If you gave the right prompt to CHATGPT asking for a name for your business, it will give you more names than you would expect your own brain to create in a day. So you may say, I really don’t need an expert to pick a creative brand name for me.
By All Means, use Chat GPT suggestions, but here are a few filters you want to apply after it gives you an endless list of names:
Domain and Social Usernames
This one's a DUH! But check for the domain and social usernames availability and ensure that in social platforms it has the same phrasing and alphabets as your domain.
You want it to be easy for your audience to find you and you definitely don’t want your website url to say ‘Jaydesignstudio.com’ and socials username to say ‘Jay_theDesigner’. It has to be same everywhere.
Memorability
Ensure that your business name is memorable/catchy so that your brand name can be instantly associated to your business? Zomato sounds like ‘Tomato’, has red visual identity and since tomato is food, it is easy for users to remember that Zomato is a food delivery business.
Personality
Is your brand name a good representative of your brand personality & vibe? You don’t see a brand named ‘Insta’-Gram supporting slow creative artists, Do you?
Or a brand named Urban Outfitters selling traditional hand-sewn gowns. You get what I'm saying?
Keep it Crisp
Having said that, you do not need to fit your brand's vision and mission in your brand name itself. It doesn't have to be 'McDonalds - Burgers and Fries'. It can simply be 'McDonalds' because what if the company wants to sell something other than burgers and fries in future but because they trademarked their name, they are stuck with it....
If all that talk about burgers got you interested, maybe go checkout this Fast food restaurant branding that I created for my client.
Appropriation
Is your brand name culturally appropriate for the place you are running your business at? For Example: A t-shirt brand named ‘Boss Bitch’ may thrive in some parts of the world but completely misfire in other parts so you gotta be careful.
Spelling
Is your business name easy to spell? I know that some of you love your numerology and astronomy but I beg of you to have a name that is simple to spell. No one wants to see a double R in “Bakerrs Makerrs”.
History
Is there a story attached to this name? This is not a necessity but when a brand comes out for the very first time and the curiosity about it is at its peak, a story on how the name came about is a great branding and marketing asset.
Don't look at me for inspiration here though. My brand name is JAY Design Studio because this business starts and ends with me.
Trademark and Replicas check
Ensure that there are no other businesses (same industry or not) in the same city/state as yours. This just makes finding you harder before you even introduced yourself.
One of the best ways to figure this out is by going through your country's trademark directory and checking if there are other businesses with the same name. This should really narrow down your final list of names.
Now you may also ask...Why should I learn from you about this? Have you done this before?
And I would say, Yes Babe, I most certainly have. Here's a client for whom I created brand identity design and also brand naming. Now her brand is huge in Ayurvedic community on social media.
So, If you are too busy to apply these techniques to your business and need help with not just picking just the right name for your business but need an entire roadmap on how to go about your branding, reach out to me here and let's build a bomb branding for your business together!
Ok Byeeee!