One of the most important thing to have when starting a business is to come up with the right business name. A good brand name will have a huge impact to your business. So, here’s the ultimate guide on how to come up with a business name.
Plenty of new business owners find it hard to think of a name for their new business. If you are one of them, you don’t have to worry. In this post, we will teach you the secret art of naming a business or brand.
The Types Of Business Names
Before we’ll teach you the “how” in creating a business name, there is something that you need to know first. First of all, it is important for you to know what are the different types of business or brand names. Knowing this will guide you on what kind of names you can create. Now, let us introduce you to 8 different types of business names.
1. Real Words
This one doesn’t need much more explanation. Any real word which you can find in the dictionary can be created into a brand.
Real words are highly valuable. In fact, domain names which are real worlds are sold or for sale at very very high prices.
Some of the most well-known companies which use real words are Apple, Alphabet and Twitter.
2. Compound Words
Compound words are 2 words joined together to create a new word. There are plenty of companies which use compound words for their brand names.
Some big companies are Facebook, Youtube, Snapchat, WordPress, Firefox, SalesForce and among many others.
3. Blends or Portmanteau
Portmanteau or Blends is a new word created from parts of two or more words.
Some brands which are actually blends are:
Microsoft – Microcomputer + Software
Instagram – Instant Camera + telegram
Skype – Sky + Peer-to-peer
Wikipedia – Wiki + Encyclopedia
Mozilla – Mosaic + Godzilla – how cool is that, right?
4. Invented, Made up, Mispelled
These are company names whose names are coming from invented words. Some are misspells or made up from a real word.
Google – a misspelling of the word googol – the number 1 followed by 100 zeros
Flickr – from flicker
5. Phrases
Names which are based upon short phrases such StumbleUpon, LinkedIn,
Reddit – Read it or I read it online.
6. Founder’s Name
You can also create brand names based upon the founder’s name.
7. Geographical names
There are plenty of company names out there which are geographical names. Airline companies usually use this type of brand names.
Amazon – named after Amazon river, one of the largest in the world.
8. Acronym
These are brand names formed from the initial letters of words and are pronounced as a word
Did you know Yahoo is actually an acronym? It means
Yahoo – Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle
KFC – Kentucky Fried Chicken
IBM – International Business Machines
The Qualities Of A Good Business Name
Before we’ll go on to the naming process, we’ll talk about the qualities of a good brand name:
1. Memorable
The business name must be something that sticks to our minds. When you hear it, you can’t easily forget about it. In short, it is easy to remember.
2. Short
When it comes to brand names, the shorter, the better – this means in terms of the number of characters and the number of syllables. The shorter the number of characters and the shorter the number of syllables, it’s better.
3. Story, feeling, meaning behind the name
a name which conveys some story or feeling o meaning behind the name will also appeal to many. This is usually written in the about page or an article about how the brand name came to be.
4. Unique
Don’t create business names which are similar to existing brands especially ife under the same industry. For example: if you want to create a social networking site and you will name it Facelook or Facebooth. It’s just silly. Make it unique. This is the reason why I like blends and invented words where you can actually create a lot of unique names.
5. Easy to say and spell
This one is also important for companies because they want people to know what it spells just by hearing the name when someone says it. This is the reason why brands as much as possible should be short. If it’s easy to spell and say and it’s short, then it becomes even more memorable.
Other Factors To Consider When A Business Name
1. Domain .com is available
Domain .com should be available to register and legally free to use (no trademark) – When I say .com is available, when you go to icann lookup,, if you look into that name, it should be available to register, meaning no one has registered it yet.
Why in .com? The .com domain extension is the king among all extensions. Although there are plenty of extensions like .net, .io and .org, .com and among others, .com is still what sticks to people. People will most likely think that the website is in the brand name .com.
But, if you really like the name and the .com is not available, then you can also add some words like Go, Get, The, My like GoBrand.com, GetBrand, TheBrand or MyBrand. You can also use other extensions like .io, .net but you have to check the .com if it’s in the same line of business or if they own the trademark for that name
2. Positive meaning
Check also that the name doesn’t imply something negative in other languages. You can check for that on the internet, especially if you will be doing business in those countries.
3. Business Names Trivia
One trivia interesting trivia about brand names, what do you think is common to all these names?
Facebook, Google, Apple, Twitter, Yahoo, Reddit, Dell, Zoom, Fiverr, Yammer
If you already get it, they both have double-letters in the name, you can actually create names with double letters.
Always consider these qualities of a business name when you are brainstorming for brand names.
How To Come Up With A Business Name?
So, now here we are, how do we actually create, brainstorm or generate brand names?
So, this is now the art of naming guys. This is actually a process you can follow to create business names. This is easy guys!
1. Decide on the type of name
Decide on what type of name you love to have or know what type of name that the company is looking for.
Whether the name is a real word, compound, an invented word or from the founder’s name, decide first on this.
2. Identify & list down base words
Identify & list down base words
There are several ways where you can get base words:
- The company or the person who wants a business name will always have some base words in mind or the words they want, list them down
- The founder’s name
- The place where the company originated
- Find words related to the niche or industry of the business.
ex. if in health – we have wellness, fitness, strength…
3. Expand your base words
- Expand your base words and list them
- Find synonyms for those words. – Check powerthesaurus.org and add good synonyms of your base words
4. Find nice prefixes & list them
- Pro-
- Hyper-
- Co-
- Omni-
- Uni-
- Mega-
- Re-
- Neo-
5. Find nice suffixes and list them
- -acy
- -al
- -er
- -ism
- -ist
- -ity
- -ment
- -ship
6. Find and list down 1 syllable meaningful words
Find and list down 1 syllable meaningful words – You can use them to create compound or blend words.
- Spark
- Edge
- Crest
- Zen
- Base
- Craft
- Hive
- Wise
7. Find nice short adjectives you can add to the name
- Best
- Great
- Cool
- Red
- Light
- Kind
- Brave
- Thrift
8. Invent words by adding some random 1 syllable
Invent words by adding some random 1 syllable – You can well create plenty of syllables
-ta
-to
-ro
-la
-zi
-sa
-ny
-xi
9. Break down the syllables of the base words
Break down the syllables of the base words and blend them with the prefixes, suffixes, other nice words.
Ex. Finance – extract Fina then combined it with the prefixes, suffixes, short words, adjectives
10. Test the names you have created
Test the names you have created by saying it loud and ask these questions:
- First, is it short?
- Second, is it memorable?
- Third, is it easy to say and spell?
- Fourth, is it free in .com domain extension?
- Finally, is it legally free to use the name? Or, is there no trademark for it?
So, How To Come Up With A Business Name?
You just have to follow the steps we have laid out here. You can also watch this video for a more interactive tutorial and guide about on how to come up with a good business name.
In Summary
That’s more than 50 names guys. Imagine what you can do with other base words?
Just repeat the steps guys with other base words or a part of base words.
That’s it for this video guys. I hope that you can now say that I can finally generate or brainstorm a lot of company names.
So, this is how to come up with a business name. It’s easy, right?
You can also check out our curated list of business names for sale. Of, you can generate a business name with our business name generator.
