The Name Game

There's a great article called “How they named companies” at the Day2Day Activities blog. How do you like this for irony?

Volvo- From the Latin word “volvo,” which means “I roll.” It was originally a name for a ball bearing being developed by SKF.

I'll never look at a Volvo without thinking about this irony again. (Latin scholars: if “volvo” doesn't mean “I roll,” please don't blame me--I'm just quoting the blog. Actually, I did verify this definition in an online Latin dictionary, but it's been a long time since I studied Latin. Plus, bloggers aren't necessarily journalists as you can read for yourself in this very interesting discussion at the Piaras Kelly PR blog.)

I'd like to provide some guidelines about naming a company or product because I meet with many companies who are in this process. Generally, the primary concern of most people seems to be whether a domain name is available. However, there are other considerations to keep in mind.

• Begin with letters early in the alphabet. Here's the scenario: you bought a booth at a massive trade show like Comdex. The list of exhibitors in the show guide is alphabetized. Would you rather be listed in the front of the guide or at back of the guide? Another scenario: A reviewer analyzes a dozen or so products. She lists them in alphabetical order in the review. Would you prefer that your product be at the beginning or end of the list?
• Avoid names starting with X and Z. This is somewhat repetitious but it's a pet peeve of mine. The worse letters to start your company or product name with are X and Z. First, they are both late in the alphabet. Second, they're confusing to spell and to pronounce. “Please Zerox this form.” “Let check out the Zilinx booth to see the latest in programmable logic stuff.”
• Embody verb potential. A great name has the potential to turn into a verb. Examples: Xerox (fortunately, they overcame the X), Google, Digg, and StuffIt. (Scoble too?***) Words with verb potential are short--no more than three syllables and “active sounding.” They need to work in phrases such as, “Why don't we just ____ it?” Or, “I'll just ____ it.” (One of my big disappointments in life is that “Kawasaki” has too many syllables to become a verb.)
• Sound different. Quick: What do the following companies do? Claris. Clarin. Claria. Clarium. Clarins. Clarinex. It's hard to remember whether they sell makeup, unplug your nose, or got killed by Apple. Great names sound different. They also spell different, for that matter.
• Embody logic. The absolute best example of naming things in a logical manner is the approach by the clever folks at Pokémon. You don't have to be a kid to figure out what Geodude and Lickitung look like. Can the same be said of names like Tenaris, Abaxis, and Ceradyne? Sounding different + spelling different + embodying logic = a memorable name. Here's a good test: If you told your company or product name to ten strangers, would at least half of them guess what business you're in?
• Avoid the trendy. Mea culpa: we made a big mistake when we started what is now Garage Technology Ventures. We called it “garage.com.” Yup, with a lower case “G.” It was a brief lapse into modesty and eBay envy. We had a great slogan too: “We put the capital in you, not in our name.” (Later, we considered an even better slogan: “We take the FU out of funding.”) The “.com” was a mistake too because “dotcom” became synonymous with “no business model.” If you think there's a cool trend in naming going on, my advice is that you avoid it.

It doesn't matter whether you check the domain first, then apply these recommendations or vice versa. But please do both because saddling a great company or great product with a crappy name is a real crime.

Written at: Atherton, California

*** I threw this in since he's always saying that I don't include enough outbound links in my blog. How's that for sucking up? :-)

Addendum 1: You have to read this Salon piece referred to me by Kevin Marks. It's hilarious.

Addendum 2: Avoid the commonplace and generic. This was pointed out by Shaula Evans. If you name your product or company something commonplace and generic, people will never find it in Google, Download.com, VersionTracker, etc. Her example is if you name your company “Water” and your product “Word.” At least one should be distinctive.

Comments

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[stranger]

Can any one of you great brainers help me naming my company name.

The company will be in the business of IT Development and Consulting. I would like my company name to reflect atleast one of these values such as trust, honesty, reputation, quality .

[Rene Glembotzky]

Hehehe - it's a great guideline for all wannabe brand consultants. I got a call some days ago to change our brand strategy, but -unfortunately- we've changed it three months ago... lol

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[Sohbet]

You should get a cat next time and name it Leontief.

[短信群发]

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[Jen]

I was just checking out keywords and did you know the value for the word "Blog" is $2.05?
http://www.symbiotic.com/resources/B/Bl/Blog.html

Jen
VP of Marketing
www.layouts.com

[Spike Jones]

Those are great guidelines, but they are just that. Names need to start a conversation. They need to Fascinate, Inspire, Reward and Engage kindred spirits. They need to MEAN SOMETHING.

[labia html]

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[激情自拍录像]

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[ppdy]

http://www.greatestjournal.com/users/007sms/5608.html

[fk]

it does not do any good unless the link is to a specific post, you won't show up on his trackback list... but you don't need it anyway

[AB]

Guy,

You recommend that you look for a name with verb potential. While I google (search) for information every day and occasionally fedex (send via overnight) packages, companies that encourage (or passively allow) others to use their brand as a verb risk their brand becoming generic and thus lose trademark protection for their brand.

Here's a pretty good article to consider: http://www.sutherlandsurvey.com/Columns_Papers/Google-%20$%20Billion%20Brand%20in%20Peril.pdf

[wow gold]

World of Warcraft has caught people’s imagination and this has led to a variety of creative offshoots. One key sign of the game’s popularity is the existence of Warcraft(wow gold) fan fiction. Players like to write fictional stories about the characters and events of the game. Fan art is also popular. People draw and paint images inspired by the game and post them in galleries online. Blizzard run their own Fan Art Program that fans (wow gold)can submit their art to for display. There is great creativity and beauty
there.

[yacsoft.com]

nice

[Patrick]

Guy, The name game is simple for me to understand. The thing I don't understand is why professionals in business have email accounts like jdrjimd@aol, or bobsmith@yahoo.com, or even joeg@gmail.com. Take the later, if Joe owns Joe's Garage and joesgarage.com, then why not have an email account that relates to it. I mean, talk about someone who has the name, but doesn't see through to have an email utilizing the name. Programming the subconscious mind, (advertisers and marketer's goal) is accomplished by repetition. It's like brushing your teeth, or A MAC, you don't have to think, you know what it is.

Just something to think about...

info@freedomoftext.com

[Rol]

Thank you, very interesting!

[Frank the DJ]

I wish i would have read this before I did my "strategic" thinking about my company name. Actually, I did not read anything about my naming a company, in fact I thought to myself, a name is just a name. After reading about this, I realized I should have done more reading. Luckily, I try to do more personal business, where people remember me rather than my company name.

[Shaula Evans]

Guy, the Latin really does look great up there, but I keep wondering if you're going to change it to "Laissez les bon temps rouler" in honour of Mardi Gras...

[ThePef]

Guy, thanks for the advice. We just picked a name for our new company, and guess what it fits all the criteria except one. (early in the alpha) But it definitely fits the verb stance, and is one syllable. Quite frankly, I was surprised that it was available. Also, it is an acronym for what the company will do. Man, this is going to be great. Ping me, and I will tell you what it is.

[Serge Lescouarnec]

Guy
Regarding names, my company is incorporated as Errands Express LLC (Personal Assistants). I market our services through 2 websites 'Montclair Concierges' and 'New Jersey Concierges'.
I picked the first one because I am based in Montclair, New Jersey. The second is to have customers understand that we do not offer our services exclusively around Montclair.
We come up in a good position in most search engines.
My blog, 'Serge the Concierge' got its name through a piece that Debbie Galant wrote about us. When I googled it, I found out it was also the name of an episode of NYPD Blue.
You can find our blog easily through most search engines.
Just my 2 cents.

Serge

P.S: I use CoComment to track my Comments

Business Sites:
http://www.montclairconcierges.com
http://www.njconcierges.com

Blog:
http://sergetheconcierge.typepad.com

[Steve Bayle]

Hello Guy, your article reminds me of a series of 8 posts I put up on my blog in July of 2004, starting with this one: http://smbayle.pingotter.com/blog/_archives/2004/7/6/158879.html

[Bidera]

That Salon article was hilarious especially in 1999 when I thought it would never apply to me.

Little did I know that a couple of years later I would be caught in the same naming quandary.

Our first name emaximarket was ridiculously long and generic. Absolutely no one could spell it over the phone. Plus it had the dreaded e prefix, which is as bad as i one.

Our company finally decided that enough was enough and to find a simple 6 letter name relating to auctions and whose domain was not already registered (easier said than done).

Bidera is what we ended up with. Has a meaning and avoids the eBay soundalike syndrome.

Still there is that unfortunate association with a certain personal hygene product... Luckily it seems only Europeans who have this association, but not Americans.

[steve]

Can I claim some sort of street cred for not knowing who Scoble is?

I named my website and associated blog, betahat, after a statistical term that I thought sounded cool when my Honduran grad school prof would say it.

The Salon article is hilarious, thanks for the ref.

[Steven Hambleton]

My company name is Hambo Design.

It seems to embody most of what you say.

Just Hambo it!

[olivier blanchard]

Apple. Damn they're good.

[Jonathan Grubb]

All good tips, though I'm not sure about "Embody logic." Some successful companies have done this, like General Motors, American Telephone & Telegraph, or Microsoft, but more great companies have a name that doesn't relate to their product/service at all: Apple, Ford, Google, Yahoo, etc.

When we started our company we picked the name "Rubyred" because it is pleasant and fresh but pretty generic. We think it will serve us well no matter what direction we take the company.

It does have a hint of logic and a secret marketing use: we develop software using the Ruby programming language, so if someone says "Rubyred - do you use Ruby?" we give them our engineering pitch. If they say "Rubyred - like the grapefruit variety?" we give our marketing pitch.

[kim]

>Embody verb potential

I think you should amend this to "verb/noun" potential.

Service companies dream of being verbs (Google, Digg). Product companies dream of being nouns, or at least having their products become nouns (Kleenex, Nike, Walkman).

Interesting that some products that are combo product + service end up serving as both (e.g. "I bought a Tivo from replaytv, then I installed it and Tivo'd my show")

[Patrick Fischer]

I thought I would try the test of developing the name before the business and so here you go. I just made this up.

Accessible Graphics, can be found at accessiblegraphics.com.
The recipe to make graphics accessible is found at http://www.webaim.org/techniques/images/

I'll get a web artist to make a nice site, and then we'll sell books and training to Corporations that want to understand and adhere to Section 508. As the ADA - American with Disabilities Act brought equal access to public buildings, Section 508 sets out to do the same for the Internet. Information on Section 508 is found at http://www.section508.gov/

Accessible Graphics was born today and we strive to help everybody insure equal access to their graphics. For the Blind, your graphic will talk, and for the deaf it will provide caption for all sounds.

Accessible Graphics -"Providing Solutions for Everyone to See" (tm)
Created: 2-23-06, 12:50 PM CST

Guy, I am having to much fun on this blog.

[Bob Corrigan]

I have the odd experience of having worked for a company with an awful name - Planning Sciences - that traded that stinker in for something even worse - Gentia. Spellcheckers the world round used to make great sport with it.

[Matthew Wilder]

I like the new name of the Blog!

[StreakyWindow]

Guy -

What is the deal with Bay Area companies naming companies beginning with "Blue"?. e.g. Blue Casa, BlueFly, Blue Pumpkin, Blue Martini, etc. It shows a real lack of creativity on the part of the founders or the Naming Guru.

[Harry Chong]

Good names don't make you squirt milk out your nose.

[Oregon Steve]

Guy, speaking of names, was the "no space, mash 'em together" Apple naming scheme for their products in place before your hire at Apple? Product names like MacPaint and MacWrite, etc. I'm not sure Apple was the first to do this but they certainly helped make it popular.

Apple goes a bit over the edge today, however, as they (via their legal eagles) are "forcing" some 3rd-party companies to change their existing product names. Anything with "iPod" in the name I can see, but trying to lasso in anyone using "pod" is stretching. Example: "Podner" is a utility that converts your video to iPod screen sizes, nice little app. Cute little cowboy hat on the icon, too. Apple said, "No, no" - so Splasm.com is currently holding a contest to change the name (much like the artwork submission for your Art of the Start book, free legwork is always appreciated and gets the fan-base juices flowing). Right now "ViddyUp" (nice!) leads the flood of entries to replace the Podner name.

Apple isn't fool-proof, either, as it had to change the name Rendezvous (IP network searching/linking ability in OS X) to Bonjour, because, I'm guessing, someone at Apple didn't use a strong enough search engine (name was already taken). The name Rendezvous says "networking" much better than "Bonjour" (although I never took French).

And then there was the original iMac. Not only did it literally break the mold on computer case design in the late 90s, it started the "i" prefix craze (or again, if didn't start it, put it in cement).

As Bart Simpson might put it, "iCarumba!" --Steve ";-)

[Creative One]

Hey Gk, what happened to my daily Loop Du Jour? Did you just stop posting them?

[Pete Quily]

Guy if you've been blogging for less than 2 months and already have:

2,920 links to your blog in google, 74,669 links to your blog in MSN, 3,082 links from 1,567 sites to your blog in Technorati.

And you're ranked 281 in Technorati before getting out of google's sandbox.

You don't have to worry about sucking up to to ANY A lister, they'll be sucking to you soon enough:)

Yes Robert's blog is ranked #35 in Technorati and he has 10,041 links from 3,793 sites. Even a Mac guy like me reads some of his stuff since he often provides useful and entertaining info, and he likes to stir things up (I just tune out most of the MS stuff).

But he's been blogging since at least Monday, December, 2001 on his old pre wordpress blog (assuming the links transferred over) so you've gotten a third of the links, and close to half the sites he has in technorati in less than 2 months of blogging vs his 5 years of blogging.

The #100 in Technorati has 2,200 sites linking to him. So as of today, all you need is 634 more sites linking to you and you'll be in the top 100. At your present growth rate, you'll probably be there in another month or so.

Pete

[Patrick Fischer]

I just google'd www.key2learn.com and it came up number 2 in the list. nice

[Patrick Fischer]

I don't mean to offend the blog, but this whole name game brings me to the idea of reversing the roles. Rather than have a company that needs a name, perhaps we could have a name that needs a company. Key2Learn.com is a name that could be developed into many things. Isn't it easier to pick up some products through distribution, develop a web site, and you got a business that started with a name, and in the world of looking at things backwards, it becomes the Game Name.

[Louis Gray]

Nearly six years ago now, we were putting together collateral and Web page templates for a new product roll-out, and as is common, one of the tasks was to create faux persons and companies, as placeholders. Rather than go with the standard "John Smith" from "ABC Company" or "Acme Inc.", I tried to dress it up with more real sounding names, while staying generic. I believe "Linda Johnson" from GoodFiles Inc. was one of the chief participants in our FAQs...

During one of these meetings, I presented an example which included a company by the name of "Asypta". It didn't mean anything, but it sure sounded good, especially at a time when companies would rebrand themselves, or spin off subsidiaries with neat-sounding names that added no real value. For some reason, I got all sorts of questions about "Asypta". It sounded real enough that my colleagues wanted to know if I had an in on the ground floor of a top-secret pre-IPO start-up or something... but I kept using the example and sounding mysterious.

I stumbled on the idea of "Asypta" as companies often can be found with an A at the beginning, consonant, vowel, consonant, A. Think about how many you can name... for example... Avaya, Asigra, Altera, Atipa, Asera, Altria, Ariba, Aceva, Acterna, Acteva, Adexa, Azanda... and I'm sure there are many more. At one point in 2001, I had registered the domain name Asypta.com, with the dual intent of acting as if it were a fake company, or secondly, to "grade" company names by their "Asypta factor". Ariba would be a 10 on the scale. Avaya another 10. Something like Alhambra... not so much. Asypta eventually came to stand for "A simple, yet pointless, technical acronym." It's worth noting that almost none of these Asypta companies explain their corporate name on the Web site. Simple, yet pointless.

And they're at the beginning of the alpahabet too.

[Guy Kawasaki]

Chelsea,

I can't remember the name of the movie, but it was about the Vietnam war. In one scene a prostitute tells a soldier something to the effect of, "I promise I love you long long time."

That's what all this cross-linking reminds me of. My #4 was to push it to the extreme--to show how insipid this all is!

And he linked back...amazing, truly amazing...

Thanks,

Guy

[allgood2]

Love the post. I agree with Addendum 2: Avoid the commonplace and generic by Shaula Evans. One of my favorite bath products is Milk by H20.

When, I lived in San Francisco a number of stores carried them, so no problem. Well, I moved back to the midwest, and boy were they a pain to find on the internet. At first I just remembered the product brand—yeah try searching for milk bath or milk soak and see how useful that is when your looking for a something specific. Then I remembered the H20 part—really not helpful.

It took me over a week, entering in random search terms during odd moments here and there, before Amazon (I believe) gave me an H20 Plus back, allowing me to locate their website, and finally replenish my bathing supply.

[Clement Huang]

ok, here it goes:
www.CopaCast.com

good name? please comment.

[Max Baker]

We cannot avoid names starting with X and Z.
We cannot avoid Zillow.com or Zip.com or Zooper.com
Also we cannot avoid Video.com or Vancoogle.com or Vancouver.com

Can we avoid Kawasaki? I think no :)

Do they sound different:
Kawasaki, Nagasaki, Chigasaki?

Spamers begin with letters early in the alphabet
= First search results :)

You, Guy, had been on the Borland conference in Long Beach in 2001.
Now "B"orland is out of the software development market.

Sorry.

[Chelsea]

Guy,

I didn't see your previous post about sucking up to bloggers, and I appreciate your reasons #1, #2 and #3 for using outbound links. I am all for linking to excellent articles or even excellent posts on other blogs.

But your 4th reason (and the motive behind your recent link to Scoble) is shaky.

Just look at Scoble's latest post. What he has learned (nay, sort of learned, and only after much flogging) is that the insular world of Scoble linking to Rubel linking to Hugh linking back to Scoble bears a striking resemblance to playground clique-building, and it undermines the entire blog world.

The irony, of course, is that while chiding you for linking to him, Scoble is linking right back to you, thus proving that the game still works!

You'll note that every nubile blogger inevitably links to Scoble in desperate hopes of a comment, trackback, recognition, etc. And it's often blatant, slavish, and utterly without merit.

My comment to you was more a commendation on your refusal to gain readership using such low-brow tactics. You fell off the wagon once, but at least now you'll think twice before doing it in the future. Technorati 100 be damned. How about a blogger who gets there by maintaining the high ground and shunning all the BS that goes on in the blogosphere?

[Brad Hutchings]

David Reyes made a typo. I think his first sentence needs "—me" at the end:

"When it comes to naming your company, I feel that it's too important a job to fall into the hands of an amateur—you—and should be done by an expert —me."

That's much better. It also sounds like he's in a 1998 time warp. First customers are VCs? Stealth mode? What millenium are you from? That has to be a first Guy, people from the distant past commenting on your post!

[Matt Howser]

I don't see the irony in Volvo meaning "i roll"?

They obviously chose the name because of the latin meaning. It's not like they first chose a name and then discovered that it meant something.

[Jack]

Guy, if you feel like adding a third addendum, you could mention that the "great article" at the Day2Day Activities has merely been ripped off from Wikipedia....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_company_name_etymologies

[Napfisk]

Looks like a good job on the blog title.
Maybe this will come in handy later: a list of computer terms in latin (http://www.obta.uw.edu.pl/~draco/docs/voccomp.html)
Glotspot.be was the new name we went for recently. Works.

[Jack]

Interesting post. One thing that's missing from the Day2Day page, however, is attribution. The content is just ripped off from a Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_company_name_etymologies

and several of the Day2Day entries are ones I wrote myself ;-)

[Vinit]

Sometimes, making your name memorable helps ... esp. in the startup phase ...

With a product called "Vantrax" ... a few weeks later, the "Anthrax" scare hit the news.
So, when we introduced our company, people would go "vantrax ... like anthrax" ... we could only roll our eyes and nod.

Luckily, our software product got a positive connotation ... notice how many people think software = non-violent and software = nothing-to-do-with-global-mess

heh!

[Humphrey Bogus]

This is an interesting guide to the naming process.
http://www.igorinternational.com/process/naming-guide-product-company-names.php

There was also a great story on how Fatbrain.com was chosen (from the old name, ComputerLiteracy.com), but I'm having trouble locating it.

[Guy Kawasaki]

Chelsea:

RE: Guy, please don't fall prey to the pressure to start linking to "A list" bloggers. This is one of the things I liked about your posts - that you didn't engage in this slavish, sycophantic behavior that is so common in the blog world. Maybe that's because you were unaware of it, but your naivete was noticable and refreshing. Gratuitous linkage to other bloggers (almost always done in hopes of a link back, increased traffic, etc) is inauthentic and makes the blogging community seem insular and irrelevant.
-------------------------------------------

I don't really get this whole linking thing. For example, there are several bloggers who hated my How to Suck Up To a Blogger post, but they all linked to it. It seems to me that if you think something is stupid, unethical, etc, you try to make sure no one ever reads it, right?

I think they thought by linking to this heinous piece of writing, more people would be enraged. It seems to have backfired...but I digress. I sure as heck wasn't going to link back to someone calling me stupid, unethical, etc. If people want to conclude that I'm stupid, they need to do that all by themselves. :-)

There are three reasons at work when I link:

1) I think something is great and my reader would gain value by seeing it. Eg, the Salon article about naming.

2) To help people who I believe deserve help because they are trying to do good. This is kind of a moral obligation thing.

3) To acknowledge people who have helped me--for example, posted a valuable comment here.

I guess there's a fourth. Sometimes I'll link in a blatant suck up in order to illustrate the silliness of this practice.

The key philosphy is this: I am not writing to get the attention of the "A-list" bloggers. I am writing to help regular people build better companies, kick butt, make meaning, and change the world.

Don't get me wrong: I intend to be in the Technorati 100 which obviously requires links. But i hope these links will be from the great masses of "unknown" bloggers and practitioners who my blog helped.

Guy

[Andy Huckaba]

When we named my current company, Finity Technologies, we went through some interesting thinking with the help of a friend and sharp marketer out of Dallas named Brent Earles. Some excerpts from Brent's note to me follow:

Brand Promise
NewCo brings consumers and companies together with a positive one-to-one advertising experience made possible and necessary by digital and interactive technologies.

Brand Position
NewCo is striving to provide consumer relevance to the rapidly emerging category of personalized digital advertising delivery.

Potential Names

Descriptive

Ad.Vantage -- This name has a nice prismatic effect, offering a number of meanings that would suit marketing well (e.g., providing advantages to consumers and advertisers alike, a new vantage point of seeing things). It supports the positioning uniquely. The "period", intentionally in the name, suggests Internet and digital in an understated way and also lends some interesting design potential to the brandmark.

Working tagline: "See the difference."

Derivative

EnView -- This name is dervied from the prefix "en", which means "inside", and "view", which relates to entertainment, of course. So, the "inside view" of advertising is the underlying meaning to this derived name.

Working tagline: "Our audience is watching."

Conceptual

Finity -- As a concept, this idea takes on both the "finiteness" of the demographic universe in one-to-one marketing/advertising ... and yet the "infinite" possibilies that advertisers can deploy from their imaginations to reach consumers. I also like that the word "finally" is a "sounds like" companion to this name.

Working tagline: "Just imagine."

NOTE: We ended up going with Finity. Generally it just felt right. The only real problem has been that it is close to Infinity and we find ourselves correcting people.

[David Reyes]

When it comes to naming your company, I feel that it's too important a job to fall into the hands of an amateur—you—and should be done by an expert. For that reason, I believe you should give your company a placeholder name during the initial formation of the company, and make it explicit that it is a placeholder name. In fact, the initials PHN should follow your temporary name as an indicator of that intention. The placeholder name should follow in one of several conventions: You should name it like a law firm (Kawasaki, Jobs PHN); give it a market descriptive name (Page-ranking Search Engine PHN, Micropayment PHN); or city/descriptor name (Boston Implantable Medical Device PHN, Austin Cell Phone Mapping PHN).

By providing an explicit placeholder name, the new company smell persists until you actually name it. In the meantime, however, interested parties provide their naming ideas, and everyone has a naming idea. It has the potential of adding to your company’s buzz. And when you actually name the company, ideally when you are still in stealth mode, you would have had the luxury of time, and perhaps expert opinion, increasing the likelihood of a favorable outcome.

Another advantage is that VCs are in fact your initial costumer. They are the ones at the crosshairs of your marketing efforts, not the end consumer. You’re not selling widgets at this point, you’re selling your idea. A PHN makes for a more efficient transaction when dealing with the VC, since a major facet of your company is captured in the name. And a VC would only welcome the opportunity to provide naming input, including offering opinions of which obvious mistakes to avoid when naming your company. Or, put another way, you are at a clear disadvantage if your name sucks, and you have to defend it to a displeased VC. A PHN avoids naming pitfalls and adds a transaction efficiency, including the possibility of generating good will (the VC’s opinion).

A company name must pass many tests that most amateurs are unaware of—the legal jungle is only one of them. Names like Yahoo and Google were good names almost by luck, and you shouldn’t think you have that same sort of luck.

[George]

Well, it looks like I did a couple of things right with my company name: It's short, includes what I do, and early in the alphabet (thanks to my last name). Unfortunately, the name also includes a '.com'. But I don't worry too much about the implication you mentioned because I don't have a written business plan anyway!

Oh, and here's another Latin lesson: A not-so-famous not-quite-conqueror once said "Veni, vidi, discedi" -- "I came, I saw, I left."

[Patrick Fischer]

In reagrds to trademarks. First to use is first to own. There are over 1000 filed trademarks that contain the word Apple, while there are over 400 reagistered trademarks that contain the word Apple. We all know that there is only one apple Computer.

Take a word like Accessibility and you'll find only 49 applications with 23 that are officially registered.

In 1993 I developed JAVApc which was an Internet payphone for coffe shops but I sat on the idea and name for years until one day - 1997 I decided to register it, but a company called Sun had beat me to it.

The moral, in the name game, pick a name that no else has, grab the domain (proof of first to use), register it with USPTO.gov, and build a business. Cheers!

[chelsea]

Guy, please don't fall prey to the pressure to start linking to "A list" bloggers. This is one of the things I liked about your posts - that you didn't engage in this slavish, sycophantic behavior that is so common in the blog world. Maybe that's because you were unaware of it, but your naivete was noticable and refreshing. Gratuitous linkage to other bloggers (almost always done in hopes of a link back, increased traffic, etc) is inauthentic and makes the blogging community seem insular and irrelevant.

[Lars Plougmann]

There have been a few mentions of trademarks in the comments. It is an important step to search for potential conflicts with existing trademarks in the jurisdictions you plan to sell your product or service. By the same token, you should consider restrictions on what names can be registered as trademarks. Avoiding the generic is key here: You wouldn't be able to register the name "WaterCooler" for a device that chilled water no matter how sophisticated it was. Conversely, it is one of the reasons that Apple is such a good name for computers and gadgets.

[Erik Starck]

Volvo = "I roll"
Video = "I see"

And that's about all the Latin I know.

[Kai Xu]

How about "alertie"?

[Lee Harvey Osmond]

'Volvo' means 'I roll'? I never learned much Latin, apart from the discussion in Winston Churchill's memoirs of how to address a table, and the well-known "Romanus eunt domus" business. It's just that I understood that while 'Volvo' means 'I roll', it also means 'I roll over'.

[Barceloner]

> A reviewer analyzes a dozen or so products. She lists them in alphabetical order in the review. Would you prefer that your product be at the beginning or end of the list?

A friend of mine used to work in a well-known london cheese shop. When describing a list of cheeses to a customer, he would put the really mature ones at the beginning and *end* of the list, as these were the ones that stick in your head.

[Chetan Dhruve]

I think Accenture came from an internal competition..."ACCENT on the futURE).

[David]

I'm a fan of a naming firm called, surprisingly enough, Igor. They have a very thorough naming guide - http://snipurl.com/naming.

Trademark law is an odd conglomeration of state and federal law. There is no such thing as registering a state trademark (though you can register the name of a company, this own't provide enforceable rights). The main costs of filing a federal mark are the attorney's fees and possibly performing a search. The PTO fees are $275 (minimum fee for one class) plus $100 for issuance. It is likely that you will need to respond to a rejection, have more than one class etc.

Cheers,
David

[Servant of Chaos]

There is "to Kawasaki" BUT "to be Kawasaki'd" ... would be damaging to both one's ego and one's hope of funding.

[Adrian]

I'd add one more consideration: "Ask a trusted third party to vet your name." It can save you a lot of grief down the line.

Case in point: My tiny IT consultancy's name is MageTek ("We do magic with technology"), but we forgot that many external references (e.g. business listings and email addresses) are exported in ALL-UPPER or all-lower casing. We also didn't realize that many non-native English speakers would have trouble pronouncing a fairly uncommon word like "mage".

If we had asked someone outside the company a simple question like "How would you pronounce our company name?" before registration, we wouldn't now be entertaining calls for "Maggi-tek" (makers of hi-tech instant noodles) or "Mah-gi-tek" (way-kewl architects).

Sigh...

[Jeff]

"Okay, we need to trim about 60 pages out of our business plan and shave about 30mins off our PowerPoint presentation because the last VC we met fell asleep during our presentation."

"I know, I'll just Kawasaki it"

There you go, your name in verb.

[BD Handspicker]

Back in 1996 I took a group of folks out of Digital to start a company developing native web-based applications that "enabled business professionals". We ended up calling the company WebEnable. (That company became the first Partner Relationship Management software company.)

The whole concept of web applications was so new back then that we were scoffed out of a few VCs offices. ("Who'd ever want to use web-based applications?") But, we persevered and also applied for a trade-mark on the name.

Within the year that it took the PTO to consider our application, an industry developed to enable non-web applications to present a web-based interface. The term "web-enable" became pervasive. Our trademark application was denied on the basis that it was overly descriptive of a (now) existing process.

Moral of the story: pick a name which is evocative of what you do and which can be verbed, but not one that is overly descriptive.

[Patrick Fischer]

I think anybody can build a great company, but the name is the first step. To win the name game, you must "Think Different", as if you never saw a box. The sound a child makes when playing with a car "vroom" is a great name, but the company has to reflect a connection to the name, or the game is lost.

If you run a screen reader and listen to how it extracts words that are butted up together, you can hear that multiple words togther sound great, and make a rememberable domain. Trademark law says first to use owns it. Spending less then a $100 registers your name (same as domain) at your state level and for $350 you can get the federal mark. Now that is how I think you play the game.
There is an old saying.com

[Guy Kawasaki]

Rory,

I like it. I changed the title of my blog in your honor. Latin makes my blog seem so much more..."classy."

What's the Latin word for "suck up"?

Thanks,

Guy

[Rory Geoghegan]

"Volvo" is "I roll" in latin. Also, "Let the Good Times Roll" would translate as "Bona tempes volvant."

[Mariano Vassallo]

sorry, wrong link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarani#Language

you've probably been asked a million times but - speaking of brands - do you have any relation with the motorcycle company?

[Mariano Vassallo]

The article in Salon is very good!

I think it's way more dificult to find a good brand in spanish, since both latin and english words sound too familiar, and the Agilent/Lucent clones sound too american.
I guess i'll try with guaraní (http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&start=4&oi=define&q=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarani)

[Stacy]

I just realized that I did everything wrong that one could possibly do wrong in finding a name...but that's part of the process, part of the fun.

[W.P. Wily]

I would say to pick a name that doesn't sound so much like something you might not want your product to be associated with.

I'm sorry, I know Volvo is a great brand with a wonderful reputation, but it just sounds like a female body part to me. "So hey, what are you driving these days?" "Me, I'm driving a new..."

And who picked Lucerne for a new car model? Around here on the East coast, Lucerne is a brand of milk. My kids laugh when they see that car commercial.

[Guy Kawasaki]

Brad,

Funny you should mention the 6 letters rule. It seemed like Sequoia Capital, one of the great VC firms, used to invest in companies 5 letter names: Apple, Cisco, Yahoo.

Then there's Google. Maybe that's simply inflation.

Guy

[Guy Kawasaki]

Shaula,

And the verb "to shaula" would mean "to add value to a blog."

Guy

[met]

If your companies products are services - then the verb funda holds good and not so otherwise... right?

[Brad Hutchings]

Only one rule you ever need to know. 6 letters, 3 of which are vowels. Your name is gold. See the Salon article for the software engineer who applied that trick to TixToGo ("Acteva") and walked off with a Boxster. You go boy!!

[helmut]

I couldn't agree more. Every time I hear someone say "I reddit..." or "Have you reddit?" I instantly think of that cute alien on http://reddit.com

[yosef]

and don't forget to check for trademarks!
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=login&p_lang=english&p_d=trmk

[Shaula Evans]

I am indeed honoured, Guy.

I think the verb "to kawasaki" might mean" to spread links generously. ;)

Shaula

[Guy Kawasaki]

Brian,

We Asians may all look alike, but our names are spelled differently. :-)

Guy Kawasaki, author of Rich Evangelist, Poor Evangelist.

Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

Guy

[Guy Kawasaki]

Shaula,

Amen. I added an addendum in your honor.

Thanks,

Guy

[brian]

Hello Mr. Kawasaki,

Talking about playing the name game as your article suggests. Which is it, Guy or Robert?

[Shaula Evans]

I would add that it is important to give a company *or* a product a distinctive name.

If your company is called "Water" or your product (ahem) is called "Word," what happens when potential clients or customers look you up in Google? Absolutely nothing but frustration.

Guy, I'd be very interested to know how you picked the name for your blog and if you think the principles for naming companies translate to choosing a blog name.

[Rhys]

That Salon piece makes me want to dedicate my life to inventing a device for sending death over email. "We do the i as a biacron. An i with a circle on top." ZZZZZAP!

[jeneane]

kevin marks blogs at: http://epeus.blogspot.com/

[Doug Hanna]

Naming a company is tough. It's tough to find a name that is A) good B) easy to spell/say and C) not taken.

[Guy Kawasaki]

Zoli,

RE: Haha.. it does not do any good unless the link is to a specific post, you won't show up on his trackback list... but you don't need it anyway ;-)

I didn't know this, but I'm not going to change it. Subtlety is a key requirement of sucking up. :-)

Guy

[Kevin Marks]

Ruth Shalit's 'The Name Game' explains where all those forgettable, interchangeable names come from. Still hilarious 7 years on.

http://salon.com/media/col/shal/1999/11/30/naming/print.html

[Jack Dahlgren]

Sounds like Apple passed the first two - and probably the "different" test, but failed on the "verb" and "logic" tests.

I suppose I'm still not convinced that a great name can make up for lack of a great company or that a bad name can ruin a good business.

Anyway, good thoughts. I'm enjoying reading your blog.

[Andrew Hollister]

Serious case of deja vu from when we named our company. (FUSE)

[Justin McHenry]

Good points about the names of companies. It seems many of them spend a lot of money to come up with a name that means nothing to the average person's ear, and then others do the same until you have a handful of companies with almost the exact same name and no way to figure out who they are from the name alone. I still have a hard time remembering what Accenture is, and God knows they threw enough money at it to rebrand themselves.

[Matthew Wilder]

Rabbi Bob, Guy was not suggesting that bloggers don't serve as good sources (sorry for the double negative). He was just saying that journalists who can be fired and lose their 401 (k) jobs for providing incorrect information and tarnishing the reputation of the news source. Journalists - though not always successfully - are required to do more due diligence before telling the world how it is.

[Rabbi Bob]

Bloggers aren't journalists. Sure. And you can only buy your milk from the neighborhood milkman.

Why is it that press and PR people get to decide who is and isn't a journalist? Blogs now play an important role in publishing original content and promoting action *offline*; e.g., Trent Lott (http://snipurl.com/mssq) and Hurricane Katrina coverage(http://snipurl.com/msso).

From Lewis D'Vorkin, Vice President, Editor-in-Chief of AOL News & Sports, "In a summer marked by London bombings, rising gas prices and record hurricanes, the world is turning to the fastest growing news team - citizen journalists - to get a human perspective through the eyes of those who lived or experienced the news as it unfolds."

In an age dominated by corporate media entities, bloggers are journalists without cushy stock options and 401(k) plans.

[Zoli Erdos]

"*** I threw this in since he's always saying that I don't include enough outbound links in my blog."

Haha.. it does not do any good unless the link is to a specific post, you won't show up on his trackback list... but you don't need it anyway ;-)

[Matthew Wilder]

That's a cool article with the how they named their companies. Very enlightening. I will roll off now.