Five Strategies for Naming Your Business

Why Your Brand Name Matters (Especially for Small Businesses)

Before we get into tactics, here’s some evidence that naming really isn’t just fluff:

• A strong, well‐recognized brand can increase revenue by up to 23%. NamesFrog

• In today’s era, people are overwhelmed with marketing. Several studies have corroborated that nearly 50% of people feel they receive too much marketing material on a daily basis. In these circumstances, memorability is the most important element of effective marketing (and more on that later).

• When companies rebrand or rename poorly, they risk confusion, loss of trust, and even big financial hits. For example: Weight Watchers rebranded to “WW” in 2018, aiming to broaden their reach. However, they lost approximately 600,000 subscribers in six months and saw an approximate 34% drop in stock value, largely because people didn’t understand what “WW” meant. frozenlemons.com

So for small businesses, where budgets are tighter, word‐of‐mouth matters more, and every customer counts, getting your name right from the start (or carefully applying rebranding strategies) can make a big difference.

Five Strategies for Choosing the Right Brand Name

1. Your Name Should Reflect Your Value and Positioning

What this means: The name should give people a clue about what you do, why you exist, or what difference you make in the world. It helps set expectations, reduces confusion, and positions you relative to your competitors.

How to apply this:

• Think about your brand’s core values: speed, quality, customization, community, fun, premium, etc. Try to capture that in the name, either directly or metaphorically.

• Resist generic or misleading words. Names that don’t hint at what you offer tend to need more marketing reach to overcome the initial friction.

Positive Examples:

• Google was originally called “BackRub.” They changed from BackRub because it didn’t clearly communicate to people what their service was, so they brainstormed and settled on Google (from the number “googolplex”) to suggest scale and novelty.

• Pepsi-Cola was originally called “Brad’s Drink.” They changed their name to Pepsi‐Cola in 1898 to align with marketing trends at that time that appealed to digestive health (“pepsin” / “dyspepsia” etc.), making it more descriptive and adding the word “cola.”

Failed Examples:

• When Weight Watchers changed their name to WW, it led to a loss of clarity for many. Existing customers weren’t sure if they were still in the same business or what exactly WW stood for, and the name change even led to an incredible loss of over 600,000 subscribers.

• For more examples of rebrands gone wrong, check out these five failed attempts (and what you can learn from them!).

2. Make It Memorable, Easy to Pronounce and Spell

If people can’t remember your name, can’t pronounce it, or are unsure of how to spell it, then they won’t search for you or tell others about you. In fact, they may even mistake you for someone else. Memorability and ease reduce friction in many small but crucial steps (referrals, search, signage, social media).

What research says:

A study conducted by Red Havas found that memorability is the most important element of a branding or marketing campaign, and is the element that has the greatest impact on subsequent sales. If your brand has a memorable name, all of your marketing efforts will inherently be more effective than if your name is forgettable or overly complex. Names that are too long, too hard, or spelled strangely are often less shareable and less commonly recalled.

How to apply it:

• Keep your brand name short where possible, or at least make sure the core memorable element is short.

• Avoid unusual spellings unless you have a good, specific reason for it (like a reference to a transliteration of a non-English word, for example) and are prepared for the repercussions.

• Test pronunciation across different customer groups and regions (if you expect to expand into different regions).

Example:

Dell’s recent move is a great case study to exemplify all these name-based strategies. In early 2025, Dell announced that they’d be moving away from their longstanding product‐line names like the XPS and Inspiron. Instead, they aim to transition to more simplified product names. Now, their computer models will have simpler names like “Dell Pro” and “Dell Pro Max”.

Taking this step demonstrates that even major companies believe that overly-confusing names inhibit sales and growth. Dell itself has said that PC sales have been weak following the boom of computer purchases during the pandemic, so simplifying their product naming standards is part of the strategy to remedy that.

3. Ensure Uniqueness and Avoid Confusion

What this means: Your name should be distinct enough not to be confused with competitors, not infringe on trademarks, and not give wrong impressions. Also, make sure you consider domain and social media handle availability.

Why it matters:

• Confused customers may end up buying from a competitor by mistake.

• Legal and trademark issues can be very costly in rebranding.

• Overlap in names dilutes brand recognition and can damage reputation if the other business behaves poorly.

Example of failure:

The Royal Mail case: What started off as the British Post Office Group was renamed “Consignia” in 2001, but the public didn’t understand what the name stood for. The company rebranded again to “Royal Mail” after just 16 months, at a high cost of approximately £2.5 million, because the name confused people. You can read more about their failed attempt at rebranding, along with some other examples and what we can learn from them, here.

How to apply it:

• Perform a trademark search in the relevant markets.

• Check domain names and availability of social media handles.

• Conduct audience testing and focus groups: ask people “What business do you think this is? What do you think they do?” based only on the name.

• Consider linguistic or cultural meaning in other markets if you plan to expand.

4. Think About Long-Term Scalability

Choose a name that can grow with you. If you change business direction, add new product lines, expand geographically, or otherwise evolve, you don’t want your name to box you in.

The costs, both financial and of your customer loyalty, of changing a name later is often much higher than taking the time to choose something flexible from the start. Consider the potential to drop words from your name down the line for expansion purposes, just as “Dunkin’” did when they transitioned from “Dunkin’ Donuts”. This is a much safer and more effective way to change a name.

One of the common reasons small businesses rebrand or rename is because their name no longer reflects what they do after evolving. While there are successful examples of this (consider Dunkin’ and Meta, for example), they’re often met with initial backlash from loyal consumers and need to be carried out according to a cautious strategy.

Positive Examples:

• Amazon went through several name changes in its early days, starting as “Cadabra” and then switching to “Relentless”. Eventually, founder Jeff Bezos settled on the name we all know the company for today, which allowed huge expansion into a vast array of different product categories. The current business name doesn’t limit the company to any single category, which has allowed it to expand without limitations and offer just about every product under the sun.

• On the other hand, Instagram changed its name in order to narrow its focus and make its primary function clearer. The service was originally called “Burbn”, but when the business owners decided to hone in on a photo-sharing platform, their old name felt disconnected. Changing their brand name to “Instagram” helped tie their brand image to their future goals and oriented them for success.

5. Emotional Resonance and Brand Personality

Your name should evoke the “feeling” that you want people to have when they think of your brand. This could be anything from fun or serious, to luxurious or affordable, to trustworthy or rebellious. Your business’s name is a major part of your brand’s voice, and it sets the tone for how people feel about your company.

For example, a restaurant in St. Louis experienced several name changes, from “Patrick’s Restaurant & Sports Bar”, to “Pujols” (named after a baseball star), to “St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame Bar and Grill”, and then finally back to “Patrick’s Restaurant & Sports Bar.” The owner said that business returned after regaining the clarity that their first name offered. The other names left customers feeling confused about the restaurant’s focus.

How to apply it:

• Decide what personality you want: playful, serious, artisan, mass‑market, trustworthy, innovative, etc.

• Use prefixes, suffixes, word forms, and sounds that align with the vibe you’re aiming to elicit (e.g. “co.”, “labs”, “market”, “suite”, etc.).

• Avoid names that evoke the wrong assumptions (for example, don’t go too tech-related if you’re artisanal, or too generic if you’re premium).

Putting It All Together: Five Name Ideas Based on Business Type

Here are hypothetical examples, based on different industries and brand personalities, to illustrate how these strategies combine into name ideas. Use them as templates or for inspiration.

Bonus tip! Always double check that your name “rolls off the tongue.” Some names may look nice on paper or include important elements of your brand, but are complicated to say, making them more difficult for customers to remember. As a rule of thumb, alliteration is always a plus for making your name easy to remember and fun to say aloud!

Checklist Before Finalizing a Brand Name

Make sure your domain and social media handles are available. Ideally, they’ll be the same and will be easy to type.

1. Conduct trademark searches, especially within your industry, to avoid future legal headaches.

2. Conduct some preliminary audience testing. Does your target audience find your brand name appealing and/or memorable? What do they infer from it?

3. Test your name for ease of pronunciation and spelling. Try testing it with people who are not close to you to see if they mishear or misspell the name.

4. Consider future expansions. Will your brand name still make sense if you expand your product lines and services or expand into other regions?

5. Consider the emotional appeal of the name. How does it feel to say it? What kind of image does it bring to mind? What kind of connotation does it have?

6. Avoid unintended meanings by checking what your brand name translates to in different languages, especially if you plan to develop internationally. Exclude any words with unfortunate meanings or associations in other dialects and cultures.

Case Study: From MatchBox to Tinder

Tinder, the popular dating app, was originally released in 2012 under the name “MatchBox.” A few months after the app’s launch, the company rebranded as “Tinder”, and the rest is history.

What made this name switch worth the risk of potentially alienating their initial user base?

• MatchBox was too generic and risked being confused with other brands, or even similar words (i.e. “matchbook”). This hindered its memorability and made it more difficult for people to search for or tell others about.

• The “match” nomenclature risked Tinder blending in with all the other dating websites and apps that featured “matches,” such as “Match.com”. Hinging their brand identity on this word could have led them to be just another app in the sea of online dating services.

• Despite both names being only two syllables, Tinder has fewer consonant clusters, leading it to roll off the tongue quicker and adding to the brand’s youthful, flirty feel. Just try saying them both out loud. Which one feels more pleasant to say?

• Excluding “match” from its name also prevented Tinder from boxing itself into the current parameters of dating services at that time. Differentiating itself allowed Tinder to expand into a service that was truly unique at the time, and to continue developing into an industry leader.

• Tinder has a much more playful, frivolous tone than “MatchBox”, allowing it to better attract its intended customer base of young people looking for not-so-serious relationships. In the time since its launch, Tinder has certainly expanded its user base to include people looking for serious relationships, but the name “Tinder” better represented its unique personality and niche.

Clearly, “Tinder” is a stronger name that more closely embodies the personality and vision of the brand, captures consumer attention, and resonates with their target demographic.

Smarter Branding with Tidy-B

To keep up with the market as naming trends evolve, you need a consistent brand identity. A great name can’t do all the heavy lifting if your logo, colors, and fonts are still all over the place.

Tidy-B’s AI Branding Strategy Questionnaire automatically generates the perfect logo, color scheme, and fonts for your business based on your brand name. Once these features are set, the AI tool easily produces everything, from matching business cards to social media assets, saving you tons of time and effort. And best of all, it starts at only $10 a month! Get a free trial of our services here and see for yourself how Tidy-B can revolutionize your brand’s marketing and identity.

Conclusion

Naming is one of the most foundational choices your business will make. It affects your brand’s first impressions, memorability, marketing costs, and if not taken seriously, can even include legal risk. A good name can give you leverage over your competition, and a bad one can cause you to lose customers and face costly rebrands down the road. This is especially true for small businesses that have limited budgets for dealing with potential ramifications of a bad name.

A good name should be reflective of your values, memorable and pronounceable, unique and unambiguous, primed for long-term growth, and representative of your brand’s personality. Use these strategies to choose a name that will help your business grow!