Creating a unique online business is tough, but coming up with a good name for the
business can prove to be even more challenging. New business calls for great energy,
courage, and passion. You have already written your business plan, you have also
talked to potential clients, and you have assembled all the take-off tools. There’s only
one thing missing. The name.
A good business name or slogan can have a significant impact on your online store.
Remember, that the major market places like eBay and Amazon have hard restrictive
seller policies that downplay any form of merchant branding to help them maintain their
homogeneous image. This is why online sellers should come up with perfect names for
their stores that will help their customers remember them easily.
A good name can also be a form of publicity. There are a lot of specialized online
naming companies that will charge you thousands of dollars to find a unique name for
your online store. But when you are starting a new business, you have other priorities
and your budget cannot allow you to spend that much on just a name. Apart from
making your brand fail to connect with potential customers, a shoddily chosen name can
result in unending legal litigation and insurmountable business.
This is the main reason why Zyro, and companies like it, have come up with
sophisticated tools that will save you time from aimless dictionary skimming, waiting for
something to appear, digging into the depth of the internet, or even breaking your Ouija
board. By using a business name generator all you have to do is input a keyword or
two, and see the generated suggestions, picking what seems to work for you. Of
course, before using such tools you need to have a good base so you can recognize
genius when you see it – making sure the perfect name doesn’t go unnoticed. Let’s cover some practices and tips that will help you find the perfect business name.
Find Related or Similar Words
This is a pretty simple place to start. Type or write as many words related to your brand
as you can, then you can pick the cream of the crop through the following steps. Below
are the tools to help you in creating your word burble:
1. WordNik – Type that word that describes the nature of business you intend to
name such as cars, music, clothes, and many more and then pick your favorites.
2. Urban Dictionary – You may not get a tone of words here but it will give you
some unique and creative ideas.
3. Visual Thesaurus – It is a twist of the standard thesaurus and feels more like a
game.
4. Idiom Dictionary – Try to identify some unique and fun idioms around a certain
keyword. This will be very helpful in coming up with helpful slogans for your
online store.
Play With Words
Be creative and add more words to your growing list of ideas. Do not be afraid to
include even bad ideas. In many cases, the ideas that people frame as bad, spark some
great names. Here are some tools to help you through.
1. Pun Generator – Type words from your list into the search box and examine the
hundreds of puns.
2. WerdMerge – Use successful entrepreneurial ideas to come up with something
new. For that situation, this is the perfect tool.
3. Namethingy – This tool is perfect when you feel that you cannot come up with
another idea. The tool will bump many great words without you doing anything. It
is a great starting point to jump-start your brainstorming.
4. WikiRymer – The tool is full of fan rhyme. They provide a great way to help your
customers easily remember your products.
Make Sure the Name is Search Engine Friendly
Pick the favorite names from your long list and check their SEO-friendliness to be sure
that they will easily get a hit on search engine platforms. A great tool that will not
disappoint you in this is Ubbersuggest — it will help you choose words that will get you
traction and help find you in searches easily.
Check to See if the Name is Already Taken
This is where heartbreak can happen. Few things are more frustrating than finding that
perfect name and learning that it is already taken by another online retailer. However,
not all errors spell doom. If you are completely in love with a certain name, try playing
with it a little to see if it will work. Here are examples of tools that can be very useful at
this point:
1. Trademarkia – This tool is a great start to ensure the name is not already taken
2. Namechk – With this tool, check the social handles and the vanity URLs. Also do
not forget to check the existing domain names.
Test the Words on Google AdWords
One of the great features on AdWords is that it will list for you all the similar search
phrases with the number of searches each phrase is getting. Furthermore, the tool will
make sure that there is no other slightly different name that might attract more attention
or confuse your visitors. Moreover, if you like to be more advanced, find a name that
can be easily used as a verb. For instance, people who frequent TED refer to
themselves as TEDsters.
Avoid Hard to Spell Names
You do not want a scenario where your potential customers get confused about how to
find your online store. Besides, you do not want to continually correct misspelled
versions of your name. Keep your name simple, easy to remember, and easy to spell.
Let’s look at some great examples:
1. Snackpass
Snackpass is an app that lets you speed up your daily dietary experience. The name itself
implies plenty about the service – get snacks, pass the line while using this social platform.
2. Tactipup
I bet you can guess what Tactipup sells from the name alone. It’s tactical looking collars,
leashes and more. As they call it – over-built dog gear. It’s all in the name.
3. Verishop
Verishop – an ecommerce platform that sells luxury clothing and accessories from verified
sellers – hence Verishop. Pretty clever, right?
4. The Sock Market
A great play on typical phonetic expectations – the Sock Market. Even the logo plays with a
graph typically associated with the stock market. The name is self-explanatory – a market for
socks.
Avoid Limiting Names
If you pick narrow names, you may have problems along the way. Imagine if Jeff Bezos
had gone for “OnlineBooks” as his business name instead of “Amazon”. Thus, avoid
names like “The Wedding Dresses of Los Angeles”. Do not fix your business to a
particular city or a product. Furthermore, you want a name that will convey some
positive meaning to your business.
That is why it is important that you choose a name that will instantly make people
understand what your business is all about. While some names don’t immediately spark
the business intention like “Zappos”, “Google”, and “Yahoo”, they do have great appeal
thanks to their catchiness. However, let your name not be too generic. For example,
Boston chicken got it wrong when they changed their name to the “Boston market”.
Avoid being everything to everybody with your business name.
Listen to How the Name Sounds
Some names may seem perfect when they are written down but horrible when said
aloud. Also, if said aloud make sure the spelling of the name does not confuse your
audience. You do not want a boring name for your online store. Search for a name that
does not only sound good but also catchy.
You can asses the catchiness of the names you choose by running the chosen words
by family members, your friends, and trusted colleagues. You can get feedback from
your potential clients and audience to make sure that the name has no negative
connotations.
For instance, when GM named one of their new car models “Nova”. In Spanish, the
name “Nova” means “don’t go”. This was a complete contrast to what the company
intended.
Beware of Initials
Initials are often boring in the eyes of the customers. Yes, 3M and IBM have got it right
with initials, but these are multibillion corporations that have existed for years. Before
establishing your business, rely on an attention-grabbing name. Though your customers
are based on one region, using a foreign name can be very memorable. Just look at
Daewoo, meaning “great house” in Korean or AltaVista meaning “high view” in Spanish.
Secure a .com Domain Name
Customers associate a .com name with more established businesses rather than
alternatives like .biz, .net or .org or other domain extensions. Additionally, .com isn’t
only the best-recognized TLD, it also stands for “commercial.” This is why it is advisable
to always secure a .com domain for your business.
Undoubtedly, you may find someone has already secured the .com domain name that
you desired but you can still have it as most domain owners are willing to exchange the
domain for cash. Acquiring the domain name that you need is an investment for your
business. You can use one of the many domain checkers available online to find if your
name is taken, and if it is, the public WHOIS database might have the contact details of
the domain’s owner, if it is taken.
In a Nutshell
With all that in mind, make sure that you are personally happy with the chosen name.
As the business owner, you will have to live with the name for a long time. So, make
sure that you are not only happy with the name but also it resonates well with your
customers. We hope this article puts you on the right path to doing so. Good luck!
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