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1. The brand name should be original 2. Make your brand name descriptive 3. Your brand name can reflect the purpose of the business 4. Brand names make use of keywords 5. Books contain powerful keywords which you can use 6. Play around with words to keep it original 7. Brand names can make use of different languages 8. Maps can provide a powerful brand name 9. Your brand needs to last into the future 10. Different perspectives of your product can provide inspiration for brand names 11. Abbreviations can become unique brand names 12. A user-friendly brand name is essential 13. Ensure that your shortlist of brand names is open for use 14. A brand name should be loved by you and your customers   If you’re a startup looking for success, one thing’s certain: you need a unique, attention-grabbing name that attracts your target market.

The process of thinking of a catchy name isn’t easy.

There are many things to consider when trying to come up with a unique name. But with this guide by Brandnic, you’ll soon begin the brainstorming process. You’ll soon be able to ensure that your brand name is innovative and can stand the test of time. By the end, you’ll have the perfect brand name for your company – one that will have potential consumers visiting your webpage or buying your products. If you’re ready, let’s begin looking at some of the above values that we associate with a successful, unique brand name. These are some of the cornerstones of coming up with a powerful identity.

The brand name should be original

To dare to do something new is often frightening. It’s also difficult to do. However, it’s something that is almost imperative when trying to think of a name for your business. Don’t be scared to be original or to set your business apart from the hundreds of thousands of new startups that pop up every month. You need to stand out from common names. Show some creativity when choosing a brand name.[/caption] So many applications have taken names such as Tumblr, Grindr, Flickr… Choosing a name like this means that yours will lack innovation and won’t get noticed. If you’re a startup finding its feet, you’ll need a name that convinces people to find out more about your company or to take notice of your business. Because competition is fierce when it comes to new companies. Free-flowing brainstorming is a great way to unleash the power of your imagination and create unique names. By writing notes while thinking you can create many different choices as potential candidates for naming your business.

It’s important not to edit your thoughts when brainstorming; you need to be creative in this process.

Also, picking a brand name by browsing the Brandnic marketplace can take the strain out of the brainstorming process. Just one click and you can search some awesome, cool names in seconds. Read our in-depth guide about understanding the cool company names.

Make your brand name descriptive

Thinking of the one word that describes your business best can be a good approach to creating a unique brand name. An example of this could be;

The supermarket 7-Eleven, which reflects an essential selling point of the business – it’s all-day

opening times. Later we’ll discuss the use of keywords, which can make this process easier.

Your brand name can reflect the purpose of the business

Before considering a powerful, unique brand name, you should be able to work out two things: who your target consumer is, and what services or products you provide. Because of these two factors are not confirmed at the beginning, it will be nearly impossible to create a unique name. Once you’ve defined your main consumer, you’ll be able to get the name right. Many startups attempt to come up with a brand name before figuring out what their business offers, and this often hinders the process.

By all means, consider some ideas for your brand, but you should make sure that it has something to do with your brand’s principles.

Using tools like Alexa is a good strategy to identify just who visits the websites of your competitors. It even allows you to research the gender, location, and age of their consumers. Understand your consumer and target market.[/caption] Another useful approach is to check the Facebook and Twitter pages of your competitors, which can provide some information about their online presence and following. And with these two steps, you can easily identify your typical avatar – a particular description of your company’s target market. So, you’ve got your brand avatar. You’ll now need to be able to nail down the brand archetype – and there are 12 main ones that you can choose from. You should consider this carefully in order to identify which archetype is best suited to your company.

The sports brand Nike is an eponymous name that makes reference to the Greek goddess of victory.

The skincare range Dove uses the image of the dove to reflect purity. In short, these brands have specified their archetypes and avatar, and they are popular around the world.

Brand names make use of keywords

Searching brand names within your business category.[/caption] One of the first things to do, to help the brainstorming, is to research keywords for your domain name. You should think and look for the best name that is available to make them your brand as brandnic marketplace got a lot of names that can be converted into a brand and they are simply amazing. You can start your search by Just typing the word in the search box and you will see the magic... a lot of brand names are being generated in the marketplace and you’ll be provided with a graph of the many words associated with it. At the click of a button, the tool generates a list of potential words!

Books contain powerful keywords which you can use

Another step to take, when thinking about a new brand name, is to look up words in books. You could make use of a dictionary, a non-fiction book, a magazine or perhaps a novel that you enjoyed reading. Skim read the pages and jot down the words that seem powerful. At this stage, even if the words are not completely related to your startup, still include them. The important thing is to create a broad list that you can later narrow down.

Play around with words to keep it original

Another method to consider when trying to think of an original brand name is to use wordplay. Using words that are homophones, for instance, can inspire and intrigue your consumers. Some examples of this include: Sole Man (a company specializing in shoe repairs, playing with the word ‘soul’ man), Melon Cauli (a vegetable and fruit store making use of the word ‘melancholy’), and Spoon Me (which is a frozen yogurt company). Place your keyword and the brand name generator will generate business names.[/caption] the example of our own comes from;

Brand Name (a company selling brand names and playing the words with ‘brand’ and ‘nic’ comes up with ‘brandnic’)

The above examples play around with different words to create innovative brand names. And there are ways other than making use of homophones that can be used to come up with powerful brand names. For example, misspellings can work in your favor too, provided you don’t misspell a word that describes the product. Both Rice Krispies and Google use this technique of misspelling, and they are some of the biggest brand names out there.

Brand names can make use of different languages

A unique option for your brand name could be hidden in another language. Considering words that aren’t English, or are not your mother tongue, can be very useful when trying to be original.

Popular brands often make use of words from the romance languages – Spanish, Italian or French

Which can conjure intrigue or a sense of international recognition. You might even choose to use Latin to create a powerful brand name with a deep meaning, in the same way, Volvo ‘I roll’, Acer ‘sharp’ and Verison ‘truth’ have done. The name can be half English and half other - to make a perfect combination.[/caption] However, if you do consider a language other than English for your brand name, you should be careful. Research the meaning behind the word before choosing it, because the last thing you want is to convey a slang meaning of a word that offends your target market. Search the internet to be certain that your chosen word doesn’t secretly mean something else.

Maps can provide a powerful brand name

In a similar way, if you’re stuck for inspiration, you could always take a look at an atlas or world map to generate some fresh, exotic business names. There are plenty of companies that have used this approach. A brand could be anything that shows authority and power.[/caption]

Fuji makes use of the globally-recognizable highest mountain in Japan;

Amazon uses the name of the Amazon river – the largest in the world; Adobe is named after the Adobe creek…

Your brand needs to last into the future

It’s important to recognize that a brand name can make or break a company. This is because a business should always aim for expansion or growth, and a name that is limiting in its nature can hinder business progress. As your business grows you’ll want a name that encompasses this growth. For example,

Your enterprise specializes in women’s shoes, before choosing a name you should consider that there is the potential to create men’s shoes too. Limiting yourself with a name like Heels for a Queen would be a potential mistake.

Your brand must be ready for future demands.[/caption] So how can we avoid limiting a new company to its current products or services? One method is to consider your business as a whole – to recognize that your company has values that set it apart from others.

It’s important to think about your company’s story when brainstorming; this is what makes it unique.

You should consider some of the following points when trying to determine your company’s story: the way you would describe your startup to other people, the company’s main goal, the emotions you want to stir up in your consumers, your unique selling point. When brainstorming, write the answers to these points on a piece of paper.

Think about what your company offers. This can be particularly useful if your company is service-based.

If you include the service you offer in the brand name, you have a higher potential to attract your target market. This is, after all, what they will be searching for. A brand name should not be too complicated. Using lots of words that attempt to achieve many things can often confuse your consumers. You should try to come up with a name that is simple and which creates positive feelings in your target market and, of course, yourself.

Different perspectives of your product can provide inspiration for brand names

Perhaps your product or service conjures up a different image or reminds you of something different. You can actually use this to your advantage. Just view your product from a different perspective, ask those close to you to describe the product or tell you what it is similar to.

Companies such as Caterpillar and Blackberry made use of this strategy – some of the largest companies in the world.

And, with that, you can create a very premium brand name.

Abbreviations can become unique brand names

Using a word that resonates with you or your company can work well if you abbreviate it. One example of this is the company Cisco, the globally-recognizable IT company, which abbreviates the city San Francisco – (the place in which the enterprise was created).

A user-friendly brand name is essential

You may now have a shortlist of initial ideas for your brand name, so what should you do now? The next step is to select a name that can be pronounced easily – a name that can be spelled without difficulty and can be typed into Google without problems. The name may be made-up, but it should still fit into these criteria.

Thankfully, Google enables users to correct their spelling of the words typed into the URL browser, using the “Did you mean…?” system.

However, this doesn’t mean that your brand name shouldn’t be easy to spell. Because, if your target market isn’t the best spellers, they can easily be taken to a completely different webpage if they mistype a word. And if your consumers land on the pages of your competition, essentially you’re handing your target market to another business.

You should say your potential brand names out loud to hear how they sound and to see if they are memorable.

Your brand speaking to your audience.[/caption] So how can we create a name that is user-friendly?

1. One thing to think about, at this stage is limiting your creativity. As you get further and further into the brainstorming process you should now think about short, snappy names that are powerful. Constrain yourself to words that have one or two syllables in order to create punchy brand names.
2. Using techniques such as alliteration in your brand name can be an effective way to create powerful names. Examples of this include Squarespace or PayPal, names that are easy to remember and are user-friendly.
3. If you include verbs in your brand name, you’re also likely to attract more consumers. Verbs associated with your business and keywords can resonate well with your target market. For instance, Shopify or Dropbox makes use of the verbs ‘shop’ and ‘drop’, words which the target market is going to use when searching for a service or product in Google.
4. It’s important to test out your brand names in different ways to ensure they feel ‘right’ for your company. Draft and create logo designs in order to test out how your brand name appears on paper. You can do this via the Brandnic website – through which you can instantly create the perfect, professional logo for your brand.

Ensure that your shortlist of brand names is open for use

At this point, you may have a few company names that you’re seriously considering using for your business. Now it’s time to do some research into the availability of these brand names to make sure that they are open for use. 1. First things first, you need to think about search engine optimization. You’ll want to have the brand name within your domain or website URL, so the first thing is to research whether or not it’s available in the form ".com". Because using a URL that has ".com" has the potential to ensure your business has authenticity and can generate more traffic or visits from your target market. Now, using ".com" may not be possible. But don’t give up – there is still hope. You can select from so many options out there – .CO.UK, .NET, .TV… the list is endless. 2. One good thing to do is to be creative. During the early stages, because the more creative you are during the brainstorming process of creating a brand name, the more likely your brand name is to be open for use as a URL. 3. The next step, in making sure that your brand name is available, is to check this using particular tools. ICANN Domain whois tool is one example of a tool that is useful for this. It allows you to see potential, available domain names and variations. All you need to do is type in your ideas and check of each name has already been taken. Then, if they are taken, you’ll want to jot down which ones have already been used. And while you’re at it, a trademark search is also a useful thing to do. Make sure you understand how to secure your domain name? 4. You have to be quite resilient when creating a unique brand name. If one of your brand names has already been taken, you could add another word to it – either at the beginning of the end. Some of the more common ones are, ‘hello’, ‘app’ or ‘get’. If your company is service-based, a good idea could be to add a word that describes what the company offers. 5. Social media sharing is becoming more and more prevalent for new startups. It’s a powerful way to increase business and awareness of a growing company. So one strategy to ensure that your name is unique could be to research social handles. You’ll need to see if your desired name has been already used. The brand name must be available for registration.[/caption] A social handle usually contains the ‘@’ sign and can be researched on Namechk. This is a useful tool that you can use, which will allow you to determine if you can use the name on particular channels to increase awareness of your business and build your online presence. Handle names, just like ".com" brand names, may not always be available. But you can always work around this by adding an underscore or another word. It’s important to confirm that the content of other handle names isn’t repeated on your own. Your business might be constrained by a geographical location, and a URL that reflects this can still work. Again, just do some digging and make sure that the information, services or product information on the ".com" address doesn’t clash with your own.

A brand name should be loved by you and your customers

An obvious point to make is that you should really feel enthusiastic about your brand name. You should love it. You should have the confidence to use the name everywhere you go. So it’s important to consider many different ideas before you decide.

Maybe your company has a really intriguing story that made it big. You can use this when thinking of a unique brand name.

Particularly because this often means that your target market will really love the name. Some of the examples of this include Mozilla, Virgin, and Kenvelo, all of which have stories behind them.

Alternatively, most companies have principles or values which they believe in, which can also be taken into consideration when thinking of a unique brand name.

The company Minolta is an example of this, meaning ‘your principle, what you believe in’. Your name must be loved by your customers.[/caption] Although it is possible to rebrand, and it’s true to say that millions of businesses change their brand name, later on, it’s best to try and get it spot-on straightaway. Changing a name can be time-consuming and also costs a lot of money. You’ll want to use both of these resources for other means, so really consider your brand name carefully to make certain that you and your target market love the name. So, with these points, you’re ready to create an original, unique brand name for your business. Continue to browse the Brandnic website for more information.