What’s in a Company Name?

On April 29, 2009, in Being an Entrepreneur, by tgoodridge

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I’ve spent the better half of the last month trying to think of a name for my new company. It’s an incredibly challenging process. So, let’s talk about it.

A company name should be:

Memorable: Something that resonates with the audience. Catchy, but not too cliché, right?

Easy to pronounce or spell: You don’t want someone butchering your company name.

Searchable/ unique Tyson’s Social Media Group” is not unique enough. A friend of mine named his blog Artificial Simplicity. Good idea. Two memorable, distinct names. His blog comes up at the top of a search with those two names. (Hat tip to Scott Karamabis, @copia if you are keeping score at home)

Is the URL available? Probably not, but if you add “inc”, or “group” or “llc” to the name, you’ll have some luck- be creative….

Descriptive of your services and/or audience: Now this is where it gets tricky. How do you possibly do that in two or three words?

Active: If you name your company after you high school mascot, that’s great, but it’s a static name with no “real movement”.  A company name I really love is from another friend who recently named his company “Ingage”. (www.ingageinc.com) It’s a terrific name that’s easy to remember, spell and it speaks to what he does as his business. (I thought of a similar name literally the day before we had coffee- darn it!)

A creative combination of everything I just mentioned. Now, I have to give a hat tip to Jim Spencer here who has recommended two good sites that are keeping me busy tonight and they are www.nameboy.com, www.makewords.com. There are a couple more I can’t remember right now, but Jim is a great resource for anything website related (and I highly recommend him check him out at www.jbspartners.com)

So, the company naming journey continues. Maybe there is some value in keeping it simple and naming my company “The Goodridge Group”?

There is a company name for me out there (ideas welcome),  I just can’t find it tonight.

There’s a darn good reason why people charge good $$ to help name your company, it’s worth every penny. As an entrepreneur, I just wish there were more of those pennys to go around….

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  • http://www.jbspartners.com Jim Spencer

    Tyson, Thanks for the hat tip. Glad our conversation was productive.

    Funny thing just happened, Snap, just led me to a couple of posts which offer a few more ideas on searching for domain names. http://cli.gs/DomainSearch and http://cli.gs/RightDomainName.

  • http://www.appingo.com dskaletsky
  • http://daveatkinsmedia.com Dave Atkins

    I would use your name in some way–like the Goodridge Group, Goodridge Marketing, G-Marketing, TG-Marketing, etc. As a consultant, you are the product, so building your personal brand name is the same as the company brand. Your name is already high on Google; make the company include your name and you will be easy to find by people who remember your name.

    Clever can work–I love the name “The Hired Pens,” as my friend Anna’s copy writing service name because it stands alone–memorable, descriptive, intuitive, and unique.

    http://thehiredpens.com/

    The other thing is the idea of how broadly memorable you need the name to be…you and I are looking for “a few good gigs,” not to be Crosstech media. I’d use your name.

  • http://www.brandbucket.com Margot Bushnaq

    Great article. We work with so many people trying to name their company that don’t have half the insight as to what makes a good name. I totally agree that the most difficult part is “Descriptive of your services and/or audience”.

    As serial entrepreneurs ourselves with several software products under out belts, we also understand the decision not to work with a branding agency who can charge $10k or more. Yes it can be worth it, but not everyone has the capital. That’s where we try to help – we offer a collection of “brandable” names to choose from (that all come with the .com), and free advice on which name is right for you. Check us out if you or anyone you know is ever brainstorming (or “brandstorming”) in the future.

  • http://ariwriter.com Ari Herzog

    Have you purchased tysongoodridge.com or some variant of that? Use your name or some variant of that.

    I filed paperwork earlier this year to DBA Ari Herzog & Associates. You could do the same as you.

  • tgoodridge

    Wow- thanks for all your comments everyone…

    @Jim- I will take a look at those urls later today (while the kids climb over me and the laptop

    @Derek- thanks too- I wouldn’t except anything less from a fellow Babson guy..

    @Dave- good points- I hear you. The easier way out is indeed going with my name- it is certainly a quick and memorable way to get launched, and has the fleixiblity of changing directions as well, if i want to move in a different direction over time

    @ari- fortunately lots of urls are available surrounding my name- i can snatch up a few- thanks for the heads up.

    @Margot. Doin’ your homework, eh? nice to see you here- did you hear about my post through Twitter, FB or blog search. Thanks for the tips, I really appreciate it. Will check out brandbucket today as well. At that point the kids may have climbed off the computer and gotten into some trouble in the back yard…

    Enjoy the weekend everyone.

    Tys

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