Photo by New Media Days / Peter Erichsen
So you want to start selling online? Maybe you want to open your own ecommerce store. How about start your own line of cosmetics, or your own brand of salsa? Knowing how to choose a good brand name is important when you are trying to find one.
There are some free tools available that will help you find ideas for a good brand name, but these tools won’t tell you whether or not your chosen name is any good.
Photo by hang_in_there
Use these tools to help you come up with some brand name ideas, and then pass them through the questions below to help you decide how good they really are. After that ask a few friends, coworkers, and family what they think. Then go with what you like.
The most important questions to remember when choosing a good brand name are:
- Is it available? – The brand name should be available across the main social channels, marketplaces, and the .com.
- Is it easy to spell? – Avoid words that are commonly misspelled. It should be easy to spell for most people. If people have to ask you how to spell it then don’t use it.
- Does it relate to anything you do? – If somebody looks at your brand name it should imply or relate to your product or service in some way. You can get around this rule with great advertising, money, and time.
- How long is it? Ideally your name should be 15 or less characters. Shorter is better. It will make your brand name easier to type and remember. Avoid using any special characters and numbers (- $ % _ & 1 2 3).
Free Tools to Help You Find a Good Brand Name
- Google Adwords Keyword Planner – This tool will help you to think of some descriptive popular keywords that you might want to include in your brand name. Search for a related term to your brand name to get some ideas.
- MergeWords.com – Great tool for combining words to create unique brand names.
- Thesaurus.com – This is not your grandma’s thesaurus. This will let you explore words and how they relate to each other with the click of the mouse. I really like to use this tool when I am struggling to find an available brand name.
- GoDaddy.com
– Make sure you own a .com and godaddy is the most affordable way to do it. This will take you to the bulk domain tool where you can search over 100 of your domain ideas for free at the same time. You don’t have to add the .com just enter one idea per line. - Namechk.com – Great free tool to check your brand name availability across all the social channels. Enter your brand in the search bar with no spaces, and no .com.
Please if this article helped you choose your brand name come back after you buy the .com and post it in the comments. What other filters or tools do you use in helping you choose a brand name? If you have an idea for a brand name and want to run it by me, you can use the contact page.
