“What's in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet,” -- William Shakespeare
The brilliant Shakespeare may have been right when he wrote that a rose would smell sweet regardless of what we call it. When it comes to a company name, however, the name itself can be a source of success - or problems. With a well-considered choice of name, we can create a distinctive brand that may become an important lever for business growth. So how should we choose a name for a company, or for a new product we want to bring to market? What should we pay attention to when choosing a name?
Where can I find ideas for a name?
During the development of a new product or service, you have probably already had an idea for a name, or you may have used a working title for the project. When you start thinking about the name seriously, you can make the process much easier by putting some information about the product on paper and creating a starting point or brief. Write down what your product is, what its key features are, what it looks like and what purpose it serves.
Then define the target markets you intend to enter in the long term, and describe your target customer as precisely as possible.
Based on the brief, you can then start generating ideas - the more, the better. You can use different brainstorming tools, such as a mind map or a moodboard. I personally find the latter especially useful, because this method involves collecting pieces of inspiration in the form of photographs, illustrations, quotes, articles, colours, patterns, packaging examples and similar material, and arranging them on a virtual or physical board.
Pinterest is also a popular tool for creating moodboards, as it allows you to save and sort images found online. You can also create cards on which you write words or word roots related to your product, and then experiment with how they can be arranged.
Source: Badger Design
How to choose a truly good name?
The name should be meaningfully connected to the product
I know what you will say. What do the names “Coca-Cola” and “Pepsi” have in common with a caramel-citrus soft drink? Not much, admittedly. Well, only partly - the word “cola” comes from the kola nut, which grows mainly in African tropical forests and is used as an aromatic ingredient in soft drinks. Although the kola nut is now rarely used in the industrial production of these drinks, the term has become established worldwide for this type of beverage.
This is precisely why many cola drink manufacturers use the word as part of their brand name, for example Virgin Cola, Cola Turka, Red Bull Cola, Vita-Cola, Kofola and others.
In the digital age of keywords, a “meaningful” company name is even more important, especially if you choose a combination of relevant keywords. The digital consumer has an ever-shorter attention span, so you simply do not have time to build awareness with a television advertisement lasting several dozen seconds. With a strategic choice of name and visual identity, you can communicate your offering directly through your logo and name.
The name should be understandable to the target market
The longer you keep turning the chosen name over in the office, the more accustomed to it you become and the more you accept it. You stop hearing that it does not quite roll off the tongue; you start accepting an unusual, unique spelling as something normal and grammatically natural. In the enthusiasm of product development, you always risk falling in love with your product more than anyone else - and love for the product is certainly necessary if you intend to live with it in the long term - but that love can also blind you.
As a result, you may fail to notice how awkward the name of your product may sound to potential customers.
Choose a name that your target audience will be able to read and pronounce. This advice is nothing more than common sense: do not use Slovenian diacritics if you intend to sell in Western Europe. Do not use abbreviations or clever jokes that, in reality, only you and three university friends understand. Instead, research the vocabulary used in your field in the countries you want to enter.
Use terminology that is as linguistically neutral as possible, so that it can be understood by the widest possible group of potential customers.
The name should be unique
Uniqueness is also part of making a name recognisable as a brand, because you do not want to be mistaken for an unrelated, larger company, or worse, for a direct competitor. If you are tempted to build your own brand on the back of a more established one, think carefully, because that kind of misuse or “ignorance” can bring unnecessary legal problems that may drain your resources.
Before you choose a name that will accompany you throughout the entire life cycle of your product, thoroughly research the competition. Fortunately, you do not have to leave the office to do this; you can use several online tools:
Company register data. If we focus first on the Slovenian market, online portals such as AJPES, Bizi.si and Gvin allow you to check easily whether a company with your chosen name already exists. Access to full business entity data is usually paid, but free access will normally be sufficient for this type of research. Similar tools can also help you research competitors in foreign markets.
Domain registers. If you are not on the internet, you do not exist, as the saying goes. You can check whether your chosen domain is still available with any domain registration provider, such as Domenca or Žabec. If the domain equivalent of your chosen name is not available, you will unfortunately have to give up the name or accept that you may have to pay a few hundred or even a few thousand euros for a premium domain.
You should also be aware that the longer you delay purchasing the perfect domain, the higher its purchase price may become. Imagine being the former owner of the domain bitstamp.com; you would probably have been prepared to sell it at a much higher price in 2016, when Bitstamp was valued at 60 million dollars, than in 2014, when the company was reportedly valued at 39 million dollars.
*The primary domain of the crypto exchange Bitstamp is still bitstamp.net, although the company later acquired the .com domain and redirects all traffic from it to the .net domain.
Social networks. Check whether your chosen name is already in use on any social network. Facebook and LinkedIn allow the same name to be used for multiple accounts, while Instagram and Twitter/X typically require unique usernames. Are those usernames still available for your chosen name, and if they are not, is there an acceptable alternative, such as @StartupOfficial or similar? At the same time, check the general sentiment among online users, so you do not find out too late that your name is associated with an online scandal from a few years ago.
The WIPO trademark database. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) keeps records of trademarks registered in countries around the world through the WIPO Global Brand Database. The database is freely accessible online and allows searches by different criteria, including protection status, product or service category, territory of protection and similar criteria. The WIPO database is an excellent final safeguard that helps you uncover the last hidden risks and avoid them.
The name should be simple
To summarise the good practices mentioned above once again: the name of a company or product should be easy to read and understand, and it should not be too complex, so that people can remember it correctly.
The same rule applies to internet domains. Avoid hyphens, special endings, diacritics and similar features, as this will [sentence unfinished in the source text displayed on the website].
The name should not have negative connotations
Obvious, right? If you followed our recommendations, you will already have avoided any potential negative connotations arising from past stories or cultural specificities in foreign markets. All that remains is live testing. Say the chosen name several times in succession, in different ways and with different emphases, and pay attention to whether any swear word may be hidden somewhere in the middle. Ask friends or acquaintances whether the name sounds good to them, whether they understand it and whether they find anything strange about it.
If you are in the process of choosing a name for a company, product or service, it makes sense to check before making a final decision whether the chosen name is truly available and suitable for protection as a trademark. The lawyers at Lemur Legal can help you check existing trademarks and assess risks. We register trademarks at one of the most competitive prices on the market. A voucher is currently also available for EU trademark registration, covering 60% of the costs.
For additional questions, write to us at info@lemur.legal.