Naming: how a product gets its name
A good name is short, memorable, works in several languages and can actually be used. How a naming process runs, from the brief and the first long list to the checks that decide the shortlist.
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A name is the first thing people learn about a product or company, and the thing they repeat most often. It ends up on the website, the domain, the packaging, the invoice and in every conversation. Finding one feels like it should be a moment of inspiration. In practice, it’s a process.
1. The brief: what the name has to do
Before collecting ideas, it helps to agree on what the name should achieve:
- What is being named? A company, a product, a feature, an event.
- Who should remember it? Customers, partners, investors, applicants, in which countries.
- What should it convey? Trust, speed, warmth, precision, playfulness.
- What must it work with? Existing brands, a product family, a logo, a domain ending.
- What should it avoid? Names of competitors, overused words in the industry.
2. Types: how names are built
Names fall into a few families, each with strengths:
- Descriptive: says what it does. Clear, but often hard to own and protect.
- Suggestive: hints at a quality or image without describing it directly. A good balance of meaning and distinctiveness.
- Invented: a new word. Very distinctive and easier to secure, but it needs the brand to fill it with meaning.
- Real words in a new context: a familiar word used for something unexpected. Memorable and characterful.
- Founders’ names and acronyms: personal or neutral, but often less memorable.
3. Ideas: the long list
The first round is about quantity. Several methods help produce a long list of candidates:
- Word fields around the brief: images, verbs, qualities, places.
- Other languages: Latin, Japanese, regional dialects, for sound and meaning.
- Combinations and fragments: joining, shortening or blending words.
- Metaphors: what the product is like, rather than what it is.
A long list of a hundred names or more is normal. Most will fall away, and that’s the point.
4. The shortlist: criteria that decide
Candidates are then measured against the brief:
- Easy to say and spell, in every language the brand will be used in. A name that has to be spelled out on the phone is a hurdle.
- Short and memorable.
- Distinctive in its market, not too close to existing names.
- Fits the personality defined in the brief.
- Room to grow: it still fits if the product range expands.
5. Checks: can it be used
The remaining names go through practical checks:
- Domain: is a fitting domain available, and are the social media handles free?
- Language check: does the name mean anything unwanted, or sound like something awkward, in other languages?
- Trademark: whether a name can be registered and used is a legal question; a trademark search by a specialist belongs at this point, before anything gets designed.
6. Decision: living with the name
The final choice is easier with the names shown in context: written as a logo, on a website header, in a sentence, said out loud. A name that feels unusual on a list often feels right once it’s seen in use. And every strong name felt new once.
The short version
- Brief first: what the name has to convey, for whom, and alongside what.
- Name types: descriptive, suggestive, invented, real words, founders’ names.
- Long list, then a shortlist measured against clear criteria.
- Checks: domain, handles, language, and a trademark search by a specialist.
- Decide in context: as a logo, on a website, said out loud.
If you need a name for a company or product, get in touch.