“When people use a brand name as a verb, that is remarkable” – Meg Whitman
When your creativity stops flowing, sometimes you need an easy pass to inspiration. Luckily, there’s a host of great business name generators across the web to help you choose your company name. A good business name can be the ticket to a company’s success. It’s the first thing customers see and their first interpretation of your brand. Therefore, naming your brand is crucial.
Steve Jobs famously named his business “Apple” during the middle of a fruitarian diet. He said that to him, it sounded fun and not intimidating. “The right name can create a unique business identity, but the wrong one can mar it, along with your chances of success,” Richard White wrote on Small Business Trends. While there’s no crucial rule to naming a business, White says choosing a name that evokes familiarity is a good start. He also says sticking to short names, avoiding puns and paying attention to client needs are good guidelines during the process.
Remember, if you’re forming a limited company, your business name must be registered with Companies House. This means your business name will officially end with “Limited” or Ltd” on the public index of names. Your name can’t be the same as anyone else’s on the index.
Things to consider when creating your company name
There’s lots to consider when choosing a company name. Here are our top five things to think about.
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- Check for availability. Use The Formations Company’s company name checker to see if some of your name ideas are available to incorporate. We’ve helped over 750,000 companies, so you can rest assured you’re in trusted hands.
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- Secure a domain name. If you pick a generic business name, it usually means nabbing a unique domain name will be a lot harder. According to a 2013 study by Wakefield Research, 46 percent of small business owners think they’ll be more likely to pick up a $100 bill off the pavement than secure a free domain name. That’s why creativity is key.
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- A name that is difficult to spell is going to be difficult to remember. Often choosing a word that can be spelt phonetically is a better option. Trying to be too clever or creative with a name, for example adding extra letters to a common word, can make name recognition virtually obsolete.
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- Avoid acronyms, wherever possible. While for some businesses they may be necessary, it’s usually more effective to choose a shorter business name than resort to using an acronym to simply it.
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- Give a clue to what you do. While quirky names such as “Google” and “Vodafone” have been successful, it’s often helpful for small businesses to choose a name that indicates what field they trade in. For example, if you’re going to be baking cupcakes, “Poppy’s Cupcakes” could be more helpful to consumers than simply “Poppy’s”.
Lacking inspiration? These are three of our favourite business name generator tools
If you want to start from scratch with business name ideas, there’s many tools to help you
Hipster Business Name Generator
The business naming trend of “noun & noun” has caught on in recent years, with alternative and bohemian businesses embracing the branding strategy. Hipster Business Name Generator took this premise and turned it into a great free naming tool. Click “refresh” again and again and the website will consistently produce hipster business names. Brand recall is a large factor in the premise of the two noun naming method.
If you have one key word that you feel sums up your business, such as “energise”, Oberlo can flesh it out into a two-words-or-more business name. For example, type “energise” into the search bar and you’ll receive 100 available business names containing that key word. Options include “Viable Energise”, “Innate Energise” and “PlanB Energise”. We’re sure yours will be more creative.
Naminum is a great tool if you’re after a one-word trading name. Enter your desired keyword, and the name generator will produce a list of variations of that word. If you can’t think of any word (mind blanks are a real thing), click the “I’m feeling lucky” function and Naminum will generate a random word for you. This is your best bet if you’re hoping to invent your own word; enter a word such as “sugar” into the search bar and Naminum will dish out results such as “Sugarava” and “Sugarbe”. Sweet.
The next step
Finally, once you’ve made your decision on your company name and checked if it’s available using our company name checker, you can incorporate your company. Once you’ve incorporated, you’ll be able to do exciting things such as name stationery, produce your very own letterheads and launch social media accounts for your business.
We can help you incorporate in a few simple steps. Check out our range of formation packages and become your own boss today.