Business Naming Needs a Human Noodle
by Marcia Yudkin
Published on this site: November 29th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month
If you’ve been charged with coming up with a new company
name or new product name and not given a budget, you might
be tempted to use no-cost or low-cost name generators to brainstorm
candidates for you. Here are links to three such programs:
http://www.iq0.com/startup.html
http://www.makewords.com
(see the “advanced search” and “name generator”
options) http://www.rhymer.com/naming.html
In addition, web sites that help you purchase and manage
domains often have a name generating utility that not only
suggests possible names but checks whether or not the corresponding
dot-com is available. See nameboy.com for an example of this kind of site.
Unfortunately, these tools usually don’t solve your
naming problem. Unless you use human intelligence in sorting
through name possibilities, you could be in for a naming disaster.
For instance, suppose we’re starting an innovative cars-for-sale
business. One possibility suggested by one of the programs
above is CarCrypt. This has one thing going for it –
it sounds catchy, because of the repeated “C’s.”
However, it has no less than four strikes against it:
- “Crypt” actually means an underground vault
used for burial. People who know what this word means will
think the name CarCrypt is either a museum or has to do
with burying old cars.
- “Crypt” sounds similar to the “crip”
in “crippled,” which has a negative connotation.
- “Crypt” also misleadingly suggests “Crypto-”
in the sense of codes. So some folks will guess this business
sells security systems for cars involving codes.
- If you wanted people to visit the corresponding web site,
you’d always need to spell it in radio ads or over
the telephone, to alert people to use a “y” instead
of an “i.”
Name generator programs don’t warn you about dangers
like those described above. Only thinking people can sort
through a list of names and choose the ones that will get
your business off to a positive start.
On the other hand, name generating programs have very limited
capabilities to suggest creative possibilities, the kind that
truly capture people’s imaginations. The programs come
up with predictably patterned options that are likely to have
already been used, somewhere. It takes creativity that software
doesn’t have to come up with blockbuster business names
like these:
- Rent-a-Wreck
- Google
- Consider it Done
- Victoria’s Secret
While more costly, hiring professional naming help is the
right idea when stakes are high, the competition is fierce,
and you are determined to give your new enterprise the very
best chance it can have to succeed.
Marcia Yudkin is the author of 6 Steps to Free
Publicity and ten other books hailed for outstanding creativity.
Find out more about her new discount naming company, Named
At Last, which brainstorms new company names, new product
names, tag lines and more for entrepreneurs on a budget, at
www.NamedAtLast.com
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