There are some simple checks I think everyone looking to setup a business should do before deciding that’s the name for them. It can sometimes be really frustrating to come up with a name and then perform simple checks to discover it’s not going to work for you. Here are a few pointers which might help you in your own process:

1. Check Companies House to ensure no-one has a company with your name already. Even if you are planning to trade as a partnership it’s worth checking before you get tied up with a larger organisation in a legal battle over “passing off” on their brand. As a branding process is extremely expensive and setting up a business is time consuming the last thing you want is to worry about legal issues. They come later as you become bigger and more successful!
2. Jump on a domain registration site, these sites have a search box which allows you to see which domain names are available. When you have done all your checks remember to try and buy every combination of domain name within reason as you need to protect your brand. This means protecting both singular and plurals of your name. A little common sense goes a long way when purchasing domain names. It might be worth checking similar domain names and the content they have on the site.
3. Search for your company name through a few search engines. Google is a good starting point and note that I say starting point. Google will tell you if anyone is trading under your name as a partnership or sole trader. If they are don’t let it put you off, they might be in a completely different market. It’s very difficult to have a company name that is completely unique. Oh and don’t forget if you’re going to sell internationally to check the meaning in other languages. Something many people forget when checking a company name in Google is that if it considers your name a misspelling you’re probably off to a bad start. This will be extremely bad for search engine optimisation / rankings.
4. Urban Slang should be your next port of call with the likes of wikipidea and urban dictionary. This is where a little creative thinking comes into play to see if your name has any adverse or hidden connotations – this could be Internet, school or urban slang.
5. Make your claim! As soon as you’ve found a name and all the checks are giving you good news.

These checks only take about 5 minutes, so use the tips above to give your brand the best chance to penetrate the market. Although it can be annoying to go back to the drawing board after finding your dream business name it’s better to foresee potential problems early.

There are whole books written on branding and name generation so if you need help I suggest investing in one.

We’re moving on quickly behind the scenes at eCommerce experiment (we’re back at the bank tomorrow) and the posts will be quickly gathering pace over the coming weeks so I’d better let you in on some vital information!

We do name generation processes for new start-ups at carrotmedia so when it came to developing the name for the handmade jewellery shop we thought it would be an easy process. How wrong we were! As always when you come to doing something for yourself you’re always in two minds of how you’re going to approach something, which angle you’re going to focus on and what would appeal to your target market.

We thought about quirky names but quickly dismissed them. There are not many large jewellery shops online and the few that are there have been around for a long time, the upper market consists of Tiffany’s, Ernst Jones, Beaverbrooks and Goldsmiths within the UK. (Feedback on outside of the UK more than welcome.)

We wanted a few things out of our company name;

• To be memorable
• To be respected
• Can age well
• Brandable

We chatted about names for a while and came up with Turner Elliott, we quickly changed this round to Elliott Turner and then slept on it until I personally changed it to Eliot Turner. The name came from combining surnames of two of the four directors, Gavin Elliott (a previous director) and Justin Turner.

The reasons for dropping it down to one ‘L’ and one ‘T’ were;

• Elliott is a very strong surname for the first part of the company name
• I wanted to created a “softer” first name

So there it is. Our online shop will be called “Eliot Turner”.