Branding: Choosing a Name – Name Types

This post is part 1 of a 4 part series.

After you have a business concept, one of the first things you need to do is come up with a business name. This task can be often be daunting and confusing of how to name your business.

It could be possible I may be re-inventing the wheel here, but after some thought about the topic, I believe there are 7 Major Categories of names, they are Personal Names, Partnership Names, Last Names, Unique Names, Industry Names, Hybrid Names and Acronyms.

Each of these have advantages and disadvantages. Personal and Partnership Names generally brand the PEOPLE themselves whereas Unique and Industry brand a COMPANY and HYBRID can be a mix of the two. I will discuss later about the advantages and disadvantages of the different types later in the blog, but for now let me explain my thoughts about these different categories of names.

PEOPLE NAMES

Personal Names – Examples of Personal Names include: Calvin Klein, Carl Zeiss, Christian Dior, Hugo Boss, Jack Daniel, Philip Morris, John Deere, Jimmy John, Louis Vuitton, Martha Stewart and Tony Roma.

Personal names include both the first and last name and seem to be used often for design or service related businesses such as real estate agents.

Partnership Names – They include either first or last name or initials of more than one person. Examples of Partnership Names include Anheuser-Busch, Barnes & Noble, Baskin-Robbins, Bausch & Lomb, Ben & Jerry’s, Black & Decker, Briggs & Stratton, H&R Block and Procter & Gamble.

Single Last Names – This is similar to Personal Names, but is only a single name. Examples of Last Name companies include Barcardi, Boeing, Bugatti, Buick, Chevrolet, Dyson, Ferrari, Gillette, Gucci, Hormel, Honda, Kellogg, Kohl’s, Kroger, Lamborghini, Macy’s, Mazda, McAfee, McDonald’s, Nestle, Pfizer and Sears.

It seems a lot of car companies like to use Single Last Name naming convention.

COMPANY NAMES

Industry Names – Industry Names include in some form what the company does or what industry they are in. They do not include a persons name.  Examples of Industry Names include Ace Hardware, Home Depot, and Burger King.

Unique Names – Unique Names do not include a persons name (at least obvious name) and do not really say what the business does. Unique Names include Yahoo, Google, nVidia, Apple, Applebees, etc.

HYBRID NAMES

Hybrid Names – Hybrid names can include a variety of mixing the above. They may include name, industry or uniqueness. Examples include A&W Restaurants, Callaway Golf Company, Coors Brewing Company, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Gatti’s Pizza, McDonnell Aircraft, Schwinn Bicycle Company, Lucas Films and Walmart.

Acronyms – Acronyms are a series of letters that usually stand for something. It does not say the industry in the name, but often the letters will stand for something in the industry or someones name. Examples include THX, AT&T, IKEA and GM.

Note: One company I know of in Irving, TX (ATX) has a series of letters as their name, but no one seems to know what it stands for, they would also fit in this category.

The Brand of You
Unless you were born with the name “Ima Locksmith”, then your name can probably be used for any industry. It is flexible and versatile, you can change industries without completely re-branding yourself. Using your name you are generally selling yourself first. You become the product or service itself.  Using your name has worked for some big names (see list above). I would not suggest this for someone with a common name (such as Mike Smith) as this can cause confusion for customers who may Google you and frustration for you getting on top of search engines for your name. If you do have a more unique name, using a Personal Name would be ideal for some who are looking to sell a service they will personally provide (such as real estate agents) or someone who may be branding themselves for job purposes (that would be me currently).

Partnership Names are easy to create by just combining 2 or more personal names together in some way. It has the advantage of all partners feeling equality, but also has the downfall that if one partner goes south, their name is still in the business name.

Single Last Names are easy, but it may be difficult (or next to impossible) to obtain a good domain name or social network vanity url or username with simply just your last name. Personal Names, Partnership Names and Single Last Names all have the downfall of not communicating what the business actually does.

Industry Names say exactly what they are and instantly potential customers will have atleast an idea of what the company provides. The downside of Industry Names is that in recent years, many dictionary term combinations have been taken for domain names and social media sites.

Unique Names do not say what they are, so if you go this route, you may have to fight the current for people to know and understand what your company does and do some effective branding marketing. In other words, I believe Lowes has a disadvantage compared to Home Depot.

Hybrid Names can inherit both advantages and disadvantages of its parents.

Acronyms have little benefit and are nearly impossible to obtain matching domains, social network urls and usernames .

When selecting a name, decide first if you are marketing YOU. If you are providing a personal service, then that answer would probably be yes. If you are marketing a product or non-personal service then that answer would probably be no. If you absolutely love the product or service and it is non-personal, then maybe you are marketing YOU.  This is a decision for you to make.

Its impossible for me to go into all the possibilities on this blog. Some other things to consider is if you choose to use a Personal Name, how would the business be affected when you die? Are you creating the illusion that you personally do the work while a staff does the work? Is it a business or just Self-Employment? Could one of your business partners go south on you?

When you brand your company, you will want to make sure at the very least that no one else has it Trademarked and that your domain name is available. You can check the domain name availability at DomainDad.com There are also some other questions you will want to consider, but that will be covered in another blog post.

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One Response to Branding: Choosing a Name – Name Types

  1. Anonymous says:

    Thanks for good article. Hope to see more soon.

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