How to Create a Brand Name
Brand Strategy 101 >
Core Framework >
How to Create a Brand Name
Share via
With more brands than ever, choosing your brand name is not an easy task. After aligning the core values, brand personality and brand mission it’s time to create your brand name.
There are five types of brand names:
— Generic
— Descriptive
— Metaphorical
— Invented
— Founder
Generic Brand Names
Think: hotels.com, cars.com.
Whilst easily recognisable, these kinds of names are exceptionally hard even impossible, to trademark. Trademark Offices do not trademark generic names such as “Books”, “Cars”.
For many businesses getting a trademark is not an immediate concern, however, to ensure consistency and avoiding the need to change your name, or invite competition from an imposter business, it is wise to veer away from Generic brand names.
Within U.S. law, only terms that distinguish a particular product or service from others on the market can be trademarked.
In 2008, Hotels.com was refused the right to trademark as it was deemed “too generic” and would cause confusion with other web addresses that feature “hotel” or ”hotels” in the links. The owners even launched a court appeal which they eventually lost.
A trade mark will be refused registration if:
The mark cannot be represented graphically
The mark is purely descriptive in nature. For example, it would be unlikely that a watch manufacturer would be able to register the word ‘watch’
The trade mark is contrary to public policy: words causing offence or those widely used in a religious context have previously been refused registration
Descriptive Brand Names
Descriptive brand names are names that explicitly describe what a product or service is or does. Typically these names are straight-forward, and easy to understand. These brand names often act as their own tagline, clearly describing their product/ service in a short succinct way.
The North Face — Inspired by the north face of a mountain, which is often the coldest, most covered in ice and hardest to climb.
Amazon — Evokes the abundance of the Amazon Rainforest.
Toys “R” Us — A playful and expressive phonetic spelling.
American Airlines — Proud, evocative and no-nonsense.
Whole Foods — Healthy, pure and nutritious.
Descriptive names make fantastic brand names. Our own brand name, BrandCraft is a descriptive brand name! It’s easy to find a distinct, unique, and strong name when you can combine two or more names together.
Combination Brand Names
Combination brand names do exactly that. By combining two words they instill memorable contrasts between two words.
Netflix — Combination of “internet” and “flicks” (movies)
Pinterest — Combination of “pin” and “interest”
Instagram — Combination of “instant camera” and “telegram”
FedEx — Combination of “federal” and “express”
PayPal — Combination of “pay” and “pal” (friend)
Invented Brand Names
Invented brand names go a little further than descriptive names in their uniqueness. Invented names have the agency behind them to concentrate on their uniqueness and memorableness.
Rolex — Invented by the company’s founder, Hans Wilsdorf, to be distinctive, short and memorable, easy to pronounce and spell. As much as we have romantiscised Rolex, it was conceived with function at its heart. The word has a luxurious sound to it, reflecting the company’s focus on high-end craftsmanship.
Etsy — The founding team wanted to find a nonsense word so they could build the brand truly from the ground up. “I wanted a nonsense word because I wanted to build the brand from scratch. I was watching Fellini's 8 ½and writing down what I was hearing. In Italian, you say 'etsi' a lot. It means 'oh, yes.' And in Latin, it means ‘and if.’ ” — Rob Kalin
Google — Play on the word “googol”, which is the mathematical term for the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. This name reflects the company’s focus on organising and presenting massive amounts of information.
Metaphorical Brand Names
These brand names have an inherent poetry to them, they are suggestive, evocative, leading words, that invite the viewer abstractly imagine connotations to the brand.
Jaguar — Shares the name of the wildcat, it’s combination of elegance and strength, reflecting the luxury and performance of the car brand.
Nike — Named after the Greek goddess of victory, reflecting the company’s focus on athletic performance and victory through sport.
Zoom — Refers to the fast and easy communication of its users.
Apple — Ideas of fresh and new, reflecting the company’s focus on innovation and creativity.
Founder-Based Brand Names
A founder-based brand name is an interesting choice. Sometimes seen as ego-centric, these names are truly only understood once the company already has success. Who could know what the brand name “Paul Smith” was representing, if you heard it for the first time?
Ford — Named after founder, Henry Ford
Paul Smith — Named after founder, Paul Smith
Other Posts in Brand Strategy 101, from Our Framework Deep-Dive —
How to Conduct a Brand Audit →
Uncover a Brand's Core Values →
About the author, Adam —
Adam is the founder of BrandCraft, a branding and design agency.
On top of our client-facing projects, our small team developed BrandWerks where we create brand strategy tools and templates to help you master brand strategy and the business of design.
Our actionable tools are fully editable and founded in a commercial approach that guides your clients through the brand strategy process.
Learn more —
BrandCraft ➝
Brand Strategy Tools & Templates ➝