Other than the Dole pineapple empire, can you name one other Hawaiian brand?  And even Dole isn’t reallllly a Hawaiian company — James Dole came over from the mainland to found the company in 1851. The likely reason Hawaiian names aren’t the basis of power-house brands is because they’re so flippin’ hard to read, hard to pronounce and hard to remember (At least for us “Howlies” - Hawaiian slang for non-natives).  If you’ve ever been to Hawaii, you’ll know what I mean.  Ask for directions and you’ll get something like:

“Take the kaapalula highway to kaapapuu. Take a right on uppukaka street and then a left on kupajava lane. If you go past the pupukippilala mall, you’ve gone too far.”

Uhhhhh …. riiight.

Time for Name Game Round Six:

Your name should be:

• Easy to read (silently … no moving your lips)
• Easy to pronouce.  It should flow off the tongue like velvet.
• Difficult to miss-spell.

OK, before I get a flood of emails from hoards of irate Hawaiians, please understand that I LOVE the beauty of your language.  It’s just hard for me to adapt.  Put me up in a shack on a beach for a year or two and I’m sure I’ll come to my senses!

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Name Game Five!

You’ve brainstormed. You’ve found cliches. You’ve found related words and phrases. You’ve found HUNDREDS more words and phrases. You’ve plowed through homonyms, synonyms, antonyms, homophones, idioms and words that were just kinda like the others. Your brain is abuzz with fabulous ideas, catchy phrases and great names.

Here’s the buzz-kill — the giant killer of finding a great name. And we can blame it all on those friendly folks we call “domain name traders”. When you find that great name, you’ll go to a name registrar (or a registrar search tool like Better Whois) and find that your perfect name is likely taken. GRRRRRR! What’s worse, is it’s not taken by a like-minded entrepreneur, it’s been snagged by a sleaze-bag domain name trader that’s profiting off of your desire for that name. It’s either back to the drawing board OR cough up their exorbitant fees. Although it will feel like these leaches are sucking the life-blood out of you, if they’re only asking for a couple of hundred dollars, I hope you can see how buying the name is a lot easier (albeit more financially and ethically painful) than spending another few days in a search.

Well, for this post, that’s tip number one!: Don’t get married to a name until you find out that the “.com” and the “.net” are both available. Also, understand that this is definitely going to be a problem for you so you’ll want to pull out your extra thick skin … you’re gonna need it.

Tip two for this post: Next, check to see if there are any competing companies on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office web site. Although this is NOT legal advice, and you most definitely should seek advice from a qualified attorney who specializes in Intellectual Property law, it is possible to do a quickie check at the USPTO. If you go to the site and immediately find a conflict, you can again free up your brain and comfortably return to the drawing board without too much anguish. If you don’t find a conflict, you’ll want to have your attorney perform a “clearance search” to confirm that there aren’t any potential problems. Even then, your new, great name isn’t safe until the USPTO gives you the official “thumbs up” that you’re the new owner of the “mark”… which may take years!

To do a search at USPTO.gov;

Click on “How to Search” in the top nav.
Click “SEARCH trademarks now”
Click Free Form Search (Advanced Search)
In the “Search Term” box, type your new name IN QUOTES
Click “Submit Query”

I’ll be working with my IP attorney to try to give you mo’ bettah advice on this complex process in the future. If you’re looking for an IP attorney (especially if you live in the lovely Lakes Region of NH), feel free to contact Trademark Guru Mike Persson … and tell him I said “hi” (we’re working on his website as we speak).

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The Name Game Part Four!

The concept of “pig” and the concept of “latin” are both quite different than “pig latin”. Combining words creates new meaning and nuance that can’t be ignored. While evaluating taglines, we think one worders (eg “Rise”-United Airlines or “Invent”-Hewlett Packard) miss out on the opportunity of tapping into subtle meaning acquired by combining two or three words together.

From our last couple of exercises you have a pretty serious list of words and phrases … possibly hundreds. Start mixing, matching and mashing to take your name campaign to the next level.

When combining words be sure to take advantage of some of these strategies:

Aliteration: Words that begin with the same letter sound nice one after the other. So says Sally Sue … sometimes.
Rhyming: Can turn a phrase into a craze.
Kinda Like: It may not rhyme. It may not be a homonym. It may not even be spelled similarly. If one word is “kinda like” another, it can sometimes lead you to a very interesting and unexpected phrase.

The juxtaposition and crashing together of ideas, words and phrases is where real naming power comes from.

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Here’s the third edition of the Name Game.

Tip Three:  Learn the secret of Nyms.  No, not the cartoon about talking mice!  If you tried out tip two and now have a three column table with A LOT of words, phrases and ideas but you still don’t see something that resonates with you, try this.  Add five more columns and title them “Synonyms”, “Antonyms”, “Homonyms” (plus Homophones and Homographs in that column) and “Idioms” … you have my permission to call that column “Idionyms”. I’ll know what you mean. In the last column add “Acronyms”.  This last one is a low probability approach but it is interesting.

For synonyms and antonyms the best resource is www.Thesaurus.com.  A good list of Homonyms can be found at Alan Cooper’s homonym web site. 

A fabulous resource is www.Dictionary.com for a list of alternate meanings, idiomatic expressions (slang) and to get an even bigger list of synonyms and antonyms.

Try AcronymFinder.com for TBLOA (the best list of acronyms).

An example:  If you’re a wedding consultant and you have “rose” on your list of related words, you’d find:

Synonyms: arise, proceed, mount, succeed, advance, dream world, hope, idealism, idealization, rosy picture, cardinal points, degrees, direction symbol, map symbol, compass rose, degrees, half points, quarter points, blush, burn, color, color up, crimson, flame, glow, go red, mantle, pink, pinken, redden, rose, rouge, suffuse, be suffused, blare, blaze, blush, brighten, burn, color, crimson, fill, flame, flare, flush, gleam, glimmer, glisten, glitter, ignite, kindle, light, mantle, pink, pinken, redden, rose, rouge, shine, smolder, thrill, tingle, twinkle, alluring, auspicious, bright, encouraging, favorable, glowing, hopeful, likely, optimistic, pleasing, promising, reassuring, rose-colored, roseate, sunny
 
Antonyms: sink, fall, descend, fail, decrease, worsen, retire

Homo-nyms, -graphs, -phones: Rhos, Roes, Rows (as a boat), Rows (like columns), Rose (to ascend)

Alternate meanings:  Several dozen of them!

Idioms: MANY … including “coming up roses”

and finally…

Acronyms:  How about “Reconnaissance Operations and Secret Enforcement” or “Repository of Scholarly Eprints”

INDEED, taking this approach is a great way to overload your brain with ideas. Hundreds and hundreds of ideas.  You’ll likely get overwhelmed. That’s expected. Look at each of these ideas as a little seed.  In short order, ONE of those initial ideas will germinate into … well … a rose!

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As the universe would have it, my recent posting on name generation was followed by (via serendipity) me stumbling on this Wired News story by Lore Sjöberg.  A humorous article worth reading if you’re in a name search mode.

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In our first installment of coming up with a new company name, I threw out what I thought was one of the more interesting aspects of name generation … using cliches to inspire your thinking.

This time, let’s go back to a more fundamental approach. Of course, it seems natural to go through a brainstorming session to come up with naming ideas. During this session(s), there are LOTS of ideas that can be used to re-direct and extend your thinking (fodder for future posts), but here’s one of my favorites:

Tip 2: Take a blank piece of paper and make three columns. In the left column list features and benefits of your products or services. After you’ve exhaustively done that, look at the list and write down related words in the second column. These are words or phrases not necessarily related to you, your company or your service, but words related to your features or benefits in the first colulmn. Now here’s where it gets really fun. Do this last step AGAIN. Write down words related to the related words … words in the third column are related to those in the second column

By looking at ideas, words and phrases that are abstract and only remotely related to your product or service, you really start to push the envelope of possibilities.

Here are some examples:

Product: Shoes
Feature: Made for athletes
Related idea: Victory
Idea related to the related idea: The Goddess Nike … Ohhhh, see how that happened?

Let’s make one up for a mock “Bait and Tackle” shop.

Product: Fishing Tackle
Feature: Success at fishing tournaments
Related idea: The one that got away
Idea related to the related idea: Jonah’s Whale

or

Product: Fishing Tackle
Feature: Hand made
Related idea: Home cooked
Idea related to the related idea: Grandma’s Fish Fry

Now I’m not going to go so far as to suggest what a company name might be that’s derived from “Jonah’s Whale” or “Grandma’s Fish Fry”, but I can assure you that the owner of the Bait and Tackle Shop who completes this exercise will come up with a WAY better name than “Bill’s Fishing Supplies”!

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It’s been seven days since my last post. Taking a Holiday break was intentionally meant to be a time for me to recharge the ol’ batteries. What I didn’t expect was how effective this simple act was in doing just that … and how much I really needed it. The point? Take multiple days off (not just weekends) for a mental break on a regular basis. Don’t wait until you need it.

Back to our regularly scheduled blogging!

The number of times I’ve been asked about “names” in the past two months surely must be a sign that people struggle with this fundamental task. Finding the right name that’s effective, descriptive, defendable, and powerful is truly a super-human feat. It’s one that takes time, patience and creativity. Oh, and it’s easily the most important decision a business owner can make in launching their new venture!

There are dozens and dozens of ideas on how to approach this task. I’ve decided that this topic not only needs to be it’s own category in my blog, it also needs to be turned into a learning product … one that teaches entrepreneurs how to come up with a name that will stand the test of time and will rocket their product or service to success.

Tip One: Although directly using a cliche should be avoided, it’s a good exercise to jot them down and seek them out simply for the exercise that doing so will jog your thinking and get you going in a new direction. When you’re listing cliches, take the time to list ones that are indirectly related to your product. For example, if you sell fishing tackle, you’d quickly come up with “a fish out of water” as one of a dozen cliche phrases. Don’t stop there. Start thinking laterally and you’d also come up with “don’t rock the boat” and “waiting with baited breath”. Here are some web sites that will help you find these phrases.

Finding Cliches
The Cliche Finder
Movie Cliches
Sports Cliches
Cliches in Politics

Indeed, the process of coming up with a new name (company, website, product, service, etc.) is complicated. Come back often to read more tips! Better yet, click on a “chicklet” in the right column to subscribe to our RSS feed.

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