Selecting the perfect company name or brand can be a
stressful time for your brand-new start-up, and understandably, you want the
perfect name right out of the box, a name that reflects your company’s
products/services and values. For example, if your core values include a
religious aspect, you wouldn’t want a name that might have a slightly naughty
connotation.
One piece of sage advice: avoid
trendy TLDs (Top Level Domains), such as .me, .co, or .io. Yes, you might be
able to register a cool .me or .co at Go Daddy, but you will soon discover that
your sweet “not .com” website is experiencing traffic “bleed” – straight to
someone else’s .com. Then your company must either rebrand or try to acquire the
.com from its owner. This very situation has occurred with the Versus.io company,
who ended up paying six figures for Versus.com. If you have your
heart set on a specific name, it is better to acquire the .com before
announcing your start-up plans. If you own the .com version of your company
name, then (and only then) should you consider branding or naming your company
with a TLD other than .com. That way, you can redirect your .com to your .io
site.
Unless your start-up is well-funded
and the budget for your .com huge, you are not likely to able to afford a
one-word dictionary .com domain name. In addition, with the arrival of the new
TLDs (such as .Verizon, among others), companies that have branded with “generic”
terms are going to have difficulty in getting approval for their brand as a TLD
(Top Level Domain). As Domain Incite reports,
Amazon has experienced protests from the global community regarding the
approval for “Amazon” as a gTLD.
Therefore, created and combined
dictionary words are your best bets.
Selecting the perfect name is often a
subjective decision – no two people are likely to agree 100% of the time, but
here are some general tips for finding that perfect company or brand name:
– The brand name should
be pronounceable – avoid acronyms (unless they spell out a pronounceable word,
are very well known, and not already trademarked).
– Tongue twisters should
be avoided, unless the visual aspects of the name are compelling enough to
overcome the tricky pronunciation.
– The brand name should
generally carry a positive connotation, suggesting trustworthiness and
desirability. Some exceptions might include something like killz for a bug
extermination company.
– Sound of word:
Masculine sounds/words for a male type business and feminine sounds/words for
female business. Yes, stereotypical, but, unfortunately, we still live in a
stereotypical world, even in the 21st Century.
– The term should “pop”
at first glance and offer a hint of what kind of business the term suggests. If
one dithers and questions a possibility, then the name may not be a good
choice.
– For longer brandables,
perhaps even a generic word could be a part of the term. For long brandables,
the term should generally be no more than 10 letters and 3 syllables (there are
always exceptions, of course). In any case, the term must be instantly
memorable and create an earworm. We particularly love 5-letter domains.
– The exact term must not
infringe on existing well-known TM’s – particularly true of a made-up word and
a well-known TM (such as Verizon). Some lesser known terms may be used in
different non-competing businesses, but even here, one should tread carefully. Good
tools for checking out existing trademarks are USPTO.gov (United States
Patent and Trademark Office) and Trademarkia.com
(global trademarks). Also, Google the target term to search for “natural
trademarks” (terms used in business but are unregistered with USPTO).
– Although we sell
domains in alternate extensions and will happily sell you one, we believe that
your core company name or brand must be a .com. Trying to brand any other TLD
tends to be a fool’s mission, as some major companies, to their dismay, have
discovered. A company may already have its ccTLD (Country Code TLD, such as .me
or .co), but for a global presence, the .com would be a must.
– Avoid hyphens or
numbers, unless you own the non-hyphenated or spelled-out numeral versions,
such as Brand-x and Brandx or Brand1 and BrandOne.
– Preferably, the term
should pass the radio test, but not doing so would not be a deal killer,
especially if the term itself had visual/curb appeal, such as ZZZ
Spot.com, ZZZyou.com, and ZZZNN.com
(These names are for sale on our Brands Z Site).
The domains we sell offer most of the
above characteristics. While we hope that you will select one of them for your
company name or brand, we want you to choose the right name.