 domains intending to change the name to one of them but never really did it till last month.

So yes I understand your pain.

I would say if you can't find an ideal one then at least find a simple one. Don't try to be cleaver with words or try to convince yourself it will work. Boring can always be branded zanny can't.

 

[TheGeekestLink]

Maybe I am over thinking this, but I would rather struggle to find a name that I am 100% happy with than settle for a name I'm only half satisfied with. The problem is it's holding me back from progressing with my business plans. I've asked countless friends and family, used domain/word generators, thesaurus's, brainstormed to the point of insanity with no luck. That crowd sourcing seems like it might be worth a shot.

Oh, believe me, you're not over-thinking it. I think it's really important to get a domain / business name that really says something, and while it's OK to have a generic name, I spent months trying to come up with some good names (and I think I did a good job in the end). It's OK having a generic name, but something striking and fun can really set you apart from others.

So, my advice is: don't settle, but keep going until you find something brilliant.

And be careful to discuss your genius ideas as there are people out there who will register it online just for the hell of it!

 

[Websitehandyman]

Just wanted to say, I have about 30 redundent domain names so feel free to PM.

 

[newtonian]

Netdragon.co.uk / domain names, has some good basic advice on naming e-businesses and domain names, certainly some points to consider. I found it was also worth researching clashes with ebay, youtube and social networking names before registering a domain. A google on the name will also show what you will be competing with.

 

[customlogoshop]

My domain is quite long (14 Characters) but it seems to work. I spent months figuring out the name and the long business name was the only one I could settle with.

I understand your frustration as it really annoyed me getting a name that is free but just choose something that describes your business

 

[Gecko001]

As other have said it you can over-think the name. One thing you should not do in my view is to imply negativity. Such as XYZ Solutions which implies that you deal only with people that have problems that that need solved, thus ruling out a lot of potential customers who want maybe advice or a product just to enhance their business and not want it because they have problems.

If it does not come to you immediately, leave it for a while. I would not rule out using your own name. It implies trust. If there are two partners and you want to use their surname initials sometimes those initials do not trip off the tongue, so perhaps try using the initials of the first names.

 

[ClarkDanial]

I would recommend you to go for the short and catchy name not too more typical.choose kind of which gonna be suit your "Business".

 

[MokaBox]

I also agree with the comments that you are over-thinking the name. You say it is frustrating, de-motivating, and then in another post you add that you cannot get on with your business plans until you have resolved this.

Gerald Ratner called this "the paralysis of analysis".

Pick a name and start to build your business.

A business name is much like a human name, we may like or dislike a particular name because of a person we knew at school or work that we had a positive or negative experience with. In the same way we respond favourably or negatively when we hear certain brand names according to our personal experience with them.

Build your business, give great service and cool products and you will soon learn to love your name.

 

[Danny Peters]

It was before my time with the company but Orangetree was named such because there was an orange tree in the office where the discussion was happening.

If it's holding you up then imo opinion you are overthinking it. Pick something and run with it.

 

[amphis software]

You can always change your company name if you start with something you're not quite happy with and then later think up the ideal name.

Tom