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How I Name Things

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Posted on Mon, Jan 24, 2011, by Akira Morita

When I started out as a graphic designer (well, more like a greeting-card/t-shirt/brochure/logo hack) nearly two decades ago, I never thought I’d be getting paid for, never mind interested in, naming things. But now, naming is a big part of what we do. The more I learned about branding and identity design, the more I realized naming is a hugely important part of creating a compelling brand (I think it started when I first read Positioning, where the authors contrast names David and Michael against Hubert and Elmer). We started getting into it, mostly by trial and error. Over the years, we gained some confidence and a few good names under our belt.
So, I thought I’d share what I’ve learned so far.
[we also did a presentation on naming last year. You can see it at slideshare]

What makes a good name?

There are lots of criteria for picking good names, but in my opinion they all boil down to three things. Evocation, memorability, and relevance. Let’s break them down:
1. Good names evoke an image
What makes your product or service good? Can it be summed up in a image? Saying “It’s the best” isn’t always the most effective tactic here. Subtly evoke this quality through imagery instead, and you become much more engaging to your audience’s mind. And the more emotional that imagery to the audience, the better connection you’d be making. Just think about the names of two biggest names on the web right now (ignoring Google for a second, if you can): Twitter and Facebook. There were other players in each of their techie-social-media fields (Friendster, MySpace, Jaiku, Google’s own Buzz, Orkut to name but a few), but these two won out with a combination of luck, timing, ingenuity, hard work, and yes, good, evocative names.
2. Good names are easy to remember
This is why acronyms suck. They are often too hard to remember right, and too easy to be confused with something else. This is also why shorter names are almost always better than longer ones. Other factors that make names easy to remember: surprise (unexpected), mystery (making you work a bit to decode, thus burning it into your brain better), and uniqueness. Having a unique name, of course, ties into being unique, and that’s a topic for a whole blog site (like, this one). But just to give you a good example: there are lots of email marketing companies out there, but only one MailChimp. Their name is so tightly tied to their unique offering and brand—an extremely easy-to-use bulk email service with a quirky, irreverent humor—, it’d be hard to copy them.
3. Good names make sense
Still, wacky names can only go so far - it’s best when the name can reference back to your unique advantage (as the above example of MailChimp does elegantly), product benefits, or a particular audience. Spelling it out isn’t always the best course for the reasons above (usually, it’s not evocative or memorable), but if it’s not tied to your company in any way it’d be just as forgettable to your audience, because they might remember the name but they won’t remember that it was you. For example, recently we worked with a foundation with a focus on smaller organizations leveraging their tight focus in a networked fashion. Their founders had strong background in social justice, in particular the labor issues. We named the organization Loom, to reference the vision they have of small organizations working together to make big changes, and also craftsmanship as the symbol of meaningful work.

Some more examples of good names:

Egg banking
A bank usually have clunky, samey names (First what?) that are not only forgettable but down right confusing. It was a bold move for a British internet bank launching with such an unexpected (but obvious, at the same time) name, back in 1998. It is now “the world’s largest internet bank” according to Wikipedia.

Patagonia
A good, evocative place name, appropriate for their intense sustainability/green focus. REI (“Recreational Equipment Incorporated”), still a much bigger (and wider-range) brand, with much more descriptive, unimaginative name, has definitely lost some mindshare as a leader in the sustainability movement in recent years.

Scratch
This one is a tiny local bakery, a brand-new one at that. I just love their name and branding though—true to its name, it specializes baking pies (and other ymmies) from locally sourced, sustainably-harvested ingredients. The name also harkens back to its roots as a farmers’ market stall and (I am speculating here) the famous quote by Charles Dudley Warner: “To own a bit of ground, to scratch it with a hoe, to plant seeds, and watch the renewal of life - this is the commonest delight of the race, the most satisfactory thing a man can do.”

March of Dimes
Lest you think it’s all about trendy single-word names, here’s an example of a deceptively simple, descriptive name that still manage to be evocative and memorable. Speaking of good causes, Green Peace is not a bad name either, though “green” is now an extremely generic word from overuse, and the organization’s name has seen enough bad press that I can see a renaming project on the horizon…

Crate & Barrel
Another trend these days is this juxtaposition of two words. Black & Decker (tools). Crabtree & Evelyn (toiletries). Snow & Graham (greeting cards)... It’s actually harder to pull than it looks, in my limited experience, but it is an appealing way to coin some creative-sounding names, if you can make it evocative and memorable at the same time. The rhythm created by “xx & xx” pattern is a good bonus.
 

How do we do this?

Naming is a highly intuitive, non-linear process. It’s hard to adhere to any specific process or method, but after trying it a lot, we now have a set of credos we generally try to remember while undertaking a naming project.

When it comes to ideas, quantity trumps quality
Ideas can come from anywhere. And in unexpected timing. So to be ready, we try and get it all out as much as possible early. And keep going. And going. Worrying about hitting the perfect name in the early stage can stump you easily, so try to forget about getting good ideas out. Any idea will do, and ideas begets more ideas.

It takes time
Again, sometimes good ideas take time to pop up. Patience is key here, and we try to remind ourselves the cardinal rule of thumb on good ideas: the more we feed our brain with ideas, the better result we tend to get in the end. So, if you know you need a name for something, start early. Two days before you have to submit your company name to a municipal office or patent application isn’t the ideal time to start brainstorming, or turn to a professional.

Collaboration is VERY helpful
Our naming process seldom involves just the two of us. Our clients are always very much involved, as well as any outside “brains” we can think of and rope into the process. Of course, you need to be fairly judicious about just who to bring into the brainstorming, but most people are happy to give you half an hour of their time to noodle on ideas. It’s fun. And you’d be surprised how different the ideas can be coming from two different people.

Keep it in perspective
When we name things, it’s easy to have an overblown expectation for the perfect name: it should make it perfectly clear what you do (that’s almost never the case, even when we think the name is an obvious one: just think about names like Coca-Cola, Chick Fil-A, or even Office Depot), spell out the core strength of your brand (you can hint at it, but never describe it fully), and resonate with everyone in your audience (never expect ALL your constituency to like anything). The name is just one of the things that gets communicated in the all-important first encounter with your prospects. The logo, a tag-line or a sales pitch, and supplemental images, along with the actual person handing out the card, brochure or delivering the message, are just some of the other possible elements that someone sees when they see your name for the first time. 

And often, someone’s idea of your brand gets formed over time, after repeated exposure to your service, or products, messages or sales people. You need to deliver your brands’ core strengths from many angles, albeit consistently, in order to direct this creation of your brand in his or her head.

So, what _does a good name do for you?

The truth is, put bluntly, customers don’t care to really understand what you do. They want to know what THEY’d get from you, in terms of emotional benefits, or solution to their problems, not features.

Often, this is a vague feeling (think about customers who want Nike shoes, iPhones, a Ferrari, or a keynote speech at their corporate-wide meeting by Bill Clinton, say). The name, and any subsequent marketing communication, should aid your prospect’s seeing these benefits for themselves, and not stand in the way of it. Again, imagine Nike, as a young startup, saying to you: “Nike: sportsware and shoe company. like Adidas, but better.” Do you think you’d buy a pair of their shoes?

The name, while being just one of the elements that carry your messages, is the first thing they see/hear of your brand. It’s the first contact point in your sales process. What they want to know is: Is this company fill my unspecific needs/wants (like, “I want to be seen as a winner”)? Can they solve my very personal, specific but not-so-directly-related problem (such as, “I want to look good within my organization by picking a cool-sounding company”)?

It’s like when you meet someone at a party or a networking meeting. Do they care exactly what you do (even when they ask, “so, what do you do?”)? No, they want to know if they like you or not. Does your name play into this initial judgment? You bet.

What I am saying is: your name, when it’s unique, evocative, and visual, can be a big factor in aiding that vague, unspecific, “I think I like this company/product” decision. Especially if, the audience you want consists of progressive, marketing-savvy professionals/entrepreneurs who want to be leaders in their respective fields.

Focus on that notion, and you will eventually arrive at a good name.