Strategies for Creating a Catchy Business Name

This StartupJournal article offers advice for naming a business, covering the basics (your name should be memorable, simple and easy to pronounce) as well as advanced considerations for trademarks and legal purposes.

When conjuring up a name for a new company or product, Mr. Burd - president of The Naming Company in East Stroudsburg, Pa - and his team consider four types: descriptive, suggestive, arbitrary and fanciful. A descriptive name says just what it is (Beaded Jewelry Inc.). A suggestive name applies a quality or attribute of your product (say, Indonesian Jewelry, if all your beads were from Indonesia). An arbitrary name has no connection to what you are selling, along the lines of, say, Apple Computer Inc. A fanciful name is a made-up word: Xerox Corp., or Accenture Ltd.

He suggests this simple exercise for devising a distinctive name. Start with the name of your favorite plant, your childhood pet, your street or other name. “It doesn’t matter,” he says, “as long as it distinguishes her from other beaded-jewelry makers.” Then use that word to modify your line of business. You might end up with “Marigold Beaded Jewelry,” “Lisa’s Beads” or “Spring Street Bead Designs.”

Are you contemplating an online business? Cutesy spelling can work for packaged products, he says, but are murder as an Internet domain name. No one can remember how to spell it to find the Web site.

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