Company name types come in all flavors

Company name types are the various categories professional naming agencies look at when generating name possibilities for your business or product. If you are just getting started in this process, it may be helpful for you to think about two things:

Which names appeal to you – a list of companies and products with brand names you admire, especially those outside your industry, may provide direction and insight. In hopes of igniting your own thoughts, I’ll share my list of great company names. If I were in your shoes, on the client side of the branding equation, I’d be mentioning these names to my professional naming consultant: Tesla®, UnderArmour®, FitBit®, Marcus® by Goldman Sachs®, Coldstone Creamery®, Accenture®, Nest®, Zazzle®, The Honest Company®, and Lululemon®.
Do you recognize a pattern in the names you like? If so, that’s probably because you prefer one or two company name types over the others. Even more helpful for your company naming agency: knowing which categories you don’t like and understanding why.

Company Name Types

Just one more thing before we dive into all of the various company name types, a big caveat for you: this list of company name types is by no means comprehensive. It’s more like a starter course. It’s antipasto, okay?

Also, lots of hairs could be split over how to precisely classify a group or a name within that group. But I don’t have that kind of hair. So, apologies to the angrily commenting mobs who seem to so enjoy mucking up my interwebs. We aren’t going to do that today. We are a peaceful lot. We will digest this internet-based information in a neutral and easy-going manner. We’re Switzerland, okay?

COINED OR CREATED COMPANY NAMES

Yeah, the title of this category sounds kinda dumb. I mean, they’re all created, right? I coulda said “Made-up Names,” but that’s even goofier. (Not that I’m against goofy, as this blog will no doubt prove beyond a shadow.) By calling this name type created, I simply mean a whole new word has been brought into the universe. Some of these will have direct connections to the English, Greek, Latin or otherwise meaningful root; some won’t. When working in this arena, we also pay great attention to euphonics (good sounds) and mnemonics (ease of recall) – but all of this will work better by example…

Examples of created company names from my name portfolio: OrgoDomo®, Sequent Systems® and Eukonic®. Created company names by insignificant people whose blogs you aren’t reading now: Xerox, Yelp, Charmin.

EVOCATIVE COMPANY NAMES

Whether via historical or mythological allusion… by linguistic connection or by sheer force of ingenuity, these name types tend to be emotional and experiential. (Incidentally, one of my favorite name types here is synecdoche (no, we aren’t referring to a city somewhere back East; it means small for large.) Examples of evocative company names from my name portfolio include: IfThenWow®, Shine Candles®, InfoSing® and Libretto Espresso®. Many large corporations are also embracing the emotional brand pull of evocative names, such as Pandora®, Staples®, and Twitter®.

PRIMARY ATTRIBUTE OR BENEFIT-DRIVEN COMPANY NAMES

Just as it sounds. This company name type is more descriptive than anything else. If what you’re describing is great, great!

Examples of descriptive, attribute or benefit-driven company and product names from my naming portfolio includes: Sympo®, Smoky Joe®, FastPort Series®, Intellitoll Series®. Descriptive company names from other corners of the world include: Jiffy Lube®, Lean Cuisine® (George Lois genius!), Hefty®, SoftSoap®, and Budget®.

METAPHORICAL COMPANY NAMES

See this one thing? It’s like this other thing. In a good way, natch.

Examples of metaphorical company names from my company and product naming portfolio include: Pawed Piper®, Workbench®, PassPort Series®, Sentinel Series®. If you’ve ever eaten a Red Vine®, shopped at Amazon® or interacted with an Oracle® database, you’ve come face-to-face with a metaphorical company name type. (And you lived to tell about it. Yay, you!)

CONJOINED COMPANY NAMES

When we aren’t talking about putting two simple words together, people worry about this category. Nor is the concern unfounded. Especially with the onslaught of name generation robots and crowdsourcing companies, the fear is that you will wind up in some sort of Greek-Latin polyglot mess. I’ve seen it myself. You look at the work coming out of some of these “factories” and it’s like, hey, bud, you get that those two consonants don’t play well with others, right?

So, yes, pronounceability, spelling and tackiness/lack of sophistication can be concerns. Not global warming level. More like getting pooped on by a vengeful bird. How do you hedge your bets here? By working with 1) a naming expert, 2) one who shows competence in ALL of the company name types, and 3) for sure, a true lover of the English language. Not a name generation robot. Not an impoverished mob. (Intrigued by the business model, I recently thumbed through thousands of crowdsourced naming examples. Less than one-half of one percent were names that would pass my sniff test or meet the standards at any of the biggie professional naming agencies.)

Examples of conjoined company names utilizing word combinations, hybrids and oxymorons include: ManifestEquity®, Articulated Brands® and HarvestWaste®. Conjoined company names from obvious hacks include: FaceBook®, FedEx® and PaperMate®. OrgoDomo® and Lessoneer® are naming examples wherein I conjoined two morphemes (units of meaningful language) into one coined name, which is why these also appear at the top of this blog.)

A WORD ABOUT USING ACRONYMS: DON’T.

Not only is it way old school, it’s also tres confusement. Since acronyms require adoption over time, unless your budget is massive, be very careful with trying to finance name recognition for a new set of initials. Actually, even if you do have a massive budget, I’d still advise avoidance.

ON LITERAL & GENERIC COMPANY NAMES

Though extremely counterintuitive, literal names tend to underperform at the brand level, so be wary. (I’ve taken this serious risk myself on a temporary basis, with Names & Naming, for reasons of SEO/backlink anchor text and my ambition that this website will one day become a truly definitive source of information and inspiration. Regardless, the decision is under constant evaluation. Not loving the implied hypocrisy. Ug. My best guess: I’ll be re-branding and re-naming within the year, once I’ve established the business viability of this Articulated Brands® spin-off.)

If you’re absolutely certain you don’t need local or even industry name recognition and SEO is your sole purpose for naming, consider adding a more distinctive moniker to your generic term. So, the formula for you would be {STICKY} + {LAME & UN-DIFFERENTIATED} = naming success, optimized!

If you’ve read this far on types of company name types, you’re my type of person!

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed this little escapade into company name types. Come to think of it, I’m also sitting on a whitepaper on the brand importance of naming right that might interest you. Should you feel like taking a gander, just reach out.

Photo credit: Sarah Gualtieri