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This is the 9-step naming framework to help you find an unforgettable brand name.
These 9 steps are grouped into 3 sections:
In this article I will show you how to create a name for yours, or your client's brand.
This is a clear step-by-step framework for crafting and choosing a name that sticks.
Searching for the right name can be a daunting task, especially when you don't have the right tools and techniques.
BTW—I just launched my free AI-powered brand name generator called BrandNamer.app
Without proper naming tools you will most likely do what everyone is doing.
And you would end up with a mediocre name that meets the least resistance.
So I decided to reveal my secret sauce—the framework I use to run naming workshops with my clients.
Some of my peers might think I'm crazy for showing a regular Joe how to do what I get paid money for.
I don't think that revealing my secret source would put me out of the branding game—but I do hope it will put you on.
So if you want to learn how to come up with a great name—you're in the right place.
This is my proven 9-step brand naming process to help you name everything, from your company, to your brand, to your products.
I filled the worksheets with dummy text, so that you know where the answers go.
Here are the worksheets to use when naming a brand—you can print and fill them out with pen or pencil.
You can also just use these worksheets to draw exercises on a whiteboard.
With the premium naming guide purchase, you will also get my fillable PDFs that you can use to run your session online via Zoom or Skype.
However, I always recommend to have a printed copy (even if you work remotely) just so your clients or team members can jot down some notes.
I've also prepared GIF animations that will help you understand the sequence of each naming exercise.
In this article, I talk to you as if you were my client, in order to maximize its practicality.
So treat everything from intro to outro as your script (this is what you say as a facilitator).
So that you can just read the script out loud and run your first naming session with ease.
Hope you’ll enjoy the actionable tips in this naming course.
If you're a business owner, choosing your brand name is probably one of the most important business decisions you can make.
Your brand name will stick around for a very long time.
Your business can change, you customers can change, your products can change, but your name should NOT.
A brand name is the longest living artifact of a company.
Whether people hear about your brand from someone, discover you on Google, see it on your business card—your brand name makes a critical first impression.
But naming sucks!—The process of naming can be awful.
It’s time-consuming and it’s hard-work.
And I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to find a name that is absolutely perfect.
And every time you think you’ve found a great name, you discover it’s already taken.
The name is ideal, but it’s not yours and you have to find something else.
So whether you are a business owner or a branding professional like myself—you need the right tools and processes to find a name for yourself or for your clients.
And that’s why I created this guide—this is a proven step-by-step process to running naming workshops.
There are basically three ways in which you can run this workshop:
I'd strongly encourage you to run a whiteboard session—that's certainly the best option.
However, now during this pandemic it might not be an option.
So you can also successfully run this session online via Zoom or Skype.
Who facilitates the naming workshop?—You, the brand expert, consultant, or facilitator.
It can be anyone, as long as you follow my framework.
This is how I work in close collaboration with my client's team.
We're listening and considering all the team's ideas and align everyone on the same vision.
Then we use collective genius to come up with dozens or hundreds of great name options and together we decide on the right one.
How long does it take?—You should book at least 3 hours, which gives you about 20 minutes for each of the 9 steps.
Who should be in the room?—You can have multiple stakeholders or just one Founder as participants.
Where to run the strategy session?—I usually rent a conference room at my WeWork office (you'll need a big whiteboard or two).
So hand out the worksheets to all participants (or send them via email) so that everyone can take notes for themselves.
*We do most of the exercises together as a team, but the brainstorm part we do individually and then come together to evaluate the results.
From now on, use this article as your script—this is what you say as a facilitator.
First, before we do anything else it’s important to define how you will create a brilliant name.
Why?—because as Jeremy Miller the author of "Brand New Name" explains:
It sound pretty simple and it is, but I see it time and time again, people skip this step and jump right into brainstorming.
But naming isn’t a black art or a secretive, high-stakes activity—it’s a process and that’s what makes it effective.
So with my structured process and guided exercises, you will be able to develop your naming strategy.
And I promise you that you will never feel lost or struggle about what to do next, ever again.
And no, it won’t stifle your creativity either, but it will rather provide your with guidelines for what it will take to create a great name.
Paola Norambuena, chief content officer at Interbrand explains:
This might be the most important step of the process because you are defining the criteria for success.
So this is our chance to outline what the name needs to do, and, in particular what you don’t want it to do.
The naming strategy is your blueprint, and we will refer to it again and again for direction thorough the naming process.
So let’s jump right into the first exercise that is about describing your brand and its personality.
The first step in the Strategize part is to clearly define who you are as a brand.
How would you describe your brand and its personality?
In this first exercise, we need to sum up in a clear and concise language: your category, services/products your offer and your target market.
And a great way to do so, is by describing your brand in three statements (Credit: Jeremy Miller—"Brand New Name")
Here, we're going to simply complete 3 sentences.
1. The first statement is about your category.
“The brand is X” (e.g. Design agency).
2. The second statement is about the service/product you sell.
“The brand does X” (e.g. “Designs logos and identity systems”)
3. The third statement is about your market.
“The brand serves X” (e.g. “Startups and small businesses”)
Completing this exercise can be quite easy or a bit difficult, depending on your business.
If you’re naming a brand in popular category then it might be easy, but if you’re creating new technologies, then it might be a bit challenging.
So if you’re pioneering something new, then it might be helpful to add one more clarifying statement: "Our brand is like X".
For example, the founder of Uber could have said:
“Our brand is a peer-to-peer cab company” which later could morph into “ride-sharing”.
Now, the second part of this exercise is to define your brand personality.
In this exercise, list adjectives that would fit your desirable brand personality.
And this exercise is much easier to do if you think of your brand as a person.
So if you brand was a person, who would it be? How would he or she act, talk and dress?
Need some inspiration?—Check out my article where I describe personalities of famous brands.
Once we've got your brand defined, now It’s time to think about your users.
Now, in the second step of the Strategize part we’re going to step into the shoes of you customers and think from their perspective.
So we’re going to define your target audience by understanding:
Who your brand will serve and what they expect from your brand?
First, we need to think about who are these people.
So ask yourself:
Who’s going to interact with your brand? Who is going to know and use the name?
To kick-start this exercise, let’s create a list of potential users or customers of your brand.
If you have customers already, try to use names of real people.
Some people you know or people whom you can picture using your brand.
First, we have a "Label" on the left—this is just to shortly describe your customer.
For example “stay-at-home mom”, or “busy young professional”.
Here you can use some demographic information like: age, gender, profession, income, education, location and so on.
Now, in the next column “Needs” let’s think about what the user need from our brand.
Here, we need to really think from heir perspective to reveal people’s behaviors as opposed to preferences.
For example: If I was naming a healthy snack brand for kids, I could come to conclusion that anything "healthy" might not be seen as "cool" by most kids.
What can we do with that?—It can help us later on with choosing the right name.
We're going to pay close attention to that insight and don’t settle on something that sounds healthy.
So in this exercise is really important to think beyond what customer may like or dislike about your products or services.
Here, we need to consider other circumstances that lead them to using your brand.
Now, once we’ve defined the brand and their users, now let’s focus on the objectives for your future name.
Because without a clear goal in mind, you can’t really make a meaningful decision.
Naming is definitely not “I will know it when I see it” kind of thing.
So the next step in the Strategize phase is to define your name objectives.
The goals of this exercise is to define what a good outcome looks like for your naming project.
It simply answers the question:
What do you want your name to achieve and why?
Here, we have two questions that we need to answer in one or two sentences each.
The first question is about your goal:
“What do you want?” (e.g. "An easy-to-remember name for vegan snacks.")
Here you can also add something along the lines: "It should convey that the product is natural, delicious and healthy”.
By answering this question you basically state your naming objectives.
And then we also add a sentence about what do you want to convey.
Do you want your name to convey the personality of your brand or benefits of using your products?
For example: Uber means superior and outstanding (superior to taxi services).
And the second question is about your positioning:
“Why do you want it?” (e.g. "To stand out in the grocery, so that consumers can make healthier choices")
By answering this question you basically state WHY do you want the name you want.
For example: Slack is a short and memorable name, but it's flawed.
The word “slack” has a negative meaning—"laziness" is probably something you would rather want to avoid when naming an office messaging app.
However, it works! And this is because it’s different—It’s gutsy and it’s memorable.
So once we have those two questions answered, let's talk about the Naming Trends.
In this part of our naming strategy we’re going to analyze the competitive landscape.
Here, we simply want to:
What are the common naming trends in your category?
Here, we want to identify naming trends, so that you can develop strategies to make your brand name stand out.
Analyzing your market will help you see how competitors position their brands, so that you can spot cliches to avoid.
You can also spot some opportunities to differentiate yourself from the pack.
In this exercise, we're going to plot your competitors' names across two axes: Name Type and Name Construction*
*Credit: Jeremy Miller—"Brand New Name"
Here you might notice that in your industry there’s a trend toward Abstract-Invented Names, or you might see that all your competitors use similar words.
PS. Check out my other article to see different types of brand names.
If you find it challenging, you can also look for brands in related regions or markets.
Once you’ve created the competitive chart, now we can come back to our first worksheet and define the naming criteria.
The last exercise in the Strategize part is about developing the criteria for your new name.
What are the criteria for your naming project?
Let’s make a use of our competitive analysis and draw insights as to what are the words/styles we should explore/avoid?*
*Credit: Alexandra Watkins—"Hello, My name is Awesome"
How names are used in your industry?—Here are five questions to help you see some patterns:
As you think about how to answer these questions, first—let’s write down some words and styles to avoid.
For example: If you’re creating a new frozen yoghurt brand, you might want to avoid using any “berry” kind of word in your name.
This is because Pinkberry is a pretty successful chain of frozen yogurt, so any name like Peachberry, Kiwiberry or Lemonberry will sound like a copycat.
Not only that, this could potentially get you in legal troubles—you can face a trademark infringement case.
So based on our example, we would want to avoid the word “berry” or any type of fruit in our brand name for that matter.
Another example of an often copycatted name is Twitter, we have Yammer, Jabber and Chatter.
While these names might not be a cause for trademark infringement, they are certainly not winning any award for originality.
Once we've jotted down some words and styles to avoid, now let's focus on the opposite—words and styles to explore.
Perhaps by looking at your competition we can see some opportunities.
Now, let's think about what words we would like to use in our name, or what styles are less crowded so we can use them effectively.
Here, we can also add any other criteria that you might have.
For example:
Does the name needs has some length limit, or it needs to work in certain languages or regions?
Once we've nailed down the criteria, then you our naming strategy is done.
Now, we can move onto the next and the most fun part—brainstorming name ideas.
Brainstorming names is a blast when you know my secrets to coming up with great name ideas.
My method is highly effective, so you might be surprised or excited by how many great ideas you can generate.
But before we get started, let's remember that ideas are additive.
This simply means that by generating lots of ideas, we'll increase our odds of finding a great brand name.
Don’t limit yourself in the following steps and write everything down (even seemingly stupid ideas).
Here, we need to generate idea after idea, and do so fast.
The more ideas we can generate, the more likely we'll find a name that is truly brilliant.
It’s backed up by research that groups given “quantity goals” generate more and better ideas than groups given “quality goals”.
And secondly, ideas build off other ideas, so the process of molding, pushing, and adding will eventually land you on something truly original.
And with my well-placed questions and exercises, good names will just naturally rise to the top.
Now, before we dive into the naming exercises, it’s important to set the rules for our brainstorming session.
Let’s talk about the wrong and the right ways to brainstorm.
The wrong way to brainstorm names, is to run a brainstorming meeting—they are terribly ineffective.
Most conference rooms have bare walls, fluorescent lighting and sadly little mental stimulation.
Besides, group brainstorming is not process based—it’s a mad free-for-all, where extroverts throw ideas at the wall and see what sticks.
And introverts (who may actually have better ideas) may fear speaking up, so everyone sucks up to the boss.
What’s the ideal number of people for brainstorming session?—One, just you.
And what’s the optimal environment?—In front of your computer.
The right way to brainstorm your ideas is to use internet.
Now, before you get started, here let me give you three helpful tips:
Now, since we know the rules, it's time to give you my 12 best ways to brainstorm names.
Now I will give you my 12 most lucrative exercises to brainstorm your name ideas.
Feel free to jump into any exercise in no particular order.
Remember to work in silence (alone) and just add ideas to your list by using all the following exercises.
Keep doing it until you’ve generated lots of ideas and really go for quantity over quality here.
Why only 5 minutes?—Because that way you will be able to quickly generate tons of ideas and won’t waste time overthinking it.
Once you've gone through all the exercises, we will regroup and move on together to the next step.
Now, I will give you a quick overview of each exercise so you know how to use them.
Before you jump on your computer to look for ideas, write down at least 8 words related to the brand.
You should be able to get a lot of keywords from our naming strategy.
Remember—this is not meant to be a list of names, just sparks to fuel your brainstorming process.
You can take some words from you brand personality, objectives, word to explore etc.
Just look at your naming strategy to distill a few keywords to get you started.
Please try using each tool, because they all yield unique ideas.
Ok, so open up your computer and let’s get started.
Next, let's select one word that you want to start exploration with, and then begin your online brainstorming on thesaurus.com
NOTE: Later you will repeat all of the following 11 exercises using the remaining words from your word bank.
Simply type in the word you picked from your list, to find synonyms and related words.
Then take a closer look at the results and write down at least 8 promising words that you find interesting.
Remember to time each exercise for 5 minutes and go for quantity, not quality.
Another exercise is to comb through glossaries to find unique words and phrases.
As every community has its own lingo of words, jargon, terms, slang or however you want to call it.
Glossaries are also helpful if you’re searching for metaphorical names.
Again, write down as many ideas as you can come up with in 5 minutes.
Dictionaries are also a deep wells of ideas.
The one I like is thefreedictionary.com, which provides much more than definitions.
It’s also a thesaurus and an excellent source for phrases and idioms.
Pick about 8 phrases or idioms that you think would make for interesting names.
Authors have been distilling big ideas into small phrases for centuries, so let's take advantage fo that.
For example: If I explore the word cold, my next Google search term is cold movies.
This leads me to a list of the “Top 10 Freezing Stone Movies”.
Here I look for some interesting pairings of words or ideas that could inspire my naming process.
Now, unlike business and product names, one cannot trademark a book title.
So that won't be any copyright infringement and that’s why this makes book titles ripe source of ideas.
BTW—Did you know that Starbucks was named after character from Mobby Dick?
An Amazon search of book titles that contain the word cold shows 36,364 results.
Now, of course I’m not going to check all of them, but I go through first few pages.
Then I write down some interesting word pairings like: Bitting Cold.
Song titles, as well as album titles and band names, are a fantastic resource for inspiring brand names.
They make super sticky names, because just like the songs themselves, they get stuck in our head.
BTW—A song inspired brand name that I like is the car-sharing company “Getaround”.
A picture can say a thousand words and many of these words can inspire your names.
Which is why I always refer to image searches to fuel my creativity.
Simply go on Google.com, then click tab “images” and type in your keyword.
Immediately I can see photos of kids building a snowman, snow angels etc.
Cliches and phrases are some of the best sources for names.
I typically find some unexpected ideas at clichesite.com
Here are some results I got when I typed in “cold”— "A cold heart, cold as ice, stone cold sober" and more.
While not all make for good names, the “stone cold sober” could be shortened to “cold sober”, so I add it to the list.
Look for well-known people that could embody the spirit of your brand.
Are there any famous figures that could make as a metaphor for what your brand is like or aspires to be?
Whether it be fictional figures like Nike from greek mythology or Tesla that was named after inventor Nicola Tesla.
Are there any regions or areas that could function as a metaphor for your brand?
For example: Patagonia clothing brand is named after the mountainous region in South America.
The company’s founder thought the name evoked “romantic vision of glaciers tumbling into fjords” and it is easy to pronounce in every language.
Look for regions that evoke specific feelings or characteristics.
Names like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat are all constructed names and each is created by combining words or parts of words.
So, look at all your previous exercises to find some word pairings that you could combine to create a new name.
You can also try adding suffixes or prefixes—brands like Expedia or Spotify were created this way.
But here, you have to make sure that the word sounds natural and don’t try to force it or just misspell the name like Flickr.
Sometimes it’s clever, but most likely it’s just lazy and you will not want to apologize every time for your name.
*If you work as a group, you can assign one word to a different person so that way you can speed up the process. If you work solo, then you naturally want to repeat this process for all the words from your word bank.
Now, in the next step we're going to have a chance to refine these names by assigning them to specific categories.
Do you remember the Trends exercise form the first part of our naming framework?
Now, we’re going to categorize your name ideas by using the same table.
This is a chance to refine your ideas and add new names to specific categories.
Start by looking at all your options from the previous step and think about what category you can assign them to.
I’ve described these name categories in the first module, so you should know by know what they stand for.
*I’ve filled out this table with some famous brand names just to give you some examples and get you started.
When you put your names in different boxes, try to go beyond that and also refine them or combine some ideas.
Names don’t always fit clearly into these categories e.g. some names are more descriptive or abstract than others.
However, the goal of this exercise is to just have an opportunity to look at your names from different angles and take our brainstorming session further.
Remember that one idea can lead to another idea that can take you down a different direction.
So that two random ideas can collide, because you were able to look at them from different perspective.
Try to generate close to 100 names, because in the next module we’re going to have a chance to focus on the strongest candidates.
When you’re ready and have a bunch of potential name candidates, now let's screen and evaluate your names.
Now, it would be nice to test and validate every name you generate, but who got time for that?
On the other hand::
A gut feeling is not enough when it comes to picking the right name.
Yet choosing your brand name is probably one of the most important business decisions you can make.
So as well-known naming expert Anthony Shore tends to say:
So you naturally want to get it right, because the name is going to stick around for a very long time.
Your logo can change, your website can change, but your name should stay with you forever.
And a common myth is to think “I will know, when you see it”.
Most of my clients get stuck at this point in the process—They have some pretty good ideas, but they can’t make the final decision.
Usually the problem is NOT coming up with great ideas, but knowing which ideas are great.
In this part, I will present you with a set of exercises and tools, so that you can shortlist, test and select the right name.
And I promise you that you will have much more success finding the right name if you follow my process rather than just trying to rely on your gut feeling.
Otherwise changing your name later on might cost you a lot of money, a trademark infringement case, or you can just sabotage your business altogether.
So in the following steps I will show you how to objectively compare your names and decide on which one is best for your brand.
Here, a quick and dirty internet search can give you a good idea whether a name is viable candidate or not.
Any name that is used by a competitor, or its trademarked, is a non-starter.
If it’s a non-starter then you just need to cross it out.
It’s important to don’t fall in love with any name because you might end up heart-broken.
Trademark screening is the most painful part of the process, yet it must be done.
So before you spend money with a trademark attorney to have your names screened professionally, do some initial search on your own.
First, use Google to search for the same or a similar names in your category (and related areas too).
For instance, if you were naming a web design firm—also search in other related industries like: advertising, marketing, branding, social media etc.
Second, use Trademarkia.com where you can quickly look for registered trademarks and for best results use the advanced search.
I like this website because the interface is so simple, but you can also search the free government trademark database TESS at USPTO.gov
Now, keep in mind that while you do your free searches, there’s no guarantee that your name is available.
However, you will save you a lot of time and money by eliminating names that are obviously already in use.
Don’t mourn them—Just cross them out, mark them as taken, and move on.
Now, let's do so until you end up with no more than 10 best and available names.
If you have more than 10, then check them against you naming strategy and eliminate the weakest candidates.
Once you’re left with 10 strong name candidates, then the last step is to pick 3 strongest options.
In this last step, let's take our 10 names and put them into the column on the left.
Score your names by answering a series of questions.
Try to not cheat here—don't favor some names over others just because you like them (stay objective).
Use 1 for Yes and 0 for No.
Try to be as objective as possible here, because ultimately we want to make a meaningful decision.
So start with the first name and the first question—which is Positioning.
Review your brand description and objectives from the Strategize part.
Does the name position your brand to win?
Remember that you’ve got only 5 minutes to answer 10 questions so don’t overthink it.
Look at the Users exercise from the Strategize Part to determine if the name will work.
Does the name resonate with your audience?
It’s important to think from the perspective of your users (not your own) as they are the ones who should understand it, love to talk about it and share it with others.
Look at your naming criteria that you've defined based on your competitive research.
Does the name fulfill your strategic criteria?
Remember that the best names are different, they stand out among your competitors so they can be easily remembered.
This is something a bit more personal—as people we can have different first impression.
Does the name make an impact when you hear?
So in general, think about whether your name makes a strong first impression.
This one is a bit personal too, but in general:
How does the name make people feel?
Think about whether the name makes you smile or makes you nervous.
Some names will look better than others.
Would the name lend itself well to logo design?
Think about whether the name Is visually pleasing.
Read is short for readability (legibility), so simply say the name out loud and notice:
Is the name easy to read, pronounce and spell?
Think about whether it would be clear for someone to write your name when they hear it on the phone for the first time.
Think whether the name can make your brand stand out in your category.
Is the name unique and distinctive?
You don’t have to be super original, but you should have a unique name (or differentiated in your category at least).
If your name is too literal, it won’t sound special and won’t be remembered.
Is it easy to remember the name?
Also note that shorter names tend to be easier to remember.
Think about whether you can defend that name and make it your own.
Is it possible to exclusively own this name?
I’m not talking here about domains, because you can always use a modifier.
For example, Dropbox started with getdropbox.com and Facebook started with thefacebook.com
Consider the results of your preliminary screening and trademark search—some names are easier to own than others.
Finally, sum up the scores in the right column and circle the three higher scores—these are your top 3 names.
So where do we go from there?
You should end up with 3 names that are all strong candidates.
We've checked them from different angles and with clear objectives in mind.
As the last step, before you hire a trademark attorney, you can still use some professional trademark screening services.
Especially if you end up with more than 3 names and you want to professionally screen them.
Keep in mind though that preliminary trademark screening is NOT sufficient for legal opinion.
So the last step is to take the names that survived to a trademark attorney or you can trademark it yourself.
Your lawyer will perform full clearance search but it won’t be any cheap.
And while you can start your business without obtaining trademark first, I wouldn’t recommend doing so.
Protecting your name is critical, and companies who don’t trademark their names can simply lose it, which can be incredibly costly and embarrassing.
On the other hand, when you register your name, then you can stop others from using it.
And you will also be able to prevent them from using anything that is confusingly similar to your name.
After all, you certainly don’t want anyone to mistake your brand for another one, especially for a totally undesirable company with inferior products.
Brand naming has never been more difficult, because names are becoming a diminishing resource.
Did you know that in the United States alone, there are over half a million new businesses started every moth?
And of course, most of them won’t survive, but they all need names.
So, With so many small business out there, and apps and products, and global competition—finding an available name can take long months.
And that’s why I created this article—to give you:
A proven step-by-step process to naming a brand.
There is so many naming resources out there on the internet, but most of them don't tell you how to actually DO things.
So in my course I take no BS approach, because I believe that the best way to learn is by immediately applying it.
That’s why I showed you what to do every step of the way, starting with your naming strategy and defining clear criteria in the Strategize part.
Then I presented you with my lucrative exercises to brainstorm lots of naming ideas in the Brainstorm part.
And finally, I gave you my effective tools and techniques for testing and selecting best names in the Evaluate part.
My goals was to show you that anyone, even the most non-creative person, can come up with a brilliant brand name and have fun doing it!
So stop, wasting time trying to come up with a name using some cookie-cutter process.
Get clarity and guidance using my framework, so that you can create a brand name that you will be proud of.
If you're a branding professional you can fast-track your learning curve with the purchase of my premium guide.
With my premium guide you will get everything you need to run successful naming workshops for your clients:
Level up and become a naming expert today!
Buy my premium Naming Guide and start offering naming services to your clients.
And if you're a business owner who needs help with naming, just reach out and book a workshop with me.
Also check out my other free guides:
Did you like my actionable tips?—Leave a comment below.
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I'm a branding expert and graphic designer based in NY. I specialize in the development of brands: brand strategy, identity & web design. Need help with your project?—Get in touch
