BRAND NAME TECHNIQUES
CHEAT SHEET
ACRONYMS
Try using the first letter of every word in a
phrase or parts of words or names. Eg. AOL
(America Online), BBC (British Broadcasting
Corporation) and BENQ (Bringing
Enjoyment and Quality to life).
MERGING
Mix two or more words that are meaningful
for you and your business. Eg. Evernote
(from “forever” and “note”) and Groupon
(from “group” and “coupon”)
HISTORICAL INSPIRATION
Historical characters, places, objects or gods
can all serve as great inspiration for your
brand name. The most famous example of
this is Nike. The name Nike comes from the
Greek Goddess of Victory.
EXOTIC AND FOREIGN WORDS
A foreign or foreign sounding name may
sound exotic to your audience and if that’s
something you’d like them to associate with
your brand then this could be a great way
to extract your brand name. Eg. Haagen-
Dasz doesn’t actually mean anything in
Danish. It just sounds Danish and exotic.
FOUNDER
There are many examples of brands that
have been named after their founders
Including Ferrari, Boeing and Bayer. A play
on names is a more effective use of this
strategy. Eg. Adidas was created by Adolf
(Adi) Dassler.
GEOGRAPHY
Amazon and Fuji are both examples of this
tactic as is Adobe, which was named after
the creek that ran down the back of the
founders house.
PARTNERSHIP STRUCTURE
If you’re going to partner with another
entrepreneur or merge your company with
another one, instead of a completely new
name, make up a name using fragments
from both names, just like Ben & Jerry’s or
20th Century Fox.
UNSUNG HERO
There may be an element of what you do
that is overlooked yet critical. Pixar is a great
example of this. For the studio, the pixel was
essential. They used part of the word, added
the initials of Alvy Ray (The founder) and
we have PIXAR.
DESCRIPTIVE
What is the one word, or pair of words that
could describe what the business does best?
Think specifically about the advantage to the
customer. Eg. 7-Eleven (open from 7am until
11pm), Home Hardware, (sells hardware for
your home.)
LEVERAGE LATIN
Latin has an element of mystery that stands
on its own though it doesn’t suggest a
specific origin nationality while the words
and letters they use are phonetically
appealing. Examples of this are Acer (Latin
for “sharp”] and Volvo (Latin for “I roll”)
BRAND NAME TECHNIQUES
CHEAT SHEET

CHARACTERISTIC ALIGNMENT STORY BASE

Does your product or service share
characteristics with an animal, plant, object
or thing that your brand might want to
associate with? These characteristics could
be physical or intangible. Look at it from
different angles physically or figuratively. Eg.
Volkswagen Beetle.
SENSORY CHARACTERISTICS
Is there a sensation you want your brand
associated with? Maybe the characteristics
you want to align with have sensual
expressions. Sight, sound, touch, taste all
provide sensual experiences that you can
tap into. “A short burst of inconsequential
information, and chirps from birds.” are what
a Twitter and Tweets of birds are described
as. Very fitting for the short burst social
media platform.
What is the story behind your brand and
what makes it interesting. Is there a word
that can describe that story in a nutshell?
When Richard Branson started his empire,
he and his small team were new and
inexperienced in their industry and the
world of business so they decided on the
name the brand Virgin.
USE BRAND SUBSTANCE
What do you believe in as a brand? What
is the ambition of the vision and the
commitment of the mission or what do
you value more than anything. If the belief
system is strong within the brand and it will
be a focus in the brand messaging, then a
brand name born from the belief can lead
the audience to connect the two.

ABBREVIATE
Take a word that has a strong meaning for
you or your business and extract a short art
of it, just like Cisco did (from San Francisco,
where the company was founded).

ALTERNATIVE SPELLING
Take a word that’s symbolic or essential for
your company and invent a new spelling for
it. The name Reebok is an alternate spelling
of “rhebok”, an African antelope. Add extra
letters, remove the continents, replace a
letter with a similar sounding letter like K
instead of C or Z instead of S. Flickr and
Tumblr simply removed the ‘E’ from funky
sounding words and created memorable
brand names.