15 types of brand names

When you start branding your business, one of the first decisions that a business owner has to make is: what should you name your brand? 

Businesses need to put significant creative effort into researching and picking a name. To select the best-suited name for your brand, you must understand the types of names that are out there. Below are 15 common types of business names.

1. Founder: Name of the founder.
Example: Ford Motor Company. Ford was named after its founder Henry Ford.

2. Functional: A name that describes exactly what the business does.
Example: Mystic Cleaners. The company name clearly suggests it is a cleaning company.

3. Invented: These are words that don’t have a meaning and are invented. Words that sound catchy and are easy to remember. Usually, invented words involve some world play that can involve word contractions or merging different words.
Example: Kodak. George Eastman – ‘I devised the name myself. The letter ‘K’ had been a favorite with me — it seems a strong, incisive sort of letter. It became a question of trying out a great number of combinations of letters that made words starting and ending with ‘K.’ The word ‘Kodak’ is the result.

4. Culture & History: Names that used words or phrases from culture or history.
Example: Nike. ‘Nike’ is an acient Greek goddess of victory.

5. Location: Names inspired by a place of origin or significance.
Example: Amazon. “Amazon” because it was a place that was “exotic and different” just as Jeff Bezos planned for his store to be.

6. Local Names: Names that are driven from concepts that are locally unique and relevant
Example: Northface. The name of the company is based on the north face of the Half Dome in Yosemite, California.

7. Ingredients: Names that clearly state the products that go into making them.
Example Coca-Cola. When launched, Coca-Cola’s two key ingredients were cocaine & caffeine. The cocaine was derived from the leaf and the caffeine from kola nut (also spelled “cola nut” at the time), leading to the name Coca-Cola.

8. Values: Names that suggest ideas that your company stands for and supports.
Example: Reliant Energy. The word ‘reliant’ by itself means dependable and trustworthy; something that the company values.

9. Acronyms: Names that only use the initials of their name.
Example: M& M’s. The two ‘M’s represent the names of Forrest E. and Mars Sr.

10. Out of context: Names that might have no relevance and are purely disruptive.
Example: Apple. According to Steve Jobs, the company’s name was inspired by his visit to an apple farm while on a fruitarian diet. Jobs thought the name “Apple” was “fun, spirited and not intimidating”.

11. Foreign language: Foreign words are catchy and often add an element of grace and broad outlook.
Example: Uber. “Uber” is derived from the German word meaning “above all the rest,” a bedrock principle Kalanick and Camp wanted for their fledgling company.

12. Unique selling point: Names or words that suggest the unique feature of the product
Example: Plushbeds. “Plushbeds” is a mattress company that specializes in manufacturing latex mattresses.

13. Unique spellings: Names spelled differently to create impact.
Example: Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Crispy creamy sure does not have the same impact.

14. Honor a person/memory: Names that honor people for their work or significant contribution.
Example: Tesla. The name was suggested to honor Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-American inventor who created the AC electric motor that is used in Tesla’s cars.

15. Merging words: Names formed by combining different words either from the same or different origin.
Example: Sony. “Sony” was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words: one was the Latin word “Sonus”, which is the root of sonic and sound, and the other was “sonny”, a common term used in 1950s America to call a young boy.

Conclusion

Hopefully, these brand names and the varied inspiration that ignited the brand name ideas, get you excited to name and conceptualize your brand name. While the naming types are limited, the actual list of possible brand names is endless. Whatever brand name type you end up using, it’s important to remember: A good name can’t make a lousy product great, but a great product can make even the strangest name unforgettable.