Business Naming Basics

Naming a business after the owners is commonplace, particularly for service providers.

There are two main reasons people name their company’s after themselves – it’s easy and there’s an ego involved.

The name, particularly if it’s comprised of two or three partner’s names, like most law and accounting firms, is usually available and possibly trademarkable. And it takes very little creativity to name a business after oneself. What’s more, the business can be named quickly so the founders can get on with the important things. They probably spend more time picking office furniture than they do naming their business.

Ego is a little more complicated reason for the owner naming the business after themselves. Very seldom will the owner acknowledge that having a business named after oneself is an act of ego-stroking. Their response when asked usually has to do with the name having a “certain reputation in the field”. Then they might also allude to the fact that most professional service providers use the principal’s name. It’s, well, professional.

Little thought is given to an “exit plan”. Selling a business that’s named for someone else doesn’t appeal to other ego-driven professionals, nor do buyers see that they gain any equity by carrying on under someone else’s name.

There is a trend, even in the medical community, to do business under a name designed to evoke a positive feeling about the entity, and to differentiate on factors other than the founder’s reputation. I believe it’s healthy and beneficial to take the time and make the effort to name a professional service provider by a name that sets the organization, not the individuals, apart.

Oh, another group of professionals guilty of using founder names? Branding consultants.

Goodness gracious. Think they’d advise their clients to do the same?

Tags: Name Development by MartinJ
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There are several letter combinations that are unusual for word beginnings. Unusual, but not so foreign that folks don’t know how to spell and pronounce the words in which those combinations normally appear. I call them bi-letters

So what are some of those bi-letters that can help you create unique names? First, they’re all consonants. Second, they’re not Anglo-derived. Here are those I’ve identified along with a common word using them.

Cz czar
Dh dharma
Dj Djakarta
Dw dwarf
Gh ghost
Gn gnarl
Kh khaki
Kl klieg
Pn pneumonia
Ps psychic
Pt ptarmigan
Rh rhythym
Ry rye

There are two approaches to using bi-letters as name beginnings.

First, go through your list of descriptor words you’ve already identified as appropriate to what you’re naming and look for those with the same sound as one of the bi-letters. Note that the first letter after the bi-letter should be a vowel. This is an example of deliberate misspelling to achieve uniqueness.

Second, just add a vowel and a consonant after a bi-letter to form a new, short word that could become a coined name, or the first syllable of potential name. This technique creates coined words that people can read and pronounce with confidence.

Whenever you come across bi-letters, put them in your naming aids notebook.

(Don’t have a naming aids notebook? If you’re planning to name more than one business, product, service, event or destination, I suggest your begin one now. If it’s a 3-hole notebook, you can go through these blogs and copy and print the tips I’ve provided. That would be a pretty good beginning.)

Tags: Naming Ideas by MartinJ
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Quite often an organization will want to change its name.

There are several valid reasons for changing your company’s name.

1) A name change might be sought because the company has outgrown their old name, that is the name has become irrelevant (Radio Shack).

2) The company’s reputation might have been sullied to the point no salvation (Enron).

3) Perhaps the name itself has taken on an undesired life of its own (Aids).

4) Legal conflicts with Trademark holders that dictate changing the name.

5) Mergers and acquisitions where confusing or conflicting situations arise either in the marketplace or internally.

6) A “nickname” based upon the original name becomes so dominant the company is practically forced to officially adopt the nickname (IBM, FedEx).

There are probably other reasons, but these six predominate.

The management mind-set is different in each of these situations.

But let’s just concentrate on the first situation: an outmoded name. In 1), management is perhaps reluctant if not conflicted about making a change. They see equity in the name. They don’t want to confuse customers. This may also apply to managements in the 4) and 5) situations, but probably not to the same extent.

What often happens is that management believes they must “transition” from the old name to the new, that they should retain part of their old name, or at least associate with it in some way. The outcome is usually a weak and often confusing name that neither retains old, desirable associations, nor defines a new “role” for the organization.

By not being open to a name that might signify new directions, new markets, new opportunities, they limit the potential of a new name that’s more relevant to the company’s vision and mission. So Radio Shack becomes The Shack.

Here in Colorado there was a “home for wayward boys” called Colorado Boys Ranch. As it evolved, it catered to a nationwide clientele of boys and girls, and became much more “high-tech” than a ranch. To “transition”, they used the initials CBR coupled with a generic phrase that was much too abstract to mean anything. Now, except for long-time donors who still call it Colorado Boys Ranch, there is no identity for this fine organization.

By attempting to hold on to old equity and placate stakeholders, yet reflect what the organization has become, managements inhibit and restrict creativity and the chance of adopting a name with gusto.

You can’t have it both ways.

Tags: Name Management by MartinJ
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