How to come up with a business name, step by step

Most businesses get named in a rush: a list typed late at night, a favourite that wins because it was first, and a domain bought before anyone has said the name out loud to a stranger. It is possible to do better without hiring an agency. What follows is the order we would work in, from a blank page to a name you can defend.

1. Write a short brief first

Before any names, write a few sentences that the name has to satisfy. It feels slow. It saves the most time later, because every argument about a shortlist is really an argument about a brief nobody wrote down.

• Who says the name most often: customers, partners, investors, your own team on the phone.
• How it should feel: calm or loud, established or new, expert or friendly.
• What it must not sound like: a competitor, a category cliche, anything that will date.
• Where it will live: a shop sign, an app icon, a pitch deck, an invoice.
• How far the business may grow. A name tied to one product has to be explained away later; naming the company or naming the product covers that choice.

2. Choose the kind of name

Names come in a handful of kinds, and deciding which kind you want narrows the search more than any list of keywords.

• A real word, used for something it does not usually mean. Easy to remember, hard to own, and rarely free as a .com.
• Two words joined: Greywater, CostChat, Buildbot. They explain themselves without being a plain description.
• A fresh spelling of a known word: Rallie, Birddie, Loyalti. Familiar to hear, distinctive to see, with a spelling question to answer.
• A word with an ending: Gnomely, Smartfy, Carable. The root says the idea, the ending makes it a name.
• An invented word: Kazy, Olvo, Zevyo. It starts empty and means whatever the brand makes it mean.

There is no best kind, only a trade between a head start and room to grow. Invented or descriptive goes into it in more depth.

3. Generate widely, without judging

Aim for a long list before you aim for a good one. Judging too early is how a team ends up with three variations of the first idea. A few places to dig:

• The words your customers use, not the words in your pitch. Listen to how they describe the problem.
• Two short words from different places, joined: one about the job, one about the feeling.
• Other languages. Entregga starts from entrega, the word for delivery in Spanish and Portuguese.
• Endings that turn a root into a name: -ly, -io, -fy, -a, -o.
• Sounds you like, with no meaning at all yet. Short invented names often start as a sound someone liked saying.

Name generators are useful at this stage, for volume. They are not useful later, for judgement: a generator can give you three hundred options but cannot tell you which one could carry a company.

4. Cut hard to a shortlist of five

Now judge. Read each name for the things a customer will run into: how long it is, how many syllables it takes to say, whether its sounds come naturally, and whether someone could spell it after hearing it once. Our free name checker reads all of those for any name you type in and explains each finding in plain words. How to tell if a business name is any good walks through the same six things by hand.

Cut anything that needs explaining, anything you would have to spell on the phone, and anything that only works when it is written in your logo. Five is enough. More than five and the decision turns into a vote.

5. Say every name out loud

A name is heard far more often than it is read: on calls, in recommendations, in a podcast mention. Say each name once, at normal speed, to someone who has not seen it, and ask them to type it. Every letter they get wrong is an email that bounces later. Why good names fail out loud explains the usual ways a name stumbles.

6. Check that it is free to use

A name you cannot use is not a name. For each survivor, check the .com, search the trademark register for your field and look for the social handles. How to check a company name before you commit covers those checks in order. For anything you plan to build on for years, a trademark lawyer is worth the fee.

If the .com is taken, that is not always the end of the name. A page that says it is for sale is a price question, and a parked page is a negotiation. What to do when your startup's .com is taken sets out the options.

7. Decide, and stop

The last two names are usually both fine, which is why choosing between them is so hard. Go back to the brief, say both in the sentences the name will live in most, and pick the one that needs less help. How to choose between two names you both like has a way to break the tie, and how to run a naming session that ends in a decision helps if a team is deciding together.

Then stop. A name grows into its meaning through use. The one you pick will feel strange for a few weeks, then it will feel like the only name the business could have had.