The complete guide to choosing a business name in 2021
Your Business Name
One of the most important decisions that you, as an Entrepreneur, will make, is about choosing the name for your business. And this decision needs to be taken at the early stages of incubation of your business.
Why is choosing the perfect name of your new business so important?
When you meet someone for the first time, you tell them your name. And you expect to know of the other person’s name too. When you go out to buy cuff-links, you look for the pair with your name initials on it.
Here are 7 tips that will help you decide upon the perfect name for your business.
- Your business name should be short and brand-able
- The business name should be relevant to the product or service you are offering.
- The business name should not be offensive.
- An exact match of the website domain name should be available.
- Consider Social Media handles.
- Research Trademark rights of your exact business name.
- The final check of your business name.
Your business name should be short and brand-able
- short,
- easy to pronounce (by others, you sure know the correct pronunciation)
- easy to spell
- memorable
I will quote an interesting story about the launch of a new Cellular or Mobile Service provider in India. This happened around the year 2002. Most people already had a mobile number from one of the other Service Providers Hutch, Airtel or Reliance. And this new company launches its service with the name Idea. What an idea!
The company logo looked like this 
. The design is in the shape of a mobile sim card, (rectangular with a corner cut-off). And since idea is usually associated with an exclamation, they put an exclamation mark (!) in the name itself. Very smart and innovative. Highly creative.
You have heard of the dish-wash named Vim, manufactured by Unilever Group. Vim was introduced in 1904, and the word means “force / vigour”. Ideally suited to a scouring powder, which removes stains and greases off dishes easily.
The name Apple with its bitten apple logo is another unique and creative innovation. 
The top companies of today, which are usually addressed with the acronym FAMGA (Facebook – Apple – Microsoft – Google – Amazon), all have names that are easy to pronounce, spell and easily memorable.
How to find more names?
Though most common words have already been taken. You can
- Create new words: You can add, replace or delete a few letters from existing words. There are names like Fressh and Zomato. Similarly Google, Yahoo, Bing are new words that are short, easy to spell, but never existed in the dictionary. Tumblr has done away with the vowel e to arrive at its name.
- Use rare existing words: Pick up a thesaurus, and find new words that fit your business model. You are bound to find some wonderful words you would like to use.
- Find a word from another language: Do you remember the Presario range of computers from Compaq? Presario was derived from Impresario, an Italian word meaning Manager or Director. Compaq used a shorter form of the word for its new brand, and the name sold very well. Similarly, Alta Vista was a very popular search engine. In Spanish and Portugese, it means “A view from above”. The word syncs well with the concept of a Search Engine.
The business name should be relevant to the product or service you are offering.
There is a very popular joke about Bill Gates on this topic. He once met a simpleton who asked him. Sir, your name is Gates, but you manufacture “Windows“.
If your business name is New York Landscaping Services, you should not be selling Ice Creams. Similarly, Mother Dairy cannot be selling soaps and laundry products.
The business name should not be offensive.
Look at these goof ups that occurred when business names were translated into a different language.
When Coca-Cola was first introduced in China, its name, translated in Chinese meant “Bite the wax tadpole”.
Colgate Palmolive introduced a toothpaste by the name “Cue” in France. They later realized that Cue was also the name for a French pornographic magazine.
Ford Pinto was a very popular car, but when it was launched in Brazil; it proved to be a marketing blunder. Pinto in Brazilian Portuguese means “tiny male genitals”.
Mist is the German slang for manure. Imagine the goof when Clairol, the US cosmetics company launched its curling iron by the name Mist Stick in Germany.
You have seen the KFC tagline “Finger Licking Good”. This tagline when translated in Chinese, meant “Eat your fingers”
These concerns about business names are meaningful if you are planning to take your business international. However, if your product or service is localized, you can skip this point.
An exact match of the website domain name should be available.
When you commence your business, you should get yourself a website too. And the name of the website, the domain name, should be an exact match of your business name. Preferably, with a .com extension.
A .com domain name is the default choice for any business website. There are many choices for domain name extensions – .parts, .beauty, .law, .biz, .dev, .app, .inc; but you tell someone about your new business, and he will immediately search for your business name with a .com.
You can check for the domain name here.
If you know how to make a website yourself, that is cool. Else, you can read my post on how to create your own website.
So, if you have shortlisted a business name, and the best match of its domain name is available. Move ahead.
Consider Social Media handles.
In addition to securing a matching domain name, you should also plan the strategy for digital marketing of your business.
Social Media Marketing isn’t going anywhere so soon. Build up a strong foundation for your business by creating accounts on the popular Social Media Platforms relevant for your business.
Your customers should be able to find you on any Social Media platform by typing the same name, your business name. I found a very useful utility which will help you search on most of the Social Media. Try namecheckr.com.
Here are a few tips while you decide on your business name.
For Facebook, there are two names associated with your account. One is the Name, and other is the Username.The Name need not be unique, but the Username needs to be. So, this username appears after @ in your Facebook profile, and also for the URL of your Facebook page. Check if you can get the same Facebook username as your business name.
Facebook usernames must be at least 5 characters, and a maximum of 50. The username can contain only alphabets, numbers and periods. But the periods are not really differentiators. So, @maninder.punn is same as @maninderpunn.
Twitter also needs a Name as well as a Username. As with Facebook, the Username needs to be unique.
Twitter usernames can be a maximum of 15 characters, and can contain alphabets, numbers and underscore. With Twitter, underscore does differentiate names. So, @maninder_punn is different from @maninderpunn.
If you want your business name to be the same as your Twitter handle, you now have to limit yourself to 15 characters.
Once you go to set up your Instagram account, you have to enter your Name and a Username. The Username appears with a @ pre-fixed to it, and in your Instagram URL. So, this has to be unique.
Instagram usernames contain alphabets, numbers, periods and underscores. Here again, periods and underscores do differentiate names. The maximum allowable username length is 30 characters.
If usernames matching your business name are available for these 3 Social media platforms. Kudos! You are now close to finalizing your business name.
Research Trademark rights of your exact business name.
One more check, and you are ready to finalize your perfect business name. This one has to do with trademark rights.
Wikipedia explains trademark as ” a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design or expression which identifies products or services of a particular source from those of others.
Though the exact process of searching trademarks varies from one country to another, the basic guidelines remain the same. Most countries also offer an electronic Search for trademarks already registered.
Classification of Goods and Services
All products and services are categorized into 45 Classes as shown in the image below.Classes 1-34 are for goods, and classes 35-45 are for services.
So, two different manufacturers could have the same trademark if their products fit into different categories. One makes Metal Goods, which belongs to Class 007 and another business makes Wines and Spirits, which is class 033. If required, they could both register the trademark “Sharp”.
The Patents and Trademark Office will refuse requests for trademark if it is likely to conflict with a trademark that is already registered or in the process of getting registered.
But, as of now, check the class to which your product or service belongs and follow these steps:
Time needed: 30 minutes
How to search and register a Trademark.
- Visit the website of Patent and Trademark Office of your country.
If you are in the United States of America, you need to visit the United States Patent and Trademark Office website.
For Canada, visit the Canada Intellectual Property Office website.
And ,if you are from Australia, visit IP Australia website.
The complete list of Trademark offices is here, sorted by country. - Search Trademark availability.
Find the “Search Trademark” section and type in the business name you want to check. You will be shown a list of similar names already registered with them, along with their Class.
If you see that the business name you want has already been taken, instead of fretting over your effort; consider yourself lucky. Had you learnt about this any later, it would have been disastrous.
Try a few alternative spellings or combinations thereof, and see if you can arrive at a conclusion.
Once you are sure that the business name you want has no trademarks registered, proceed to the next step.
- Register the trademark immediately.
You can apply online for the trademark you have shortlisted.
The processes are fairly transparent. You just need to select the Class, the trademark you want and proceed.
You will be required to pay a fee, and also may be asked to upload some more documents to prove your claims on this name. - Some words of caution
Though most steps explained above, like domain name registration and social media accounts are immediate, trademark registration isn’t.
Patent and Trademark Offices clearly mention that “Applying to register a trademark doesn’t guarantee it will register”. Hence, ideally, if you have finalized your business name based on preliminary searches; you should start registering it on all fronts simultaneously and immediately. Tomorrow may be too late.
Since the trademark registration process is too long, I suggest that you seek help of a consultant. He will charge you a fee, but based on his experience, he will give you a definite advice if you will get to own your trademark.
The final check of your business name.
Finally, you need to make The phone test of your business name.
You’ve heard some names like Porsche, Nike, Hermes, Hublot, Givenchy, Volkswagen to name a few, and these have been pronounced wrong all the time, or most of the time.
- How does your business name sound when you say it on the phone?
- Do you always have to spell out your business name?
- Do people pronounce your business name wrong?
- Does it sound a bit weird, and not in a good way?
It’s always good to get creative, but you still need a name that people can easily share.
Please share your views in the comments section below. I am sure you have many more ideas to finding the perfect business name. Please share your views in the comments section below.