Naming: how to choose a company or product name (without regrets)

A name is the hardest brand decision to undo. It goes on the articles of incorporation, the domain, the storefront and the customer's lips. That's why naming is a method — not a Friday brainstorm.

1. Start with strategy

Before listing names, define: what the brand promises, to whom, and what feeling it should convey (technical, close, premium, popular). Names are filtered by those criteria, not by the taste of whoever is in the room.

2. Choose the type of name

• Descriptive (Play Embalagens): says what it does. Easy to understand, hard to register, limits expansion.
• Suggestive (Amplifik): evokes the benefit without describing it. A balance between clarity and registrability.
• Abstract (Kodak): means nothing until the brand gives it meaning. Easy to register, expensive to build.
• Proper name (Ana Couto): inherits a person's reputation. Hard to sell later.

3. Generate a lot, discard a lot

Dozens of options from roots: benefit, origin, metaphor, blend, foreign word. What survives the filters is usually 5%.

4. Filters that eliminate

• Pronunciation: can someone say it over the phone and the other person spell it right? In Portuguese and English, if the brand will leave the country.
• Bad meaning in another language or regional slang.
• Search: is the name already a common word that will never rank?
• Domain and handles: .com, local TLD and @ available — or an acceptable variation.

5. Trademark registration

Search the trademark office before falling in love. An identical or similar name in the same class is grounds for refusal — and lawsuits. A specialized firm runs the full search and the filing.

6. Test with people who weren't in the room

Show it to 5 people from the audience. Ask them to read it out loud and say what they think the company does. If nobody mispronounces it and most guess the industry, the name passed.