Choosing a name for your new business

May 18, 2010 by mandeewidrick

There are many difficult tasks that you will incur when you decide to start your own business, but one of the more fun tasks is naming your business. Here are some tips to help you come up with something unique and avoid choosing something that some other creative individual has already thought of.

Pull out that handy-dandy notebook.

Have you ever seen Blue’s Clues? C’mon, don’t be afraid to admit it. I spent many of my teen years babysitting, so I saw my fair share of the guy in the funny green shirt and his little blue dog (appropriately named Blue). How did they track “clues” for Blue? In their handy-dandy notebook! Go get yours right now, because you’re not going to be writing down clues, but you are going to be writing down ideas.  Otherwise, you’ll think of something brilliant only to forget it 10 minutes later. (It’s happened to me, and it’s not fun.)

Gooooooooooogle your heart out.

When you come up with that absolutely incredible fantabulous crazy awesome business name, Google it. Browse through several pages to see if anyone’s using a name that’s even remotely similar to your idea. If not, you might be on to something.

Hit up GoDaddy.com. Like, NOW.

If you plan to have a website – and you’re a stupid-head if you don’t plan to – then you’ll need to see if the domain name you want is available. Yes, I just said stupid-head, get over it. Go to godaddy.com and start typing in your potential domain names to see if you’re able to purchase them. If they’re all taken, your idea may not have been so hot to begin with. Back to the drawing board…

Search the trademark and registered name database.

Now we’re getting into the nitty-gritty. If you’ve lucked out thus far, chances are you really have a great name. But just to be sure that somebody hasn’t already registered your business name as their own, you’ll want to go use this form to search the official USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) database. Tip: If your name is available and you intend to register the trademark, you can legally use the â„¢ symbol after the name to declare your intent to all who see it even without registering. Keep track of the date you start using the â„¢ but never, ever, use the ® symbol until your trademark is officially legalized with the USPTO.

Some creative suggestions…

Still stuck? I like to use dictionary.com to help me when I’m stumped. Sometimes I know I want something similar to a word or phrase I’ve come up with, and the thesaurus is a huge help. Another suggestion is to think of the 3 main keywords that you’d use to describe your business. Take those words and come up with something crazy awesome. If it doesn’t feel right, dump it!

Have you named a business before? What are some of the methods YOU used to come up with creative ideas? Share them in a comment!