Choosing the right business name matters. Not only does it shape first impressions, but it also communicates your brand’s purpose and could help you be more discoverable online. If you’re just getting started with your venture, the question of how to come up with a business name can be unclear. We’ll dive into more details below, but there are several steps to creating a strong business name. Reflect on your values and audience and brainstorm with tools and word associations. Then, check for domain, social media and trademark availability. You’ll also need to register your name legally and digitally to protect your brand.
“You have a very limited amount of time to get a potential customer’s attention and answer key questions about what your business does,” says Mark Joyner, author of a book on business naming called The Irresistible Offer: How to Sell Your Product or Service in 3 Seconds or Less. “This is especially true for small businesses that don’t have millions of dollars to spend on a major branding effort.”
While it is admittedly a lot of work to come up with a name that sticks, there are some ways you can make the process easier. Keep reading to uncover our step-by-step guide on naming your business—no matter your niche.
How to Name Your Business: Brainstorming Tips That Work
There are a lot of steps that go into naming a business that piques customers’ interest. Here are six brainstorming tips to help you as you work on how to come up with a business name. Use these strategies to find a name that fits your demographic and values.
1. Reflect on Your Values, Company Attributes and Ecosystem
The key is to come up with a name and tagline combo “that hits you between the eyes in one eyeful,” Joyner says. The name should be memorable, while the tagline needs to answer questions the potential customer wants to know: What are you selling? What does it cost (not only in terms of price, but also time)? Why should I believe you? What’s in it for me?
To hone in on what the name and tagline should be, ask yourself these questions set forth by Cheryl Isen, Chief Marketing Officer and owner of Isen and Co., which hires out on-call chief marketing officers:
- What are the attributes and personality of the company? Are you a serious thought leader? Quirky and fun? Hard-driving and impactful?
- What is your target demographic?
- Study the competition. What can you do better? How can you set yourself apart? Be careful not to choose a name that is too similar to an existing business.
Consider the type of name you’re after. Giant corporations with marketing dollars to blow can afford abstract names (think Amazon or Bluetooth—visual words that say nothing about the product). “It’s far less expensive to name a company with a descriptive title and tagline,” Isen says.
2. Think About the Audience You’re Trying to Reach
Like any other aspect of your business, your name isn’t just for you—it’s for your customers. Your name should be no different. As you work through the process of how to come up with a business name, consider your audience. Thank you about the type of people you’re trying to reach (i.e. your target demographic) with your name. Are they young? Old? Old-school? Trendy?
Your potential customer should influence your name choice as your name is one of the first marketing assets you have. It’s potentially one of the most important.
Whatever name you choose, it should create an impression, feeling or memory in potential clients when they see it. This allows your brand to connect to that feeling and create important mental connections that lead to more sales.
3. Use Lists and Word Associations
When you’re brainstorming, make a list of words that describe you and your business—word associations that connect with your values. Then map out any ideas that connect with those phrases.
For example, let’s say you’re naming a wildlife tours business. You might list down words like outdoors, wild, wildlife, journey, destination, tour, grizzly, mountain, paths, etc. From there you would map out other words that fall under those categories to get ideas. Under mountain you could list other words like peak, summit, base, etc. Now you have dozens of adjectives to choose from.
Here are a few tools to brainstorm your name:
- Online word association tools such as OneLook or VisuWords can help generate ideas.
- Get out the dictionary and thesaurus to jump-start the brainstorm.
- List qualities, services or promises you want to convey to the customer.
- Describe your business story to Chat GPT or other LLMs to see what it suggests.
4. Try Creative Word Combinations or Mashups
When brainstorming for original, web-hip names, consider repurposed real words (Amazon), misspelled words (Flickr, Digg), compounds (Facebook), blends (Pinterest), short phrases (MySpace), suffixes or prefixes (Mashable) or made-up words (Meebo).
Isen offers this test for any potential monikers:
- Is it short and simple? “You don’t want an 11-letter name,” she says. “The market will automatically shorten it or misspell it—then you lose control of your brand.”
- Is it memorable and unique?
- Is it easy to say? Play with rhymes and alliteration (Dunkin’ Donuts). It should roll off the tongue.
5. Make Sure It’s Memorable
Another critical aspect in understanding how to come up with a business name is making it memorable. You don’t want a business name that is too “out there” or hard for people to understand intuitively. Pick a name that is easy to remember by your customers. If you decide to scale up and hire multiple employees, you want them to be able to remember the name as well.
Focus on clarity as you’re brainstorming. The clearer the name, the easier it is for customers to recall. This can be especially important when they’re referring you to a friend or trying to remember where they had that great customer experience.
6. Use Business Name Generators to Kickstart the Process
Lastly, if you’re having trouble coming up with a business name on your own, there’s no shame in using a business name generator to get the ball rolling. Here are some solid options you can check out:
- Shopify’s AI Business Name Generator
- NameMesh.com (name ideas for startups)
- Namium.com (for naming a business based on a theme)
- Vistaprint’s Business Name Generator
- Wix’s Business Name Generator
Coming Up with the Right Name: Two Case Studies
Now that we’ve outlined the nuts and bolts of how to come up with a business name on your own, here are two case studies from successful business owners that named their businesses with intent to help you on your own naming journey. Seeing real-life examples can help make the process of how to choose a business name feel a little less daunting.
Case Study #1: Mercedita Roxas-Murray
Former Executive Vice President
Business: RedPeg Marketing, Washington, D.C.
Why this name? Referencing the classic board game Battleship, the name symbolizes the company’s mission to execute strategy, impact and results. It is meant to be understood intuitively and prompt inquiry.
Results: One of the few independent marketing agencies to survive and grow since its founding 27 years ago.
We were founded in 1995 as Momentum Marketing, but there was a much larger, more established marketing company that had the same name. For a long time we benefited from “Big Mo” (as we called them). When we talked to blue-chip companies, they often said, “Oh, we know you guys and your work,” but they were really thinking of our competition.
After a while the confusion started to hurt us. We were in a time of growth, transitioning from a transaction execution company to a full-service marketing firm. We needed to succeed and fail on our own identity.
Finding a new name was a major undertaking that took five years of true work. An internal team was assigned to meet once a month to brainstorm and examine potential names. We asked our staff to drill down to the essence of who we are, what makes us different and how we could visualize those qualities. We considered hundreds of ideas and bought 20 domain names and numerous trademarks in the process. We asked customers, clients and partners what they thought of the various names, and finally narrowed it down to three. We had our creative department design logos for those three names and present them to our executive committee.
Eventually we agreed on RedPeg, referencing the board game Battleship. The staffer who suggested the name explained: “You are targeted, you make a direct hit, you are impactful, and you insert a red peg to illustrate the strike and success.” That is the core of our brand. We rolled it out to the public in 2004.
About half of the people who hear the name immediately get it. The other half get it right after we explain. It gives us a good mix of being immediately recognizable and opening a line of dialogue when we make presentations. There is an “aha” moment, and the nostalgia of the name makes it memorable.
This new name helped us get out of the shadow of “Big Mo,” and to define ourselves and build our own brand equity.
Case Study #2: William Lau
Digital Marketing Manager
Business: CanvasPaintings.com, Brooklyn, New York
Why this name? The SEO power is massive, and it illustrates exactly what the company does.
Results: 20% of web traffic comes from the keywords in the company’s name: “Canvas” and “Paintings.” Sales rose by 23% in 2012.
We’re an online retailer, so SEO was critical to choosing our name. When we launched in 2007, we immediately looked at the keywords customers were using to search for what we offer—affordable wall art, finished by hand and sold exclusively online. We quickly homed in on the words canvas and paintings.
CanvasPaintings.com was perfect—the SEO value was high, and the name explained exactly what we do—including the “.com,” which is part of the company name.
An explicit, familiar term worked best for us, because we were on a budget. We didn’t have a lot of money to build the brand around a quirky name and logo. At the time, a small retail art store owned CanvasPaintings.com, and we were able to buy it easily for a five-figure sum.
Our name choice has been critical to our success: One-fifth of the traffic to our website—which is also our storefront—comes from people Googling our top two keywords, which are our name.
Having such an easily understandable name has other marketing benefits. We get lots of engagement with Facebook campaigns and click-throughs on Google AdWords as well as email promotions.
Potential customers understand immediately what we do. When they click through to our site, they don’t have to guess what they will find and are more likely to be interested in our product when they get there. This increases our sales and decreases our bounce rate. If we had an abstract name, that wouldn’t be true.
How to Check if a Business Name Is Taken
There are a number of critical steps to check if your business name is taken already, including domain and social media searches and business or trademark searches.
Review Google and Social Media for Domain Usage
Throughout the process it is critical that you check potential names against a site such as GoDaddy.com, which can tell you—for free—if a URL is available. Isen says it’s critical for the future of your company to choose a business name for which a web address is available, and easily identified with and connected to your company.
For example, someone thinking about using the word “synergy” to name their health consulting company ought to reconsider. A quick Google search nets top results including SynergyHealthConcepts.com, TheSynergyCompany.com, SynergyHealthCare.org, SynergyHealthPLC.com and on and on. How would a potential client ever find you online?
Ensuring that a company doesn’t operate a social media account with a similar name is also critical. If you use a similar name you could quickly run into issues when you decide to make online content.
Check Business and Trademark Databases
A new business cannot legally operate using a name that already exists, so it’s paramount you check all relevant registries and databases to confirm your name is unique.
There are three databases you can review to find if a name has been used:
- United Stated Patent and Trademark Office
- Trademark Electronic Search System
- ICANN Domain Name Registration Data Lookup
In addition, you should also search the Office of the Secretary of State of the state you are seeking to operate in.
How to Register Your Business Name
Now that you have a desired name that is unique and sets you apart from competitors, it’s time to register your business name. Generally speaking, there are three different ways to do this from a legal perspective.
- Register an entity name. In the state you operate, you can register your business as an entity, such as an S-Corp, C-Corp, LLC or other corporate structure. In many cases, entity name registration protects your business name from being used in the state you operate in, though there may be some exceptions. Registering an entity in your state can be done through an online service or with a legal professional such as an attorney.
- Register a trademark. Another option is to register your name as a trademark, which protects the name at the state, national or international level depending on the registration type. Trademark protections are quite robust, as the owner has legal protection for its brand and the trademark helps identify the source of their goods or services. If you are wondering how to trademark a business name, be prepared for a little time and effort. The process of registering a trademark is quite complex, taking up to a year or more and should usually be completed with the help of an attorney. For information on how to apply, review the United States Patent and Trademark Office’s website.
- Register a doing business as (DBA) name. Business owners that wish to register their business name but not necessarily have the same legal protections can register a fictitious name or assumed name known as a DBA. A DBA allows a business owner to operate under a different name from their own personal name if they are a sole proprietor or under a different name from their formal entity name. To register a DBA, reach out to your county or state office once you confirm the name you desire is available.
Once your business has been legally registered, don’t forget to register a domain name. A domain name is the website address or URL that is your business’ digital launchpad. As soon as your domain name is registered, you can use it for as long as you own it, which is a solid way to protect your brand online.
To register a domain name, use an accredited registrar such as GoDaddy or Namecheap to purchase the domain name. Once you have the name purchased, you can use it as the name of your website.
What If I Want to Change my Business Name?
Another common question is how to change your business name. You can easily change your business name after it is registered, regardless of the type of entity you use to carry out your operations. If you are operating an LLC or other corporation, you will need to file articles of amendment with the Secretary of State in most cases—though the exact name of the process and forms may vary.
As a part of this change, sole proprietorships and certain LLCs will need to notify the IRS that their name has changed. Other entity types can simply notify the IRS of its name change on their next tax return.
An alternative option to changing a legal entity name is to simply register an additional DBA name, allowing you to operate under your old business name and a new name if you so choose.
Naming a Company That Lasts
Deciding on how to come up with a business name that both represents your values and your core business offerings isn’t an easy task. After all, it takes both logical and creative thought. But, with the right resources at your disposal and these case studies to inspire you, you are well on your way to creating a business name that your customers will love.
Feel like you might need a bit more help? Consider subscribing to SUCCESS+ for access to curated resources and expert insights based on your specific strengths and weaknesses. Join 98,000 other success-driven individuals that are finding the resources they need to bring themselves to the next stage.
Photo by JLco Julia Amaral/Shutterstock
