How to Choose a Great Brand Name: 7 Tips for a Strong Identity

Create an impactful name for your brand with top tips on the naming process, dos and don’ts, and how to find inspiration

Finding the perfect name for your business or brand can feel like a lot of pressure. For creatives, small business owners, freelancers, or artists, your brand’s look and feel is especially important. If you’re trying to choose a name, you’re probably asking yourself more questions than you can answer.

Questions like, “what do I need to be mindful of when selecting words or phrases that could define me? Should I use my real name? What happens if I need to rebrand?”

Rob Meyerson (@robmeyerson) is a professional namer who runs a brand strategy and identity firm called Heirloom. He has worked in agencies and as an independent consultant for brands worldwide, from startups to the Fortune 500. He recently published Brand Naming: The Complete Guide to Creating a Name for Your Company, Product, or Service, hosts a podcast called How Brands Are Built, and teaches the Fundamentals of Memorable Brand Naming here at Domestika.

We asked Rob seven key questions that reflect the considerations and challenges faced by the creative industry when it comes to brand naming.

Read on for his strategies and practical tips to generate ideas, consider long-term thinking, and express your unique products or services through the strongest words.

1. What should I be mindful of when naming my brand?

If I had to narrow it down to three things I’d advise, they’d be:

a) The naming brief.

b) Preliminary trademark screening.

c) The final decision-making process.

These are important steps that I often see companies gloss over or skip entirely.

The naming brief ensures everyone’s on the same page about what the name should convey as well as any specific dos and don'ts. Preliminary trademark screening is a fast, inexpensive way to avoid getting too attached to names that don’t work from a legal standpoint.

And when it’s time to make a final decision, most people think the right name will simply “jump off the page”. It rarely happens that way—instead, teams should assume it will be difficult and contentious (just in case) and plan accordingly, including who will make the final decision and how.

2. If I’m an independent artist, should I use my own name for my online branding, or create a brand name? What are the pros and cons of each approach?

This may seem obvious, but the answer depends on who you are and what your personal name is. Are you already well known and respected in your industry? Is your name distinctive and easy to remember? Is it easy to pronounce?

If your goal is to build a personal brand, using your personal name makes sense, as it keeps all the focus on you. This approach can also create a sense of authenticity and accountability—it puts your skin in the game, so to speak. It’s also quicker and easier than coming up with something new. On the flipside, however, it may suggest a one-person operation, which can make it hard to compete against bigger companies. Using your personal name could also pigeonhole you or even harm your reputation if something goes wrong.

Creating a new brand name, on the other hand, can suggest scale, provide more flexibility, and allow you to express ideas through the name. But it may take longer to find the right name, and people may judge your choice more harshly.

3. For many artists, logomarks and illustrated logos for social media are important. How does this impact the name I should choose?

When thinking about names, people often consider what the name means and how it sounds but forget to consider how it will look. Even before a logo is designed, the characters in a name can make it feel balanced or off-kilter, fluid, or solid. A word like "light" is easy to pronounce but a little harder to read, due to the cluster of consonants.

Many of the visual challenges with names can be mitigated through smart design. For example, a bold, slab serif might add weight and gravitas to an otherwise airy or flimsy-looking name. A visual imbalance caused by descenders (parts of letters that extend below the baseline, like the tail of a y) could be solved by using all capital letters in a logo.

Once you’ve narrowed your list down to a handful of potential names, try asking a designer how the names look. While it’s rarely a major factor, you may learn something that influences your decision.

4. If I turn professional or pivot my offering as an indie creator, do I need to rebrand?

Both conventional wisdom and evidence-based approaches to marketing tell us that consistent, distinctive brand assets—including names and logos—are what help build strong brands over time. In other words, don’t change your name or visual identity unless you have a compelling reason to do so.

That said, there are scenarios in which a name change is necessary. If your brand name has a major legal challenge, for example, it may be time to rebrand. This can happen, as it did to Poachable, if you forget to include trademark screening as part of your naming process.

My advice to anyone in this scenario would be to go through a thoughtful, rigorous naming process to make sure you only have to do this once.

When you make the switch, think carefully about how to tell people the name has changed. Lastly, protect your new brand name—register a trademark and keep your eyes open for similar companies using the same name.

5. On the other hand, if I run an established, larger brand, how do I know when it’s time to make a change and find a new name?

Again, hopefully you never have to change the name. But, aside from legal challenges, a few other reasons to consider a name change include the following:

a) When your name is offensive. We’ve seen plenty of brands—from Ben’s Original rice to the NFL’s Washington Commanders—change names recently due to cultural insensitivity or similar problems.

b) A merger or acquisition. Options include keeping one company’s name (probably the stronger brand, even if it’s not the acquirer), combining the names somehow, or creating something entirely new.

c) A significant change in the underlying business or product. Overly descriptive names can paint brands into a corner. Starbucks recently dropped “Coffee” from its name to try to move beyond perceptions that its stores are “just for coffee.”

6. Where do you find inspiration for striking and memorable words?

Everywhere! In books, songs, and conversations, mostly. Sometimes on the radio or in lines from movies. Part of the fun of being a namer is getting to “collect” great words. I literally keep a list of interesting or fun words in case they fit a future naming brief or inspire something great.

7. Do you know intuitively when a word will have an impact, or is the process sometimes more surprising?

As an experienced namer, I have a sense of which words—whether they’re real or invented—could become great brand names. But no one can predict with certainty whether a name will succeed or fail. So much of it depends on the surrounding brand identity, the company or product, and other factors that are out of the namer’s control.

In my book, I cite Consignia as a terrible brand name. But that’s a little unfair, to be honest. I don’t think it’s a good name, but what made it irrevocably bad was a mix of a poor launch, weaknesses in the underlying business, and change of management.

And many names that people consider great may only feel that way in retrospect due to the success of the brands they stand for. When Phil Knight, founder and CEO of Nike, saw a list of potential names, he said, “I don’t like any of them, but I guess [Nike is] the best of the bunch. Maybe it’ll grow on us.” With luck and hard work, your brand name will grow on you, too.

Remember to check out Rob Meyerson's full course on brand naming. For even more tips and advice, his book, Brand Naming: The Complete Guide to Creating a Name for Your Company, Product, or Service, is available via online retailers.

If you’re keen to learn more about branding and help your business stand out from the ocean of logos and names, check out our branding and identity courses.

You may also like:

- 17 of the Most Talked-About Rebranding Campaigns of 2021
- The Expert: Michael Johnson Dissects 3 Top Brands
- 5 Interesting Facts About Advertising: Iconic Slogans, Classic Ads, and Santa Claus
- 5 Amazing Facts About Logos