Top Ten Tips for Choosing Your Company Name
For some people, choosing a name for their new company is easy.
They may have had a name in mind right since they first thought of a business, or they just use their own name.
For others it's an arduous task that involves short lists, long lists, sleepless nights and Post It notes.
Lots of Post It notes.
At The Design Mechanics we work with lots of new start businesses and have come up with the following tips for choosing a name for your new company: 1.
Practicalities Remember that you are going to have to work with your company name; it is going to be a tool you use every day.
As such it should be easy for you and your staff to pronounce when answering the phone and easy for people to write down.
If you choose an obscure, difficult or over-long name that you always have to spell out to people it will become the bane of your working life.
2.
Pick a name with an available web address Your website should be the focal point for your marketing and one of the first things when choosing a company name is to see what domain names are available.
Unfortunately, getting good domain names gets harder every day, and even though new domain extensions (like.
biz.
mob) keep getting released, they don't have the same authority as a.
com or.
co.
uk address.
Short and simple domains are in very short supply these days, but getting a little creative will mean you can usually find a usable web address.
If you can't find a simple web address around your company name, or if you find someone that does exactly what you do with a similar website address then consider picking a different company name.
3.
Search for people with the same name Another important check when choosing your company name is to see if anyone else is using it.
If you are setting up a limited company start at the Companies House website and use their "Web Check" service to see if anyone else has the same name.
Next, do a web search on your potential company name and see what comes up.
It's acceptable for you to have the same trading name as someone else as long as you are in a different industry and location - however don't choose a name similar to a competitor else you may fall foul of the "passing off" law.
It's also wise to avoid choosing the same name as a national brand as they will have the legal clout to make life very hard for you if they decide you are too close to a service they are offering or you become too high profile yourself...
even if your surname is McDonald.
4.
Keeping legal In Britain there are a number of rules about company names.
For instance you can't use words such as Royal, National, Authority or British unless you have special permission to do so.
You also can't use anything that would be deemed to be offence - but would you really want to anyway? You can only use status terms such as Limited, Charity or Trust if your company is legally registered as such.
5.
Descriptive names Descriptive company names say what they do on the tin.
For example: North Bridge Furniture Designs, JPS Glass Repair, Huddersfield Boiler Repairs.
They are great for telling people what you do right from the off and are usually found in "doing" industries such as manufacturing and engineering.
However, if you plan to expand your company into other markets and services then a descriptive name of what you do now might not work in the future - most national or global brands that started off with descriptive names have now turned into abbreviations, such as HSBC (Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation); BT (British Telecom) and The AA (The Automobile Association).
6.
Naming your company after yourself A huge number of companies are named after the person who founded it (WH Smiths, Dyson, Morrisons) and it is still one of the most popular ways to name a business.
However, this can provide you with growing pains later.
If the company name is your name then your clients may be reluctant to deal with anyone else.
7.
Emotive and conceptual names Emotive names tell people more about your company ethos, creating a feeling or image.
For example: Serendipity Designs, Explosion Marketing, Sunshine Day Care.
Emotive names give a lot of opportunity to tie in marketing and design elements around your company name and can be a lot more memorable that a purely descriptive name.
Conceptual names have nothing to do with what your company actually does.
It could be a made-up word, an obscure term or even a sentence (Red or Dead).
These names can be used to great effect but are also be the hardest names for your client to remember: remember that Apple, Google and Nike have had massive marketing budgets thrown at them to get those words to stick in your consciousness.
8.
Really stuck? Try Brainstorming If you really can't come up with a company name, there are many creative exercises you can do to help you along.
For example, on separate scraps of paper list lots of words that come into your mind around the service you want to offer, these can be a tentative as you like - the more the better! Write some literal words (ie, what you actually do) and emotive such as "expert", "fresh", "amazing".
Then add in a few curveballs for good measure, perhaps your favourite colour, your street name, even your pet's name! Put all these words into a bag and pull them out in pairs and write down the resulting company names.
Many of them will be inappropriate, not make sense as a company name or just be plain silly, but it's a fun exercise to do - a few will be useable or set you off on a different line of thought.
9.
Adding a strap-line Remember, you don't need to fit everything you do into your business name.
If you really like a name for your company but it doesn't really say what you do then come up with a short strapline that you can also use alongside your logo ("Nike - Just Do It" for example).
You also don't have to use your full company name on your logo.
"Atkinson Global Trading Supplies Ltd" can just use the word "Atkinson" on the logo, as long you list your full registered company name on your website and business stationery.
10.
The truth is...
It doesn't really matter! After all is said and done, it doesn't really matter what you call your business.
Once you have been using a name for a couple of months it will become second nature.
You could open a dictionary at random, stab a pin at the page and no matter how obscure the word you picked, after a year of trading you wouldn't be able to imagine your company being called anything else.
Of course, a good memorable company name is a bonus - but how long do you think Messers Ford, Kellogg, and Armarni took over naming theirs?
They may have had a name in mind right since they first thought of a business, or they just use their own name.
For others it's an arduous task that involves short lists, long lists, sleepless nights and Post It notes.
Lots of Post It notes.
At The Design Mechanics we work with lots of new start businesses and have come up with the following tips for choosing a name for your new company: 1.
Practicalities Remember that you are going to have to work with your company name; it is going to be a tool you use every day.
As such it should be easy for you and your staff to pronounce when answering the phone and easy for people to write down.
If you choose an obscure, difficult or over-long name that you always have to spell out to people it will become the bane of your working life.
2.
Pick a name with an available web address Your website should be the focal point for your marketing and one of the first things when choosing a company name is to see what domain names are available.
Unfortunately, getting good domain names gets harder every day, and even though new domain extensions (like.
biz.
mob) keep getting released, they don't have the same authority as a.
com or.
co.
uk address.
Short and simple domains are in very short supply these days, but getting a little creative will mean you can usually find a usable web address.
If you can't find a simple web address around your company name, or if you find someone that does exactly what you do with a similar website address then consider picking a different company name.
3.
Search for people with the same name Another important check when choosing your company name is to see if anyone else is using it.
If you are setting up a limited company start at the Companies House website and use their "Web Check" service to see if anyone else has the same name.
Next, do a web search on your potential company name and see what comes up.
It's acceptable for you to have the same trading name as someone else as long as you are in a different industry and location - however don't choose a name similar to a competitor else you may fall foul of the "passing off" law.
It's also wise to avoid choosing the same name as a national brand as they will have the legal clout to make life very hard for you if they decide you are too close to a service they are offering or you become too high profile yourself...
even if your surname is McDonald.
4.
Keeping legal In Britain there are a number of rules about company names.
For instance you can't use words such as Royal, National, Authority or British unless you have special permission to do so.
You also can't use anything that would be deemed to be offence - but would you really want to anyway? You can only use status terms such as Limited, Charity or Trust if your company is legally registered as such.
5.
Descriptive names Descriptive company names say what they do on the tin.
For example: North Bridge Furniture Designs, JPS Glass Repair, Huddersfield Boiler Repairs.
They are great for telling people what you do right from the off and are usually found in "doing" industries such as manufacturing and engineering.
However, if you plan to expand your company into other markets and services then a descriptive name of what you do now might not work in the future - most national or global brands that started off with descriptive names have now turned into abbreviations, such as HSBC (Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation); BT (British Telecom) and The AA (The Automobile Association).
6.
Naming your company after yourself A huge number of companies are named after the person who founded it (WH Smiths, Dyson, Morrisons) and it is still one of the most popular ways to name a business.
However, this can provide you with growing pains later.
If the company name is your name then your clients may be reluctant to deal with anyone else.
7.
Emotive and conceptual names Emotive names tell people more about your company ethos, creating a feeling or image.
For example: Serendipity Designs, Explosion Marketing, Sunshine Day Care.
Emotive names give a lot of opportunity to tie in marketing and design elements around your company name and can be a lot more memorable that a purely descriptive name.
Conceptual names have nothing to do with what your company actually does.
It could be a made-up word, an obscure term or even a sentence (Red or Dead).
These names can be used to great effect but are also be the hardest names for your client to remember: remember that Apple, Google and Nike have had massive marketing budgets thrown at them to get those words to stick in your consciousness.
8.
Really stuck? Try Brainstorming If you really can't come up with a company name, there are many creative exercises you can do to help you along.
For example, on separate scraps of paper list lots of words that come into your mind around the service you want to offer, these can be a tentative as you like - the more the better! Write some literal words (ie, what you actually do) and emotive such as "expert", "fresh", "amazing".
Then add in a few curveballs for good measure, perhaps your favourite colour, your street name, even your pet's name! Put all these words into a bag and pull them out in pairs and write down the resulting company names.
Many of them will be inappropriate, not make sense as a company name or just be plain silly, but it's a fun exercise to do - a few will be useable or set you off on a different line of thought.
9.
Adding a strap-line Remember, you don't need to fit everything you do into your business name.
If you really like a name for your company but it doesn't really say what you do then come up with a short strapline that you can also use alongside your logo ("Nike - Just Do It" for example).
You also don't have to use your full company name on your logo.
"Atkinson Global Trading Supplies Ltd" can just use the word "Atkinson" on the logo, as long you list your full registered company name on your website and business stationery.
10.
The truth is...
It doesn't really matter! After all is said and done, it doesn't really matter what you call your business.
Once you have been using a name for a couple of months it will become second nature.
You could open a dictionary at random, stab a pin at the page and no matter how obscure the word you picked, after a year of trading you wouldn't be able to imagine your company being called anything else.
Of course, a good memorable company name is a bonus - but how long do you think Messers Ford, Kellogg, and Armarni took over naming theirs?