I consider naming quite a bit in leading marketing and brand at High Alpha. As a venture studio, we co-found and launch five to 10 new software startups yearly. My team’s responsibility is to create and build out the brands for all the new companies we start, including everything from naming and domain acquisition to brand identity and websites. Over the past five years, we’ve documented over 30 software startups at High Alpha.
As a soon-to-be first-time parent, naming has taken on a new meaning and importance in my life. Over the past five years, we’ve named more than 30 software startups. Even though I help call new companies for a living, I now fully understand the paralysis that often comes when deciding the name for someone or something significant to you.
Naming is a challenging and nuanced process. It’s fraught with subjectiveness and personal preference. And to top it all off, most founders have zero (or very little) experience in naming. Because of this, I’ve always tried to take an objective, pragmatic approach to naming a company with our CEOs and other startups.
The truth is that business names fall on a bell curve — you have a small number of outliers that actively contribute to your success and a small number of outliers that actively impair your ability to succeed. The vast majority, though, fall somewhere in the middle in their impact on your business.
So, how should a founder effectively name their baby startup and not pick a name that will hurt them? I’m sharing my criteria and lessons for how to go about naming your startup, how to evaluate a company name, and what makes for a good company name.
Is the name ownable?
As a founder, one of the first criteria to consider is own ability and URL availability. Nowadays, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a name where the .com is still available. I often look at .io, .co, get_______.com, or _____hq.com as my top alternatives to a .com, but I always prefer if the .com is potentially attainable in the future. It may be parked by a domain investor or someone asking a ridiculous price, but that’s always better than an established business using your .com. If not, you will always fight a search battle with another brand that owns your .com.
However, You should evaluate the competitiveness and search congestion around your branded keywords. This goes much beyond just the availability of the coveted .com domain. A company named “Apple” or “Lumber” will have a tough time competing for search placements, even if they don’t sell computers or building supplies. An established name and word will also come with existing connotations and previous experiences in your audience’s mind. You want a name free from as much baggage as possible to build your connotations and memories quickly.
