Do you ever think about what it takes to create a world-class brand name?

If you ever try to start a business or create a successful blog, you know that standing out is one of the greatest challenges you must face as an entrepreneur.

You work hard to start a new business, yet no one cares. There is something missing. You haven’t created a brand name that stands out.

Here is what it takes to create a brand name that gets you noticed:

 

Keep it smooth and easy.

Great brand names are easy to say. Use alliteration to help people remember. Here are few examples of what I mean: Dunkin’ Donuts, PayPal, American Apparel, Coca-Cola, Rolls Royce, Toyota.

You can develop your brand name with an alliterative effect with the aid of the following tools:

  • alliteration.me – This is a comprehensive site that helps with alliterations as part of speech. There is also a sentence generator and a synonym finder.
  • namestation.com – Namestation has a nifty alliterations domain name finder tool.

Short names are better.

Short names are easier to remember. Names like Google, Twitter, Apple, and IBM are just a few examples.

Here are the top 20 most valuable brands in the world. Check out how many characters in each brand name:

  • Honda (# of characters 5)
  • HP (2)
  • GE (2)
  • BMW (3)
  • Apple (5)
  • Google (6)
  • IBM (3)
  • Disney (6)
  • Amazon (6)
  • Microsoft (9)
  • Coca-Cola (8)
  • Toyota (6)
  • HP (2)
  • Oracle (6)
  • Cisco (5)
  • Gillette (8)
  • Louis Vuitton (11)
  • Mercedes-Benz (12)
  • Intel (5)
  • Samsung (7)
  • McDonald’s (9)

As you can see most of the top 20 brand names are under 10 characters. Keep that in mind as you create your own brand.

Create a new word.

I once started a business called Trustegrity. I came up with the name by combining the words “trust” and “integrity”. I wanted my company to be known for trust and integrity. In the process, I have created a brand new word.

Here is a great tool that should help you mix words together. There is another great tool that will help you invent new words. It is called Invent-a-Word. As an experiment, I have entered the word “branding” and I was presented with some interesting options.

branding + ingenious = brandingenious
branding + ingeniously = brandingeniously
branding + ingeniousness = brandingeniousness
branding + ingenuity = brandingenuity
branding + inglorious = brandinglorious
branding + ingloriously = brandingloriously
branding + ingloriousness = brandingloriousness
branding + ingot = brandingot
branding + ingrained = brandingrained
branding + ingrainedly = brandingrainedly
branding + ingrains = brandingrains
branding + ingratitude = brandingratitude
branding + ingredient = brandingredient
branding + ingredient’s = brandingredient’s
branding + ingredients = brandingredients
branding + ingrown = brandingrown
branding + ingrownness = brandingrownness
branding + ingrowth = brandingrowth
branding + ingrowths = brandingrowths

As you can see some of them are better than others, but the whole process took me less than a minute. You can come up with some great brand name ideas using this tool.

Easy spell and pronunciation.

If you want people to enjoy using your brand name, make sure you use words that are easy to spell and pronounce.

Before you decide on a word, make sure it is not among the 100 most often misspelled words. In addition, make sure that you exclude the 100 most often mispronounced words too.
Check for trademarks.

Before you make your final decision on your new brand name, check for trademarks. Search the United States Patent and Trademark Office to make sure the brand name you want is not an already registered trademark. Their Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) is there to help you with a quick and free search feature.

Related article: How Much Does It Cost To Trademark?

Try to register the .com.

There are new Top Level Domains (TLD) on the market all the time, yet the .com still remains the gold standard in business. If there is a way, register the .com. There is a professional look and feel to .com domain names. If you don’t own the .com domain of your brand name, you could end up driving traffic to a site other than yours.

See what it looks like.

We have talked about the importance of how your brand name sounds, but looks are also important. I recommend creating a logo to test what kind of impression it creates. Don’t rely on your own opinion only. Ask your potential customers for feedback. Don’t tell them what your brand name means, ask them to explain it to you based on what they see.

The bottom line.

It takes some work and creativity to come up with a great brand name, but the above tools and tactics should help you. Remember great brand names are short, memorable, easy to say, protectable, and create a good impression.