What’s in a name? The effect of the right brand name on your company identity

While most names have some kind of definition or meaning from the language they originated from, brands have the opportunity to take that meaning and redefine it themselves.

So, first of all, how do you even go about choosing the right name for your new brand/business/product?

When we’re naming something for a client, we like to pick out some key themes and start mapping it out from there. What do you actually do for your customers, or what does your product solve? Where did the inspiration for your brand/product come from? Why are you embarking on this brand (or even rebrand)? Once we’ve got to the bottom of all that, we start developing ideas.

And while we’re doing that, anything goes. We’re not worrying about the nitty gritty to start with, we’re just going with the flow. Once we’ve got a variety of names to choose from, that’s when we start whittling it down into some more concrete options – making sure whatever we choose works with the brief.

Finally, that’s when you start being hyper-critical. Great name, but it basically means ‘poop’ in a different language? Bin it. Too hard to pronounce for the average person? Stick it to one side. Sounds a bit high-brow for the type of business we’re working with? Get rid. Eventually, once we’ve done a bit of background research to make sure we’re not using a name that’s already been done to death, we end up with a set we’re happy with and can take to the client.

We also encourage them to follow the same process when they’re looking through our final options – see how they feel about each name before they start picking holes.

Then, when we’ve got a name, what can that do for a business? Well, in the case of our client Nephos, it actually transformed the whole way they thought about their business, taking them from having the mindset of a small-town accountancy firm to having the ambition to conquer the digital accountancy world. They started out in Cheltenham, now they’ve got branches across the country and in Dubai. And we’d argue that the name, and the brand positioning that came from it, was a big motivator in that.

But, here’s the thing: a name doesn’t have to be more than a name. When we created the box art for Lister Shearing’s newest set of shearing combs, the shearers Down Under came up with all the names. At first, we thought things like ‘Slayer’ and ‘Havoc’ were never going to sell. But all they needed to be were names that would differentiate the types of combs while having a bit of personality at the same time. So, in this instance, they didn’t change the world, but they did do the job.

A name is crucial, but it’s only part of a brand’s success. Your brand’s values, proposition and the way customers feel about it are ultimately going to be the most important things to hang your hat on. So, don’t worry if the name you picked doesn’t have five layers of meaning to it – it’s up to you to define what that name means after all.