A good name is short, easy to say, easy to spell after hearing it once, legally yours to use, and available as a domain. Very few names tick every box, so naming is really a process of generating many options and filtering hard. Here is the process.
- 1
Write a one-paragraph brief
Who are the customers, what do you promise them, and how should the name feel: dependable, playful, premium? List three competitors and how their names sound, so you can deliberately sound different.
- 2
Generate a long list (50–100 names)
Quantity first. Mix construction styles: real words, compounds, blends, invented words. Use the generator, a thesaurus and words from your customers' own reviews. Do not judge yet.
- 3
Cut to a shortlist of 5–10
Strike anything longer than three syllables, anything with a double meaning in a language your customers speak, and anything a competitor could plausibly claim to own.
- 4
Run the radio test
Say each name to someone once, over the phone if possible, and ask them to type it. Any name that comes back misspelled will leak customers to search results for ever.
- 5
Check domains and handles
Look for the .com or a strong alternative (.co, .io, .app) and the same handle on the social platforms you will use. Our checker does domains live and links to the handles.
- 6
Check trademarks and registers
Search your trademark office in the classes you trade in, and your company register. This is the step where names die, and the step that saves you from a cease-and-desist letter later.
- 7
Live with it for a week
Put the top two on a mock business card or website header. Use them in conversation. The one you stop hesitating over is usually the right one. Then register everything the same day.
Descriptive or distinctive? The trade-off at the heart of naming
US trademark law sorts names along a spectrum first set out in the 1976 case Abercrombie & Fitch Co. v. Hunting World. At one end, a generic name is simply the word for the product and can never be owned. At the other, an invented word is unique by construction and gets the strongest protection, but tells customers nothing on day one. UK and EU law follow a similar logic: marks must be distinctive and not merely descriptive.
Drag the slider to see how the same business looks at each point, and how protection trades against instant understanding.
Drag along the distinctiveness spectrum
The further right a name sits, the easier it is to protect and the more marketing it needs to explain itself.
Registrable. The sweet spot for many small businesses. It hints at the benefit and asks the customer to make a small mental leap. Memorable and still protectable.
Most small businesses land in the suggestive zone: names like Morning Ritual or Ledgerly hint at the benefit, are easy to remember and can still be registered. Tech startups with a marketing budget often go arbitrary or fanciful, because it clears trademarks and domains fastest. The explainer is a simplified model of the legal spectrum; if you learn best by poking at things like this, ahaboo has narrated interactive explainers on how everyday systems really work, one "aha" at a time.
Mistakes that cost founders the most
- Falling for a clever spelling. Kwik, Xpress and Lyte look distinctive on paper but fail the radio test and invite typo-squatters.
- Naming after the first product. If you sell candles now but might sell home fragrance later, leave "Candle" out of the core name.
- Checking only the domain. A free .com says nothing about trademarks. Check both.
- Asking for votes instead of reactions. Do not ask friends which name they like. Ask what kind of business they think each name belongs to. Their guesses tell you what the name really signals.
- Waiting to register. Once you decide, buy the domain, claim handles and file the company the same day.
Tools to work through the steps
Build the long list with the business name generator or an industry template, browse name ideas by style, test the shortlist in the business name checker, then write a line to go with it in the slogan generator.