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

[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.