There is a lot in the name of your business. It speaks about who you are and what is unique about what you are doing.
By David Koller
People generally associate the company’s name with an image. That is why naming your startup is one of the first essential steps when it comes to bringing your business vision to life. It’s not an easy task as it may seem. Not only do you need to truly be creative and come up with a name that resonates with your audience, you must also be careful about the fact that someone else may be using that name already.
But yes, a proper name can make or break your efforts. It is important that people can connect with your brand, and that your name has a message that is not only close to them, but also clearly conveys your vision and your goals. If it fails at doing that, then it’s not a good name for your company, and it can ruin you.
Keep it short and easy to spell
The best names that work today are short ones, consisting of two or three syllables. Just look at all the industry giants that started with such names – Facebook, Dropbox, Google, Twitter, Tumblr, and so on. Furthermore, the name that you come up with needs to be memorable, and therefore easy to spell. You certainly don’t want people to constantly keep misspelling it. It will simply lose its effect. Therefore, follow the three essential rules – pithy, simple, and easy to spell.
Use tools to come up with a name
If you are having trouble coming up with a proper name just by brainstorming, you can make use of tools such as Nameshesh, which enables you to input a couple of keywords, and get suggestions of possible domain names, from .com to all the others. Every one of them will become a GoDaddy link, which you can use to check whether the domain is used by someone else or not. The second tool is Wordoid, which is great for coming up with completely new words out of the keyword that you input. You can set up how long you want it to be.
In order to properly use these tools, you should think about the keywords that are relevant to your business. Take a look at your competitors and try to discern the patterns that they have in coming up with business names. Keep in mind that there is an important aspect behind why some startups name themselves in a similar fashion as other companies. This is because of a phenomenon known as the familiarity principle. If your audience can make a connection between what you do and what other companies around you that they know already do, then they are more likely to trust you.
As you keep coming up with keywords, input them into the name generator tool of your choice. This way you’ll get a whole lot of alternatives that can inspire you. Get more creative and look for synonyms in the thesaurus or the dictionary. Browse Wikipedia, and keep looking until you have found what really suits you.
Get a proper domain name
According to most business experts, a name that contains the .com domain are the most memorable. This is due to the fact that the majority of your audience will see you as an established company if you use this domain. Of course, other domains, such as .biz, .org, .net, and so on work as well. The hunt for a free .com domain is the hardest one, but sometimes you can buy it from the owner for the right price. Of course, it is a good idea to cover a country-specific domain as well.
As we have previously mentioned, GoDaddy.com, or an alternative such as NetworkSolutions.com and BigRock.com, are websites that you can use to check whether the domain that you are looking for is available. In the case that somebody else registered the .com, you can track them down with the “whois” tool. Finally, it is important that your business name is the same on all channels that you use, including, of course, social media websites.
Copyright it
After you have finally come up with a name that truly yet concisely speaks about your company, and made sure that you can use the right domains, it is essential that you get a copyright protection. That way you can protect the name that you have now acquired from anyone who would like to steal it, use it under a domain that you haven’t covered, and so on. So go ahead, and file an application for registering a trademark for your name, and rid yourself of potential legal worries.
Final words
When you’ve finally got a name that will resonate with your audience, made sure that you’ve covered up all the essential domains, and registered your name as a trademark, you can move to other steps related to launching your startup. In the end, with all that we have discussed in this article, it is important that you are happy with the name that you have chosen. After all, it’s your business, and it is a name that will stick with you for a (hopefully long) while.
David Koller is a passionate blogger and copywriter for Media Gurus, mainly interested in Business and Digital Marketing. @DavidtheKoller
Sign stock photo by Gustavo Frazao/Shutterstock
