A Study of the Pros and Cons of Company Names

Check out this blog article called “10 Company Name Types on TechCrunch: Pros and Cons.” The author of the blog, Chris Johnson, provides an analysis of these types of names:

1. Real words

2. Compounds

3. Phrases

4. Blends

5. Tweaked words

6. Affixed words

7. Made up or obscure origin

8. Puns

9. People’s names (real or fictitious)

10. Initials and Acronyms

This article provides a very good conceptual framework for the process of naming a company or product. In another article, Chris also did an analysis of “How to Change the World” that you might find interesting.

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Comments

[frank]

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[Buy]

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[Jeffry Pilcher]

@DT: Does that mean AAAapple is better than Apple?

[deon]

Blogs are mean to give you somethingworthy and practical,wholesomewords,beneficial ideas and successfull tricks and tactics,i think i have with quite much things while reading this one.

[leo]

mostly time I found blog but I naver gain lots of information but this blog have lots of important information abt this and I got lots of imformation on it . Thanks

[Frank fernandis]

Just like Ionut, I’m interested in how easily trademarking “Multiply” and “Indeed” would be? They’re such common words!

[vish]

How does this name sound ? people2meet.com

[JibberJobber Guy]

Cool - I have a fun name that most people seem to like. It was the result of a brainstorm (I had boring suggestions)... and already had some prebranding since people would frequently say "oh, I've heard of that!"

On podcast interviews the interviewer always asks about the name and say it repeatedly... its a fun thing, and definitely a part of the brand.

[Susan Martin]

When thinking of the name for my company, I tried to conjure up what my clients are desperately seeking, Business Sanity. Thanks for pointing me to Chris Johnson's site.

[Payback Is A Picture.Com]

The company name is very important when looking to form a brand.

http://www.paybackisapicture.com
http://www.thefamousguy.com

[Suzie Dingwall Williams]

Branding is no different than marriage: once you've made a choice, stick with it. Commitment is hard for many of you men, but the cost of straying can be high. I posted about my own experience spending hundreds of thousands of VC dollars on branidng and re-branding, all because my CEO had a vision. Share my pain here: http://venturelaw.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html

[Brian Laks]

The compound seems to be by far the most popular. Thanks for posting that link, Guy. One of those moments when you realize that there are others out there with similar thoughts.

[MIke]

Topic sounds great, but the article at http://www.thenameinspector.com/10-name-types/ shows a blank page (Mac OS 9.2.2 & Netscape 7.02)

[Joe]

Hey Guy -

I met you at the Inbox Conference last year. You did a great job with your presentation.

I have my own three rules for naming companies that I thought that you would enjoy:
http://colopy.typepad.com/email_marketing/2006/05/3_rules_for_nam.html

Enjoy your blog. Keep it up!

[Jake Anderson]

I like the way you are coming at me with this. You've made a couple great points and a few more so so's. What do you think of the name www.myhaberdasher.com ?

[Dave F.]

A roundabout trip to a company name involves Gordon Bowker, who wanted to name his new business Pequod, after Captain Ahab's ship in Moby-Dick. Bowker's partner Terry Heckler reportedly replied that no one was going to drink a cup of Pequod. Searching an old map of the Pacific northwest, they spotted a mining camp call Starbo or Starbos...

...which brought to mind the first mate on the Pequod: Starbuck. At least that's what Howard Schultz wrote in Pour Your Heart into It.

[A4]

It's an interesting task to invent a new and really name...

[DT]

Hi Guy,

I like to add its good in a name to have it also start with a letter very early in the alphabet. This is because many listing sites, directories, or real world lists all list their collection of names in alphabetical order.

Rdgs
DT