Where Do Company and Brand Name Ideas Come From?

Every day we hear from entrepreneurs asking, “I need a company name.” That’s usually followed by “we don’t even know where to start.” After some questions, these entrepreneurs are really asking, where the ideas for company names come from. With that in mind, the team at Brandings wants to share some of how we develop targeted startup business and company names.

Develop Company Name Ideas for your Customers

One of the most common mistakes and entrepreneur makes is, not targeting their business name to their ideal customers. We know, we get it, you’d love that everyone in the world to buy from your business. However, not identifying who your core customer is, is one of the biggest mistakes most entrepreneurs make. Targeting your core customer, or target market, is one of the most important keys to business success.

Once you determine who your target customer is, an entrepreneur should design your business name to them. Your company name ideas should all be centered around your customers.

Creating a list of this target markets likes, passions, what they’re looking for in a business or product, and jot that all down. It’s from this list, you’ll start to get the business ideas flowing.

With this list of you’ve created of your target markets likes and dislikes and initial company name ideas and gather a small group. This group will be your decision makers.

Gather a Startup Naming Group

Furthermore, this group should include a representative from all your different stakeholders’ groups. Included should be: employees, owners, vendors or suppliers, stockholders and don’t forget prospective clients.

In fact, this last group, these prospective clients are the most members of this business naming important group. Without know them and targeting your startup name to them, your company may not last long.

The experts here, always suggest that you should try to look at your new company from the eyes of your clients. These experts have found, while it’s quite difficult, looking at your business through the eyes of your customers is incredibly important and can help you develop more ideas for your company or business. Furthermore, our experts have found, that something that seems obvious to you the entrepreneur, may not be to your prospective clients.

Please note, that while we suggest you get a representative from each of your stakeholders, keep your group small. All too often, we’ve seen groups get too big. The team here has found, that too many people in your group, the best company name ideas can get shot down due the conservative nature of large groups. With large groups, no one can agree on anything and you are left with a dull or non-creative name.

Work with this group to start developing more business name ideas.

Your work, between the new name ideas developed within the group and your previous list, you will have a lot to work with.

What do I do with these Company Name Ideas?

With this list of naming ideas, you’ve developed the perfect startup name. Great, you’re done right? Not even close.

Making sure that you can actually use any of company name idea that you’ve developed is a critical and important step to company naming.

Take this list of company name ideas and check for availability. There are two main places that you need to check:

1 – Whois Lookup. There are plenty of them out there like the Godaddy Lookup. Here you will make sure that you can obtain the exact match dot-com domain name. If you can’t either register the name or buy it, toss that idea right out (learn more about obtaining and check domain availability).

2 – USPTO, once you’ve eliminated the names where you can’t obtain the matching dot-com, you need to make sure there’s not going to be any trademark infringement issues (learn more about trademarking your business name).

Checking Availability of my Business Name Ideas

Once you’ve done your homework with your business name ideas, a once long list of ideas should be whittled down to just a few. Take these names back to the group if you can. Work with your group, and more importantly your target customer to see which they feel is the best.

Now, the next time you’re asking yourself “I need company name ideas” consider our blog. Best yet, consider Brandings, we may just be the best idea you have.

Moreover, we’ve already done some of the legwork for you. All the names you’ll see on our site have already been tested for availability. We know you can obtain the business name and corresponding dot-com domain because we already own them!

Beyond that, we know that simply browsing the Brandings Predeveloped Names will spark new and exciting naming ideas for you!

Ideas for Your Shipping & Freight Startup: