You Have That Spark for A New Company but Argh!!! What Do You call It?
Plus, all the web domain names possible have been secured! What now?
You have an idea, that idea solves a problem; that problem has a name, but of course that domain name has been secured already by someone else.
Distraught you may even extinguish the spark altogether as you feel someone else is already doing it.
STOP! Keep the ember lit and think around the problem. There are simple solutions!
Just name your company something relevant and worry about the domain name afterwards.
Even recently I have been involved in naming a new company in Canada, whose business plan and direction has gone through months of verification and scrutiny. I was involved in the process only this week after a name could not be decided on. Using the strategy below, I was able to name and create an identity for the company in just a few hours after thinking through and identifying its unique selling proposition (USPs) from the business plan. Again, my company name option was preferred but due to the .com URL being taken, the focus was being shifted away from what accurately describes the company onto other names that are more random and unrelated to the service.
We won in the end by thinking around the problem and not making the URL availability be the deciding factor.
Even back in 2009, Alacrity was named with the URL not being the defining factor. Now Alacrity has reached global circulation and we have had to adapt and rebrand to have alacrityglobal.com as the hub, and then AlacrityCOUNTRY.com as the secondary level site depending on location. In only the UKs version does it remain alacrityfoundation.com and not use the country due to its charitable influence.
More on securing a URL for your company later, but in the meantime, let’s focus on the different variations of naming a company.
The Company Name That Will Define You and Your Product
Today every word under the sun has been secured with a .com domain name. You may come across a completely random word out of the dictionary but this may not have any relevant meaning and therefore be useless for you.
Before designing any literature, it would be beneficial to realise your company name first. Your company name will define the tone that you write in, and open a thesaurus of words that relate to you which enable you to use and build into your brand strategy.
Names, words and ideals have been absorbed into companies’ names all around us and we’ve observed some crazy names which originally, we’re like, huh? But after a short time, they become the norm and we start using these names as new words in our daily lives (Google and Hoover for example).
From the outside looking in, IKEA is one of these strange and crazy names. It’s great being a short word but it’s three syllables that mean nothing! It’s actually the founder’s initials followed by the town where he grew up, a new word is created that is complete nonsense but it works (well it does now at least).
All start-ups I’ve worked with think it’s better to play it safe with a ‘normal’ name, but again what is normal? There’s no such thing anymore and what the focus should really be is a unique name just like IKEA. Unique names are very hard to do, and even then, the URL can be strangely applied to something irrelevant.
As a successful start-up company, you will need to take a risk with your name but make it memorable and unique which will inspire confidence and of course be unforgettable.
What Do I Need for A Stand-Out Name?
A stand-out company name will need to be as many of these points as possible, the greater the number the more success you will have securing a URL and having an awesome, cohesive brand.
Be Relevant
Be Distinctive
Be Liked
Easy to Spell
Easy to Pronounce
Easy to Secure Domain
Not so easy, is it?
Well there are different naming methods which each have their own benefits and constraints…
Different Methods for Company Name Construction
Real Word Names
Real words are pretty obvious, they are repurposed words taken straight from a dictionary.
BENEFITS: They’re generally shorter, easier to spell and come with ready-made dictionary definitions which could relate to your company, product or service thus identifying what you do quickly and effortlessly.
CONSTRAINTS: You will rarely secure a domain name with just the real word anymore, especially a .com domain. If you are able to purchase it from a ‘squatter’, (someone who buys domains and hopes to then resell for a handsome profit) then it will cost you a lot of money. Also, as this word is already used in the public domain, trademarking could be an issue and copywriting complicated.
AMAZON
YAHOO
DISCOVERY CHANNEL
Compound Names
Choosing compounds seem to be more popular for company names these days and the next best thing from a real word name. A compound very simply is two words, in whole or in part pushed together to make a new word.
BENEFITS: Practically a limitless number of possible combinations which can make it easier to create a unique name.
CONSTRAINTS: They can get long and look or sound like another real word which may have a negative influence, so be careful.
WORDPRESS
WESLEYCLOVER
Blended Names
These are usually made from two words in the same way as a compound, but there is only a recognisable portion of a word rather than whole word.
BENEFITS: Blends can be elegant and have the advantage of a compound name.
CONSTRAINTS: When a blend fails, it is awkward and obscure, usually when it is shorter and hides the original descriptive words.
WIKIPEDIA (Wiki + encyclopaedia)
SKYPE (Sky + Peer to Peer)
MICROSOFT (Microcomputer + Software)
Made-Up Names
Like IKEA, made up names are short words that are either made-up completely, or whose origin is so obscure that it may as well have been a fabricated word.
BENEFITS: These made-up names can be very short and individual. The .com URL will almost always be available.
CONSTRAINTS: These names don’t provide anything that help describe the company or what they do. They can also be difficult to spell unless phonetically obvious.
KODAK (The founder wanted anything but specifically liked the letter K)
HÄAGEN-DAZS (Yep, completely made up. It comes from New York and made to sound Danish)
DANONE (Named after the founder’s son, Dan and the word ‘one’)
So, armed with different naming conventions above, you can now start to see opportunities available to you instead of worrying about distractions like URL availability.
Don’t forget the vital elements in creating a stand-out name:
Be Relevant
Be Distinctive
Be Liked
Easy to Spell
Easy to Pronounce
Easy to Secure Domain
To Conclude, Back to Solving the Web Domain Problem
I have been involved in naming companies using all styles above. Some types of names are more relevant than others, and only you can decide that. In Alacrity one such company was called Harness. They enabled people to get support to help them with hospital treatment, training for charity races or even changing habits like smoking or drinking more water. I was insistent on Harness being used, as it had that ready-made meaning of support, strength and endurance, but the focus again was on not being able to secure the .com domain name.
Eventually through trying to change the company name several times due to this small issue of domain name, we steered back to Harness and added WE ARE to the beginning of their URL becoming weareharness.com.
Also, back to the naming of the Canadian company and how I created it. The product covers in essence (without giving confidential information out) extremely efficient and fast wifi delivery, throughout a cities infrastructure over different wavelengths. By reading their business plan I was able to focus, focus, focus everything down to the sentence above and to keywords of interest like:
Speed
Wavelengths
City
By using my most used bookmark – thesaurus.com I could see other words that mean the same things and identify if any of them work together to make an efficient BLEND. The name I very quickly identified was WAVELOCITY. The wave overlaps with VELOCITY to use the same letters, but also includes the word CITY. Therefore, in one new company name identifying FAST WIFI delivery in the CITY.
Unfortunately, the domain was already taken even though it wasn’t a ‘real’ word, but again I was convinced the name accurately described the service. The decision was taken to add CORP to the end of the URL and secure it hence wavelocitycorp.com was purchased only a couple of days ago.
Other options of adding to your domain name to enable you to secure the .com top level domain name could be any of these…
WEARE-----
-----HQ
-----CORP
GET-----
TRUST-----
-----APP
USE-----
-----DIRECT
A word about the Author
Paul Bailey is the Design and Marketing Director at Wesley Clover. He has worked under the entrepreneurial umbrella of businesses financed by Terry Matthews since graduating at Newport University in 2000. Paul is responsible for the worldwide direction and brand of the Alacrity programme. He is a mentor and directly assists the Alacrity Foundation’s graduate companies from the Innovation centre in Newport as well as helping the Wesley Clover portfolio of over 70 companies worldwide.