Coming up with a pithy name is easy, but finding one that is in some way unique and even meaningful is a real problem. I always start with the .com URL, which is a hiding to nothing in itself. You ca
Coming up with a pithy name is easy, but finding one that is in some way unique and even meaningful is a real problem.
I always start with the .com URL, which is a hiding to nothing in itself. You can spend hours on the site of a name registrar such as GoDaddy. It's not surprising that suffixes such as .ai and .io are increasingly popular. Still, the .com is the holy grail..
In the case of Project Q we came up with a great name - one that is meaningful, relevant, short and where, hallelujah!, the .com URL was available.
But the fun doesn't stop there. You need other accounts - Twitter and Instagram handles, a Gmail address for YouTube and Adwords, etc.. Of course, none of those are available (although many of the names you covet haven't been used for a decade or more) and we had to come up with alternatives in each case. Things were a lot easier in 1996...
If you're looking for suggestions, Shopify has a name generator here: Business Name Generator - Free Company Name Generator (shopify.com), many other similar sites are available.
There is also another consideration - make sure that your name works internationally and isn't accidentally insulting or rude. This could be useful: WordSafety.com
Last, but by no means least, there is also making sure that the name is available as a company you can incorporate and/or a brand name you can protect. In the UK, where the rules are very different to the US, naming a company after your brand is one of the best ways of protecting the name. There's a useful tool here: Search for a trade mark - Intellectual Property Office (ipo.gov.uk). You can check out international trademarks here: WIPO Global Brand Database.
Happy naming!
What’s In A Name ? Project Q Becomes QuedlWell done to those of you who came so close in sussing out the name of our new venture. We decided to call it Quedl. Chwedl is the Celtic...
BloggerIolo Jones - Project Q
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