How to find creative business name ideas

A good business name reflects the identity of your brand or company. A well-chosen name can also contribute to the success of your company by catching the attention of potential customers. Your business’s name should be unique and easy to remember, so choose it with care. In this article, we explain how to find a creative business name and provide some business name ideas.

What should you look for in a business name?

Finding the right name for your business is no easy task. It should be short, unique, memorable and easy to pronounce. The right business name will reflect your company and its image without being too complicated. And in the best case, you’ll find a creative business name that sets you apart from the competition and grabs potential customers’ attention. But be careful when waxing creative—your name should also convey credibility and trustworthiness.

You should also be careful to avoid any linguistic traps, like unintended double meanings. This is especially true if you intend to go abroad with your brand. Good international business names are not only easy to understand but also don’t have any offensive double meanings in other languages. Here are some ideas for business names that internationalise well:

• Your own name, e.g. Albertson’s
• Acronyms, e.g. IBM = International Business Machines
• Combinations of two or more words, e.g. Netflix = internet + flicks
• People and words from literature and mythology, e.g. Nike = Greek goddess of victory
• Foreign words, e.g. Volvo = Latin for ‘I roll’
• Abbreviations, e.g. Adidas = first letters from the founder Adolf Dassler’s first and last names
• Nicknames, e.g. Mercedes = daughter of Emil Jellinek, who used her name as a pseudonym when entering Daimler cars into races, one of the most significant being the Nice Race Week in 1889.

What are some examples of creative business names?

The difference between a cringe and a cool business name is hard to pinpoint and depends in large part on whether your company is successful. A perfect example of this is ‘Apple’. The fruity name actually has nothing to do with the brand’s products but is now recognised worldwide. The idea for this unique business name came to Steve Jobs when he was at an apple orchard.

Another example of a well-known and successful company and its name is Amazon. The name of the online store comes from the Amazon River in South America. Google got its cool business name from the number ‘googol’, which is a 1 with a hundred zeros. The name is meant to symbolise the endless information provided by the search engine. Lego owes its unique business name to its Danish roots. ‘Leg godt’ means ‘play well’ in Danish. The company then shortened the name to ‘Lego’ to make it easier for international customers to understand.

Unique business names: how creative is too creative?

When looking for business name ideas for your company or sole tradership, creativity brings along a lot of advantages. Creative business names usually haven’t been taken yet and help set you apart from the competition. They may also be easier to get a registered trademark for. Additionally, it will also make it easier to get the right domain name so that you can implement your business’s website ideas as soon as possible.

Creative business names do, however, come along with some disadvantages as well. This is especially true if your name doesn’t have any connection to your company or product and as a result doesn’t evoke anything for potential customers. It takes a lot of time and effort to imbue that kind of name with meaning and get customers to associate it with your brand or service. It also takes search engines a while to learn which branch to associate an overly creative business name with. Unconventional spelling and difficult pronunciation can also be sources of confusion.

That’s why your name should:

• Be short and easy to spell
• Have a connection to your branch or what your company does
• Be easy to remember
• Sound pleasant and be easy to pronounce
• Have positive associations
• Be unique and not easily confused with other business names

How do you find good business name ideas?

The search for the right name for your business is often even harder than finding startup ideas. After all, creativity doesn’t always arrive on cue. To avoid writer’s block, try taking a structured approach. You can collect ideas by writing them down and pinning them to a board. This will likely give rise to more ideas. You can also look for inspiration from these sources:

• Books, movies, art and music
• Interesting moments from everyday life
• New places you explore while traveling
• Your way of describing your company to others

It’s important to stay open to new ideas and perspectives and not rely on a single source for inspiration. Inspiration often strikes when and where you least expect it.

How can you brainstorm good company name ideas?

Whether you’re looking for new business ideas or searching for the perfect name for your company, brainstorming is a good way to generate new ideas. Here are some tips for how you can approach brainstorming sessions for a unique business name:

• Creativity knows no bounds: some ideas might seem absurd, but they could lead to other, better ideas.
• Collect all your ideas: write down all the words and phrases that come to mind in connection with your company or product.
• Use word associations: combine the words that you collect with other words to generate new ideas.
• Use different methods: free writing and mind mapping can help you organise your thoughts and draw new connections.
• Think about your target group: think about who your potential customers are and what kind of name suits that group best.
• Take your time: brainstorming isn’t a race. Take your time to come up with ideas and keep working on them.
• Evaluate and improve on your ideas: after you’ve developed a list of ideas, choose the best ones, and then polish and improve those until you’ve finally found the perfect business name idea.

What do you do once you’ve found a cool business name?

You’ve found the perfect name for your business? Before you move forward with it, you should check the availability of your business name: is it still free or has it already been trademarked? If you are considering going international in the future, you should also check the availability of the name in other countries and make sure it works in other languages.

Once you’ve done that, the next key step is sharing the name with others and getting their feedback. Test the name with your friends, family and also with people outside of your close circles. Just because you think you’ve found a cool business name doesn’t mean that it will land well with others (i.e. potential customers). Input from others might also trigger ideas that can help you refine the name even more. If the feedback you get is positive, you should move forward with trademark registration.