How Did You Come Up With Your Business Name? Week of August 11th

11 years ago

The idea of exactly what your business is going to be usually comes first. Secondly, most often, is giving a title to your idea. What exactly is going to be the name of your business? Some people turn to their childhood for inspiration or a beloved family pet. It could be a made up word you dream of one night and feel it has the right ring to it. Even still there are some people who study foreign words for the perfect meaning behind their chosen business. Whatever the inspiration or relation may be, the naming of your business is one of the most important parts of becoming a CEO. Having a brand behind a strong title can make all the difference in the world.

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I could potentially sell it without my name being involved

I came up with my business name, Corrective Chiropractic, for several reasons: 1) If I ever sell it, my last name is not in the business name, and anyone can operate my business 2) The word “Corrective” is very defining, bold, confident, and explains what I do with regards to the spine, spinal correction. The name of my business is purposeful for what I do to help people 3) If I ever choose to expand and open up other locations, I am not geographically bound by my name. Some doctors call their practices based upon the town of which they practice in, such as “Springfield Chiropractic”, etc 4) “Corrective” is higher in the alphabet, and back when phone books were more common, I wanted to be higher on the list alphabetically. I was going to use “Advanced” Chiropractic for those same reasons, but it was already taken in my county.

Thanks to Dr. Chad Laurence, Corrective Chiropractic

It makes sense to a Coloradoan

It might seem strange to have 4 seemingly unrelated numbers at the end of your business name, but to Coloradoan, or perhaps even a cartographer, it makes perfect sense. Denver gets it’s nickname as the Mile High City because the city’s elevation is exactly one mile above sea level. Embedded in the steps of the Colorado State Capitol building is a brass plaque, marking the exact point in which Denver’s altitude is precisely one mile high, or 5,280 feet; and so the number 5280 has become synonymous with the city. We own a medical practice in Denver which specializes exclusively in aesthetic injectables, such as Botox, Sculptra and dermal fillers. We are known as ‘Injectors’ in our profession, so when choosing the name of our business we wanted to include the word ‘injector’ to make it descriptive. However we also wanted to add an element of our beautiful state to the name too. Hence our business, Injector 5280 was born. Although most out-of-state people have to ask twice, we’ve had a great response! Some say it’s edgy, but it’s definitely memorable. We’ve had lots of compliments on it from our patients as well. It’s no coincidence that the name gets us good SERP rankings for some of our search keywords, which is great for SEO – definitely an added bonus and something to consider when choosing a name for your business.

Thanks to April Thompson, Injector 5280

Creating something unique

So many (hundreds) have asked me how I came up with not just our name, but our brand and logo. Once you see it, you’ll understand as well. It’s not the typical letters or words to make something, we took the entire keyboard and “CRE8ED” something unique. One we figured out we were “creating special days and dates” on people’s calendars and then tried to convey that in one word and to make it unique where it stood out and people always remembered our name; it wouldn’t be forgotten, even if it wasn’t spelled correctly. We were in an industry where thinking outside the box wasn’t cool anymore, so we turned creativity in to “CRE8IVITY!

Thanks to Gregorio Palomino, CRE8AD8

From an Italian word

Coming up with a business name took months-it had to be perfect. I knew I wanted to start a PR, Marketing and Communications Agency for the Jewelry Industry and that I needed something short, snappy, not cliche, and easy to remember within the trade. After running ideas by loved ones, and never being satisfied, I started to think about being more direct with my name, and less “artsy” about it. “Pietra” is the word “Stone” in Italian (so it relates to “Gemstone”). Next Spring I will be marrying an Italian, and Pietra PR sounded better than “Piedra” PR (the Spanish word for stone, and my first language). Not everyone liked it, but I didn’t care, because I was sure and in the end you have to be true to yourself and your vision. Now I get lots of compliments on my company name! How things change.

Thanks to Olga Gonzalez, Pietra PR

A natural way to beautify skin

As a “*naturally alternative*” minded person, I have always been drawn to alternative remedies when faced with any health issue. While working in the health field for over 20 years as a Certified Clinical Medical Asst and Derm Surgery Assistant, I often wanted to shout, “*Wait, don’t reach for that prescription drug, there’s another way!*” The icing on the cake was when I saw women come into the dermatology office seeking beautiful skin through needles and blades. That was it. I wanted to pass on my own skin care to others. I have always used natural oils on my skin and decided I would create a soap that would not only be skin loving, but would smooth and soften skin, thus keeping it younger looking longer. *Sanibel Soaps* are gratifying & luxurious, just like the island so close to my home in SW Florida, that has brought me relaxation, peace and pleasure for over 30 years. The swishing palms, the sound of seagulls, and the calming breeze of the island soothes and relaxes…just like *Sanibel Soaps* do for the user. The natural oils in my soaps are therapeutic for both mind and body– sheer pleasure, just like the sunsets a Sanibel.

Thanks to Jo Crane, Sanibel Soaps

Wishing there were two of me

Raising 4 kids as a single parent, I used to always say (and heard other women say it too) “I wish there were two of me”. So when I got laid off for the last time in 2007 from corporate america, I decided to start my own business and provide the same service I wish was available to me. My company name-Me Times Two, LLC. My tagline-When you need another you…call Me Times Two. I wanted people to immediately have an idea of what my business does without me having to explain it. Everyone at some point wishes there were two of them to help with laundry, run errands, cook the dinner or watch the kids just so they can have some “Me Time” or more family time and my business is the only type of its kind that provides this service. You are assigned an one individual who helps with ALL the tasks on your To DO list. Benefits- security, same personnel, no outsourcing, background check, photo ID and get a personal assistant, childcare provider and lite housekeeping all in one.

Thanks to J.L. Hicks, Me Times Two

Trust your gut and do a solid trademark search

I started a business under a different name, and spent quite a bit of money on a consultant and on purchasing the domain name itself, but a few months after launching we ran into a trademark conflict and were forced to rebrand. The second time around we were determined to find a name quickly, and to keep the budget reasonable. We found our few names on BrandBucket.com (a marketplace for business names), and after narrowing down a few favorites we went with the one that just felt right. There’s a lot to be said about trusting your gut when you see the right name — we love our name and it fits the style and voice that we wanted for our brand.

Thanks to Zeena Bushnaq, Wazala

A perfect fit

I was a running a Photography studio under my own name and shot a variety of different styles for my clients. As time went on I noticed the demand for Business owners and career people wanting their portraits taken for their social media sites and websites increase. My background is in Coaching, specifically in Personal Branding so I began to market to that audience and watched as my business quickly grew. I came up with the name Branding Portraits easily and it seems to fit perfectly!

Thanks to Ramona Lever, Branding Portraits

Pointing our clients in the right direction

After considering literally hundreds of names, we realized that the goal of our new business was simply to point our clients in the right direction with online marketing. Hence, the word “compass” suddenly seemed perfect. We then added the word “blue” to make the name a bit more creative. However,”Blue Compass” would only work if we could secure www.bluecompass.com – especially since we are a web company. Unfortunately the URL was taken. My business partner looked up the owner and called him, asking if he would be interested in selling but the owner had no interest. As chance would have it, the owner then realized that he had been old army buddies with my business partner’s grandfather. He happily offered bluecompass.com to us for $1,000, and the rest is history.

Thanks to Drew Harden, Blue Compass Interactive

A nickname and a love of sailing

This was easy. My husband’s name is Jonathan and his family called him “Jonny” when he was young. As well, we do a lot of sailing and racing on our sailboat. The racing is done in Tampa Bay where many of us have fun flying Pirate Flags, yelling the Pirate “Yarr” and talking like Pirates. Yes, we are silly and have a lot of fun. Our dog is named “Skipper” and we love the Jonny Depp movies, Pirate of the Caribbean. As well, we try to get to the Caribbean whenever we can. Finally, we grill all the time because it is easy at home and on the boat and is generally healthy. So, since we decided on Caribbean seasonings, it was real easy and natural to name our business, “Pirate Jonnys Caribbean BBQ rubs, seasonings and sauces” Yarrr Mateys! P.S. If you’d like to see a picture of “Skipper”, he can be shown in his First Mate outfit.

Thanks to Terri Toner, Pirate Jonny’s

The ‘annex’ to all our clients communication needs

Our firm took a great deal of time and consideration when deciding what to name our business. We named our company Annex Communication, because after assessing how we help our clients, we determined that we normally work with small to mid-sized businesses that were either unable or unwilling to expense a full-time marketing or public relations division within their own companies – hence we became their “annex” to all of their communication needs.

Thanks to Kelly Coughlin, Annex Communication

Working in each segment with our clients

“I started the process of creating the name for my new agency by laying out the key elements of my vision of how the agency would be different from others in the business. One of those keys that stood out was “Deep Segmentation” of target audiences and services; as I continued thinking about it, I wanted to see if I can use the word Segment in the name, but do it in a way that make sense. I had this idea that since the way we approach marketing is to identify a very specific and significant number of segments, each with its own specific marketing plan, we literally work “in each Segment” for our clients. This is how the “inSegment” name came to life. Now it is a great conversation starter; by explaining our name, we are also highlighting on of the company’s key differentiating points and emphasizing our commitment to our clients’ success.

Thanks to Alexander Kesler, inSegment, Inc.

From a guy who helped people get deals on cars

I wish I could say I did some extensive brand research and analysis of the market place to come up with my brand, www.CareerGuy.com, and yet it came about simply because I kept hearing of and seeing billboards for a guy here in LA who helped people get good deals on cars, www.LACarGuy.com, and I thought, “Hey, why not be the CareerGuy?” This was 2005 and the domain was available. Since then folks have thought it amazing that I landed such a great name. The background of that business name includes 15years as an executive recruiter and now 12 years subsequent as a career coach, author and speaker. So, it just kind of “fits.” Interestingly, though I own the trademark for both CareerGuy and CareerGal, the latter I recently found out through market research is NOT a preferred name toward professional women. They actually see it as degrading!

Thanks to Darrell Gurney, CareerGuy

Apprentice chefs wear blue aprons in France

In France, apprentice chefs wear blue aprons when they are learning to cook. This practice has been adopted by well-known chefs in America to represent lifelong learning in cooking. For instance, chefs such as Julia Child and Thomas Keller have worn blue aprons in the kitchen. In fact, our chef and co-founder Matthew Wadiak has worn a blue apron throughout his entire career. At BlueApron.com, we help make gourmet cooking accessible by introducing our customers to new recipes, new ingredients and new techniques every single week. Our company values lifelong learning in the kitchen, in our personal lives, as well as our business. For us, Blue Apron was a clear choice when picking a company name and we strive to live up to it with every recipe we create and deliver.

Thanks to Matt Salzberg, Blue Apron

A friendlier, one-word name

When we first named our business, we used a website that checked if the domain name you pitched-it was available. We sat there all night until we found one: USetIt.com. We were so happy to have paid $10 for our name that the problems with it didn’t sink in until our partners and customers started to ask about it; mainly, why we chose something that was three words and had a “U” instead of “You.” At that point we realized we needed a new, friendlier, one-word name. We already knew that looking for something not registered was like looking for a needle in a haystack, so we found a service called BrandBucket where branding experts have created a curated list of short, memorable names to choose from. We picked something that fit our business and never looked back.

Thanks to Kevin Fink, Setster.com

The next evolution

Return on Change was the next evolution of the often complex terminology “Social Return on Investment”. While many investors traditionally only focused on the “Return on Investment”, we wanted everyone to start focusing on the return on social change which implies both profitable returns as well as social innovation. As our platform is structured to transform the early stage financial life cycle of high impact startups it was really important to focus on the return on social innovation and social return in addition to financial rewards.

Thanks to Sang Lee, Return on Change

It started while on vacation in Florida

On vacation in Florida is where it all started! One of my best friends and I were finally going to follow our dream of starting a new handbag company; mainly for expecting and new moms, but also for women in general! After a few cocktails and discussions about the details of our multifunctional handbag that we were going to create, I placed the pencil to the paper and began to create our destiny. I designed over fourteen D’imorga handbags in one night! (“D’i” was taken from the words diaper bag; the “m” was abstracted from the word “multifunction;” and “orga” stands for the organizational aspect of our handbags.) As we admired the sketches of our new line, my business partner yelled out, “Now that’s a “Sassi” handbag!” I turned to her with big eyes and a surprising “ah ha” moment and said, “that should be the name of our company; Sassi Momma – Sassi” for the style and “Momma” for the moms who would benefit from our handbags!” …and “Sassi Momma” it was! We have been love struck with the name ever since – Sassi Momma D’imorga Handbags!

Thanks to Nicole Hawkins, Sassi Momma

A name to reflect exactly what we do

In starting this business, we wanted to the company name to reflect and define exactly what we do, in one or two words. We had many brainstorms with our entire team, management team, investors and partners, and gathered many names together, but nothing was working. What we’re doing is reinventing local discovery shopping – making it engaging, fun and social for consumers, wherever they are and however they shop, be it tablet, mobile or web. From casually flipping through your tablet, you can connect with your local community through curated and sponsored content, list your finds and share with friends, and be reminded of what’s on your shopping list or a new promotion or sale on your phone when you’re in the store. And that’s when it clicked. The essence of our product, Find&Save, is allowing shoppers to do something online that was in the past only captured through in-store shopping. The idea of a shopper taking their time, wandering through a store and uncovering something that’s wonderful – either on sale, or just an unexpected perfect find. Wanderful Media captures those two concepts. We thought this was a perfect way to define our mission of helping retailers bring shoppers into local stores and offering shoppers the most convenient and fun way to discover great deals on local merchandise.

Thanks to Ben T. Smith, IV, Wanderful Media

A stroke of genius

My husband Justin and I were both working dead-end jobs and we had been toying with starting an insurance claims business to help consumers, attorneys and insurance professionals with Diminished Value because of the lack of credible experts in the industry and his extensive background in claims. One night working after hours, we were wracking our brains….our last name is Petty and we kept mentioning how important it was to pay attention to details to set us apart from our competitors then VOILA – magic was born! We came up with the name Petty Details, LLC in a stroke of what we like to think was GENIUS and the effect has been tremendous! We get comments on our name all of the time – I like to think it adds a little bit of a fun spirit to what is normally a less than exciting industry and it describes our nature so well.

Thanks to Justin and Jen Petty, Petty Details

A name that brings our brand to life

As a web design and marketing company, I wanted a name that would speak to the effect we have on our clients’ success. I also wanted the name to illustrate our creativity and talent for quickly and effectively spreading awareness of our clients’ products, services, and unique value propositions. So I started by brainstorming relevant words like “rapid”, “creative”, and “accelerated”. When I came up with “wildfire”, I immediately fell in love; instantly, I was able to visualize the logo and website look & feel. Just as quickly and effortlessly, the tagline, “we help your business spread like wildfire” rolled off my tongue. Even though we are systematic and meticulous in our approach, we cover every aspect of marketing, and our end result is to get you more potential clients by increasing your visibility and spreading awarene ss of your brand to your target markets. The naming process I used is one I would recommend to anyone who is trying to come up with a business name. First, focus on the ultimate purpose of your business; what do you do for your customers? Secondly, list descriptive words that illustrate your purpose. (Use a thesaurus if that helps.) Finally, keep arranging and combining those words until you find something you love. And if all else fails, call for backup: ask your friends for help or better yet, ask your best customers!

Thanks to Stephanie Burak Fehlenberg, Wildfire Web Design and Marketing

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