If you’re starting your own business, you probably already have a long list of business name ideas. Naming your business is one of the most exciting parts of starting a company. It’s your chance to get creative and find a business name to shape your brand and marketing.
But finding the perfect name for your business can be tricky.
While you might have creative business names coming out of your ears, you need to pick the perfect one before launching. While your business name isn’t set in stone, registering a company under one name and changing it later can be expensive. The official process of changing your company name is relatively simple, but you’ll also need to completely rebrand your business which can cost a pretty penny.
So it’s a good idea to get it right the first time.
Fortunately, you’re in the right place. At Mint Formations, we’ve helped countless businesses register with Companies House, and we’re here to help. We’ve put together the ultimate guide to naming your company. It includes everything from the importance of finding the right business name and a step-by-step naming process to tips and tricks to keep in mind.
Ready to find the perfect business name?
The Importance of Picking the Right Business Name
In the grand scheme of things, picking a business name may seem like one of the easier tasks on your startup’s to-do list. You may already have your heart set on a name. But a name is more than just an identifier in the business world. It’s the first thing your potential customers will see before interacting with your products or services.
Your business name is a powerful tool with a lot of different functions. Alongside being the first point of contact with potential customers, it communicates what your business is all about. A good business name can give people a sense of your mission, values and what you provide.
The benefits of a good business name include the following:
- Great first impressions — It only takes potential customers seven seconds to form an impression of your business. For this reason, you need to make every second count and show what your business is all about.
- Standing out from the competition — A good business name will differentiate your business from your competitors. Choosing something too similar to existing, more established businesses won’t inspire trust in potential customers.
- Boosting your marketing — Depending on the business name, it can help with your marketing efforts, particularly SEO. Picking something people are already searching for will lessen your workload down the line.
As you can see, naming your business is a bit more complicated than it might initially seem. The name you choose can make or break your business. But the good news is that you can find a fantastic business name with the right process.
A Step-By-Step Guide to Naming Your Business
The right name for any business can greatly benefit your branding and marketing efforts. A bad name, on the other hand, could make your business end up in turmoil. When you’re coming up with your business name, you’ll need to consider several factors, including:
- Uniqueness
- Legal issues
- Domain availability
- Consumer psychology
- And more.
Hiring a professional naming company is one way that some businesses get around the difficulties of naming a brand. While this can work and helps companies to find a good name that’s compliant with trademark laws, it can be expensive. As a startup, the money you spend on naming your business could be put to better use elsewhere.
Luckily, while naming a business yourself can take a little longer, anyone can do it.
Here are the five steps you need to take to name your business:
Step 1: Start by Brainstorming Business Name Ideas
The brainstorming step is probably the most fun part of naming your business. Before you get into the nitty gritty details of suitability and availability, this phase is all about generating as many business name ideas as possible (honestly, you can go wild).
Having more than one person for this stage is a good idea as it allows you to test out and bat different ideas around. If you’re starting a business alone, try to get your friends and family to help.
If you’ve already got a team, get everyone together to create a list of catchy business names that might work. But remember, at this stage, there are no bad ideas.
One of the first things you can do is write down all of the words and phrases that describe your business, products or are associated with your industry. Think about:
- The nature of your business — What products or services do you offer? How do you want your business to be seen?
- Your target audience — Who are your potential customers? What do they like and need? Do they have specific values?
- Your mission and values — Does your business stand for anything? What are the core values that define your company?
For example, if you’re starting a sustainable fashion brand, jot down words like “eco”, “green”, “sustainable”, “ethical”, and “vegan”. Write down as many as you can and when you run out of ideas, use an online thesaurus or search for synonyms of the words you’ve already got.
Once you’ve got your list of words, start putting together potential business names. You can use a free business name generator online to help with this stage. You can also use an AI Chatbot to help, like ChatGPT. Just give it some key information about your business and ask it to generate business name ideas.
Step 2: Evaluate and Refine Your Business Name Ideas
Once you’ve got a substantial list of potential business names, it’s time to dig into them and cut your list down. This stage involves taking a look at each idea from your brainstorming session and zeroing in on the ones that have a good chance of working.
If you can, give it a few days between brainstorming and evaluating your ideas. This will allow you to be more objective and see more opportunities.
Here are some things to consider when you’re evaluating your potential company names:
- Relevance — There’s no point in having a brilliant-sounding business name if it’s irrelevant to your industry or customers. Does the name resonate with your business idea, mission and values? Is it an accurate representation of the business you’re starting?
- Memorability — Cool business names can be awesome, but not if nobody remembers them. Is the name catchy and unique enough to stick in people’s minds? Will your customers remember it after the first encounter or be scratching their heads?
- Simplicity — Great business name ideas are easy to pronounce and spell. If people struggle with your business name, they’re less likely to find your business online or recommend it to others.
- Growth potential — While your mission and offering might be laser-focused now, they’ll probably grow and develop over time. Does the name give you any flexibility? Is it likely to limit growth?
By going through these considerations, you should be able to narrow your list of names down. While you should try to be objective and think critically about the names, remember that you can adapt the names to meet any concerns you have.
For example, say you’re starting a sock company. You might choose “Just Socks” as your business name. It’s very relevant, it’s easy to spell and memorable, but it could limit your growth. You don’t necessarily need to strike it off your list straight away, as you might be able to adapt the name. Or, further down the line, you can launch sister companies for other clothing items.
Step 3: Check Your Business Name is Available
Coming up with a catchy business name is fantastic — unless somebody has already claimed it. It’s fairly likely that on your list of creative business name ideas, a few may already exist, or something very similar already exists. So the next step is to ensure you can legally use your chosen business name.
This is a crucial step in the process, as failure to check could lead to your infringing on another company’s trademark or service mark. This can be a fatal error for a new business as legal disputes can quickly become expensive.
The good news is that it’s fairly straightforward to check if a business name is available. Companies House has a tool for this, or you can use our own business name checker. Checking name availability only takes a few clicks, but there are some rules that apply to company names in the UK:
- You can’t use the same name as an existing company
- You cannot use offensive or restricted language
- You cannot infringe on existing trademarks.
Once you’ve checked the availability of your names, you next need to check the domain availability. Regardless of the type of business you’re starting, you’ll need to have a strong online presence and to do that, you’ll need a website. Ideally, your website’s URL will match your business name. Checking domain availability is really straightforward, and you can use these sites to check:
You should also check whether social media handles for your potential business names are available. A unique brand identity is crucial for new businesses, so if social media pages of the same name already exist, it might be worth choosing a different name.
Step 4: Get Feedback on Your Business Name Ideas
At this stage, you should have a shortlist of a few potential names that are all available, and you’re very close to making your decision. It’s a good idea to get some honest feedback at this point.
Get together a diverse group of people and ask for their thoughts on your business name options. Ask for feedback on the following:
- First impressions — What do they think of first when they hear the name? Does it spark any interest? Is it a positive first impression?
- Associations — What does the name make them think of? Are there any negative associations?
- Clarity — Do they have a good idea of what your company might do based on the name?
By asking these questions to people outside of your company, you’ll get valuable insight into how potential customers may receive your business name ideas. Once you have all the feedback, return to your list of names and look for improvements.
Step 5: Choose Your Business Name
While your choice of a business name is a big one, it’s important not to spend too long choosing it. At some point, you’ll need to knuckle down and make the big decision. When it comes to this point, consider the following:
- All of the feedback
- Name and domain name availability
- Your gut instinct.
The perfect business name combines strategic thinking, creativity and intuition. Don’t forget that you need to like the name as, hopefully, the company will be around for a long time.
Once you’ve got your name, you can start to think about your:
Tips and Tricks for Finding the Perfect Business Name Idea
By following the steps above, you’ll be on the right track to pick a great name for your business. But we’ve put together some tips and tricks to keep in mind when you’re going through the process. They’re all quite straightforward but can help keep you focused on the elements that matter when naming a business.
Consider Easy-to-Spell Names
The name you choose must be easy to understand when heard aloud and should be easy to spell or read. The common mistake most new entrepreneurs make is choosing an extravagant name.
For example, when a person asks your company name, they should immediately understand what you are saying, and there should be a lower chance of misspelling it. The more chances to misinterpret it, the listener may forget it soon, be unable to find you online, or cannot refer your business to a potential customer.
Don’t Limit the Name to the Type of Business You Start With
This is one of the common mistakes new business owners often make. Say, you are starting a poultry business. Instead of naming your company “Poultrystock”, come up with something that can be used as a common name for your different business streams.
For example: When you succeed in the poultry business with a good reputation, you cannot use the same name, “Poultrystock”, for other business streams like machining or manufacturing. In that case, you’d have to start from zero to brand your new business.
Suppose you have chosen a name that’s catchy but not directly representing a single business. In that case, the already earned reputation will help you to grow your new business much faster without spending too much on branding!
Always Check for Pre-existence
Once you have shortlisted the best names, do an online search by typing each of them and verify if the same name incorporates other businesses. Most of the time, someone else will be already using the name you have chosen.
You don’t have to get disappointed. It’s unlikely that the existing business will be the same as yours, but it’s highly recommended to come up with a unique name.
Convey Proper Meaning through the Name
Try to convey something related to your values that positively impact your business.
For example, “Volkswagen” means “People’s car” in German. But it’s not mandatory. Some already popular meaningless names like “Kodak”, “Sony” and “Xerox” had great reach for their catchiness, but these types of names require huge efforts for branding.
And that’s not all; even if you have found a unique, easy-to-read, and catchy name, the name should satisfy you. Keep calm and be creative. After all, it’s your business, and choosing the right name is critical for success!
Register Your Company Name with Mint Formations
Once you’ve found the perfect name for your business, you should register it as soon as possible. Even if you’re still a way off launching your business, registering your company name early stops anyone else from taking it.
We’ve helped thousands of businesses register their company name at Mint Formations. If you want to register your business in the UK, you can use our secure online process to complete the process without any paperwork quickly with step-by-step live help from our agents.
Explore our company formation packages today and secure your business name. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us, and we’ll do all we can to help.