🗒️
Note: My notes are a mix of key ideas and quotes from the book as well as my own thoughts.


Your business name is the first impression you leave on customers. Make sure it’s sticky and makes people smile.

A few principles and good name examples that make people SMILE:

→ Suggestive: Amazon is a big name. It makes you imagine the big Amazon river. Imagine if Bezos would have called it 'book barn' instead.

→ Meaningful: Don’t name your company after yourself (unless you are Michael Jordan, your name means nothing to your customers).

→ Imaginary: A visual name like Timberland makes you think of woods and the outdoors.

→ Legs: Choose names that can be expanded. Names that create a new universe (like iPhone, iPad, etc.).

→ Emotional: Try finding a name that conveys a positive feeling. Like LUSH.

Bad names make people SCRATCH their heads. The seven deadly sins of naming. Avoid those:

🖨️
Note: You can make any name sound familiar (like Xerox) if you spend millions on brand promotion. It all depends on whether you have millions to spend on that or not.

A few things Watkins recommends to have in a naming brief and brand personality:

  • Project goal
  • Consumer insights
  • Target audience
  • Competition
  • Ten adjectives that describe the brand’s personality
  • Words to explore, words the client likes
  • Themes, ideas, and words to avoid
  • Name style likes
    Five brand names the client likes and why
  • Name style dislikes
    Five brand names the client dislikes and why
🧠
Brainstorm on your own, not in a team, especially not in a conference room.

Tips for brainstorming names:

[I recommend this list of resources for naming]

Testing the names:

Create a good domain name:

  1. Add a modifier
    Prefixes: get, go, hello, buy, drink, wear, a world of, here, enjoy, my, shop, try, the, re, eco, easy, smart, us, Im, get, re, anti, do, ex, inter, ad, top, super, my, your, play

    Suffixes: 101, group, life, online, partners, store, world, Pay, app, cloud, hq, corp, work, soft, labs, hub, list, now

    Namestudio.com does that automatically.
  2. Don't be afraid to use a domain that’s different from your brand name. For example, you can use a catchphrase like ILovePeanutButter.com or JoeKnowsCoffee.com

    Or use an action to name it like HaveItYourWay, or DressLikeNoOther

Get a different extension depending on your niche (like .net, .io, .ai, .me)

Avoid using .org, it's only for NGOs.

📛
Naming is a never-ending journey. You will keep naming conference rooms, job titles, products, services, and events.
📩
Changing your name is okay. You have more years in the business in front of you than behind you. Just redirect people to your new domain and spread the word on social media and email.