From my experience in naming companies, SaaS products and service businesses, I can tell you that there are several ways of approaching this. Each has its pros and cons. My clear favorite is to combine two popular English words because it makes the name already somehow familiar to your customers.
Two English Words
Combine two short and well known English words, which are not necessarily connected to each other. Such a name usually is about 7–9 characters long and is very easy to remember because its parts are already encoded in your customer’s brain. Such a name builds an instant, although subconscious, sense of familiarity with your brand.
Examples:
- Snapchat
- Salesforce
- Pipedrive
- Microsoft
- Autodesk
- Red Hat
- YouTube
- WordPress
- Bitcoin
- ServiceNow
- Workday
- Check Point
- Wirecard
- Softbank
- Freshdesk
- PayPal
- SoundCloud
- Skyscanner
There is another twist possible with this scheme. Combine an English dictionary word with a custom name.
Examples:
- Gmail
- iPhone
- Netflix
Three-Letter Acronym
Examples:
- IBM
- SAP
- CDW
- NXP
- DXC
- AMD
- BMW
- DHL
- UPS
Invent New Name
Examples:
- Spotify
- Shopify
- Zynga
- Vimeo
- Lyft
- Trulia
- Adobe
- Symantec
- Intuit
- Xilinx
- Xerox
Dictionary Name
Examples:
- Apple
- Amazon
- Square
- Intel
- Alphabet
- Slack
- Float
- Zoom
- Signal
- Chrome
- Oracle
- Wish
Create Word
Nowadays, with the huge number of businesses already on the market promoting their existing and new brands, it may be quite difficult to use a nice dictionary name that is still available. Instead, you may consider creating a new word.
Examples:
- Authy
- Booksy
Other aspects of choosing a name
Check trademark availability
Before deciding on a name, make sure that you do not infringe on anyone’s trademark. Depending on your country of residence, this may not only be very costly if neglected, but will also make it difficult for you to build a strong, reputable and defensible brand.
Enter your desired name into Google Search and see what appears. If Google suggests a similar name, then someone else might have already built a brand that looks or sounds like yours.
Check pronouncability
Call a friend and tell them that you started a new business, say the name and then ask them to text you the name. If too many people send you your name with spelling mistakes, then you know that you need to either adjust the name, choose a new one or prepare a solid marketing budget to get this name into your customers’ minds.
It’s also a good idea to use Amazon’s Polly service, which is available from AWS. It’s free for testing purposes. Simply enter a phrase like the one below and hear how your name gets pronounced:
I work at Adips
Start with a letter close to “A”
If your name starts with the letter “A”, then you have a higher probability of being placed at the beginning of company or product lists, as they are often sorted alphabetically. The closer the first letter of your name is to “A”, the better. Don’t make this a blocker though if you have a great name that starts with one of the last letters in the alphabet like X, Y or Z.
Get a .com domain name
If you want to gain instant credibility, then consider investing in the .com domain that includes your name, like adips.com for Adips. Good .com domains are scarce nowadays and often quite expensive. Having such a domain name sends an instant message to your customers that you’ve invested money into your brand and that means that a good brand and hence good reputation is important to you. A .com domain will help especially if your website is going to be your main source for lead generation.
Nevertheless, if you’re in competitive business and don’t have much capital to start with, a domain with a different TLD like .net will do fine also. Just make sure to take care of all other areas in marketing that will prove your competence and value proposition to the customer.
Register social media usernames
Even if you don’t plan to acquire customers through social media, your employees will care about how you present yourself on these popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. Make it easy for them to find you by registering proper usernames, which comes with no cost.
