Naming Your Start-Up: How to Pick a Name
Over the course of the years I have started dozens of websites and start-up projects and every time, the aspect where I have spent the most time during the start-up process is actually picking the name. I feel that the name of a business is crucial to its success. It has to be interesting, but informative. It needs be descriptive, but succinct. vgrawtkbsp
In the end, after spending hours playing around with ideas, the name you come up with has to be original and available as a domain name (.com). You can see why naming your company is not a simple 1-2-3 process. Speaking as someone who has gone through this process many times, I’d like to share some tips and tools I use for choosing a company name.
Make it Relevant
Sure companies have been successful picking seemingly random company names from Google to Pepsi and everything in-between. Yet, I have found that while building strong brand image around such a name is a great marketing point, it is easier for start-ups to gain traction when the name reveals something about what the company does. For my college admissions consulting firm ZapPrep, the word “prep” indicates that the service is a tutoring or prepping service for something, in this case college admissions consulting.
However, you don’t want the name to be boring. College Admissions Consulting Company is no where near as interesting or easy to remember as ZapPrep If you do pick a random name, incorporate it into your product. For example, “Twitter” users send “tweets” and Digg users literally “digg” stories.
Make it Short and Visual
These two characteristics of a good company name help people remember it. They want something short and basic, and an interesting name which conjures up certain positive images as it is easier to recall an image then it is just the text of the company name. A strong well-defined logo can help with this.
Make sure it is Easy to Spell
I have come across a number of companies, especially web 2.0 start-ups, with very clever and interesting names…when said out loud. However, when it comes to typing these names, confusion over the proper way to spell the name occurs. When you choose a company name, ask people to spell it out when you say it to make sure that it cannot be easily confused with an alternative spelling. Homophones are no good for business names.
Make sure it is available
Once you have a great company name, make sure the domain name is available. In today’s increasingly online world, having a strong online presence if crucial to your company’s success and this starts with having the domain name yourcompany.com. Don’t settle for .net or .org, get the .com extension.
