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View Full Version : does the choice of a name matter? how much



huggytree
07-10-2010, 09:41 PM
when i went into business i spent months considering different names. I thought it was the one of the most important decisions and think its somewhat important still, but not nearly as important as i once thought.

unless you just pick a outright stupid name i dont think it matters that much....

you want something easy to remember, easy to say...clever names can make you more memorable....clever is always good

I chose my name because it was:

easy to remember (its the name of a large city) and being a city name would do well on Google searches.


why did you choose your name and how important is a name?

Steve B
07-11-2010, 12:04 AM
I'm not sure how important a name is either. I would say unless you have a lot of money to market - you should pick something pretty easy and logical.

My name was picked because I was inspired to get into my dog fence business after I installed the fence for my dog "Derby". It just so happens I live near "Derby City" so it has a double meaning around here. Most people think I named it after the city's nick name. Then, when I talk to them they like the story about naming it after my dog. He used to travel with me in the beginning and people still ask about him (he's fine, but he doesn't like riding in the van anymore after a few things fell off the shelf one time).

Harold Mansfield
07-11-2010, 06:41 PM
I choose my name "1st Internet Media" because it was available and sounded like a company that does web work. Lately I have come to terms with the fact that it is my real name that gets the phone calls and any recognition so I am now leaning towards just using that publicly instead of fighting it.

I think name is important, but unless you really get a fabulous one...one is just as good as another.

vangogh
07-11-2010, 08:11 PM
I do think your business name is important, but like you said huggy unless you pick something really bad it may not be the biggest deal. I think there are some really great names and really bad names for any business. The rest probably aren't all that different. Your name definitely helps with your branding. huggy your name makes complete sense given your business and location. Anyone hearing your name should be able to remember it and know what you do and where you do it. Let's say you had gone with Dave's Plumbing instead. Would that have made a huge difference? Probably not. It would mean you would still need to get across what area you served so it would mean a little more work for you, but not too much.

Harold Mansfield
07-11-2010, 08:51 PM
Seems like as good a place as any to place a few links to some bad business names:
Illegal Dojo : Funny Business Names - Unfortunate Business Ideas (http://www.illegaldojo.com/)

46 Businesses With Hilariously Bad Names | Business Pundit (http://www.businesspundit.com/46-businesses-with-hilariously-bad-names/)

Spider
07-11-2010, 08:58 PM
I think the name of a business is very important and worth taking a good deal of time and trouble over getting it right. It's not just a question of identification and branding, which I consider means, "which company are you?" (identification) and, "Oh, you're the company that is known for..." (branding); a business name also conveys an attitude and presence.

"The Crappy Job Company" conveys a certain attitude and a bad message. But it does identify and could easily be a great brand with a fabulous reputation for customer service, but it will be hard earned. If it is a manufacturer of toilets (WCs) the name might sit well with a younger crowd but may be considered too flippant for conservative architects to spec.

How about, "Johnson and Son" - doesn't that sound conservative, stable, good old-fashioned value? Great, if you are selling investment services to the over-50s, perhaps, but if you are a local tour operator in just about any town in the US, I think it would be a hindrance to business.

Your company name is going to be with you for a long, long time, and - if you do things right - see you grow from Mom & Pop to the Fortune 500. I think it is worth spending a good few months and a great deal of effort over getting it right.

Steve B
07-12-2010, 06:35 AM
One thing to keep in mind is that if you name your business with your own name - it will be harder to sell the business. Of course, there are exceptions (like McDonad's). But, it will be easier for Dave to sell his business as he has named it versus "Dave's Plumbing".

Business Attorney
07-12-2010, 09:50 AM
One thing to keep in mind is that if you name your business with your own name - it will be harder to sell the business. Of course, there are exceptions (like McDonad's). But, it will be easier for Dave to sell his business as he has named it versus "Dave's Plumbing".

I think that is not as universally true as you might think, for two reasons.

In many of the acquisition transactions I have worked on, the buyer is another business that is looking to acquire the target business for synergistic reasons - to add customers, to expand its territory, to pick up a new product line, etc... It intends to rebrand the business anyway and isn't put much value on the name.

In other cases, the buyer is content to run even a small business that still bears the original owner's name. Just as the McDonald brothers have not owned that business since selling out to Ray Kroc, many small businesses do the same thing. Ten years ago, the family that owned the auto repair business in my neighborhood for many years sold the business to an employee, and he has successfully continued to run the business with their name on it. The same was true of the local clothing store and the local five-and-dime in the small town where I grew up. They bore the name of the original owner long after they changed hands. Many of my clients over the years have retained business names that included the names of prior owners.

Personally, and I'll be clear this is an opinion based on no factual support, I think that unless the name is a BAD choice, the name by and large is what you make of it. Is "Kraft" or "Miller" or "Budweiser" or "Chase Bank" or even "Google" a GOOD name? I don't think that there is anything inherent in those names or in the names of most successful small businesses I represent that makes those a good name. It is what they have done with the name that counts.

Evan
07-12-2010, 11:46 AM
How about, "Johnson and Son" - doesn't that sound conservative, stable, good old-fashioned value? Great, if you are selling investment services to the over-50s, perhaps, but if you are a local tour operator in just about any town in the US, I think it would be a hindrance to business.

Johnson & Son sounds *very* old fashion in my opinion. I'd rather see Johnson & Johnson (well, may run into an issue there), or Johnson & Company, or even Johnson & Associates. Just using the term "son" seems to be like we're living in the 1930s again for some reason.

Harold Mansfield
07-12-2010, 11:58 AM
Anytime I hear a 2 syllable name followed by "and son" it reminds me of Sandford and Son. I know it's just me, but I have never been able to shake it.

Spider
07-12-2010, 12:02 PM
That exactly is my point, Evan. Names carry impressions, ideas, emotions. If prospective clients get the wrong impression about your company from the name, business suffers. Can you still succeed? Certainly you can! It's just another little hurdle to overcome, and lord-knows we have enough hurdles to overcome in growing a business. No point in creating our own.

And who would want their business associated with Sanford and Son, Harold?

Harold Mansfield
07-12-2010, 12:29 PM
And who would want their business associated with Sanford and Son, Harold?

Love Sanford and Son, but I wouldn't want people picturing a junk yard when they thought of me...unless I actually ran a junk yard of course.

KristineS
07-12-2010, 02:53 PM
I think the "and son" always bothered me a bit because you very rarely, if ever, see "and daughter". I know that's because traditionally sons took over the business and women didn't work, but I think that's part of the reason that many companies have gotten away from the "and son" modifier. Today a daughter is as likely to take over a company or be a part of founding a company as a son, so the name now seems a little old fashioned.

Dan Furman
07-12-2010, 05:31 PM
I think the name can matter, but I don't think it's anything to really be concerned about at the start, as you can always change it.

huggytree
07-12-2010, 07:18 PM
to me Daves plumbing sounds horrible...i think handyman.....i laugh when i see 1st names....it seems unprofessional to me...but maybe it gives the customer a feeling of friendship...knowing the 1st name...i dont know.

i wanted to use my last name, but its too long and difficult to spell and pronounce....nothing says quality like a tradesman using his last name..

my name is very generic, but its easy for everyone locally to remember,spell,say...sounds like its been around forever.

i have a friend who uses 'and son' in his name...his dad wasnt a plumber and his kids dont work for him...he just uses it so he sounds like a old company

Steve B
07-12-2010, 07:33 PM
B.A. - As I said, I knew there were lots of exceptions. I even cited one of the exceptions that you used (McDonalds). I never said it was impossible to sell a business with your personal name I said it would be "harder". For all we know, the Mcdonald brothers may have sold their business easier if it was named Super Burger Stand. There are egos involved in someone having or buying a small business - it would suck for a lot of people to live with someone else's name on their business. At a minimum it would require a fair amount of explaining throughout the years. Again, I didn't say it was impossible - just a bit more difficult. So, if you're starting from scratch, why not chose the choice that will likely make things easier in the future.

billbenson
07-13-2010, 03:19 AM
I used a three letter name because I didn't know what direction I was going to go in. I knew I was selling telecom equipment at the time I registered it, but I knew that would collapse. For sake of discussion, lets just say the company name is BMI. As it turns out, using the three initials is very confusing for people. They say what does that stand for; is it BMI Inc; etc. I'm portraying myself as a larger company and have thought about incorporating for that reason, but I can talk my way around it so not yet.

I have thought about registering another DBA with the state and put in the logo somewhere "A BMI Company"

So, in one aspect, I picked to simple of a name. Other side of the fence, I can work with it and move in any number of directions with it.

vangogh
07-14-2010, 11:23 AM
Names carry impressions, ideas, emotions. If prospective clients get the wrong impression about your company from the name, business suffers. Can you still succeed? Certainly you can! It's just another little hurdle to overcome, and lord-knows we have enough hurdles to overcome in growing a business.

I completely agree. The reasons you mention are exactly why I think a name is important. Your name tells a lot about you. it conveys a message and like every other message you communicate, it should ideally be consistent with your brand. However I think sometimes people agonize too much over a word or two when neither really changes the meaning of the message.

Let's use Sanford and Son as an example. The name doesn't say anything about the specific business, but we would likely conclude we're dealing with a family owned business. Say instead the name was Sanford and Sanford. Again we don't know what the business is, but we'd still likely assume it's family owned. Is one any better or worse than the other? Probably not. Both gives us some information about the brand (family owned) and both still need to work at getting across what the business does.

lav
07-14-2010, 09:31 PM
Lately I have come to terms with the fact that it is my real name that gets the phone calls and any recognition so I am now leaning towards just using that publicly instead of fighting it.This is something Im just finding out myself. I had the same business name for 10 years but Ive changed it twice in the last 18 months (a long story). Ive come to realise that people are looking for "me" not for my business name and it has somewhat amazed me at what lengths people will go to to find me. I too have given in and now market "myself" more as opposed to marketing a "business" but chose not to use my real name as a business name just in case things change in the future.

Harold Mansfield
07-15-2010, 12:13 AM
Yep it kind of sucks. The last thing I wanted to do was use my real name, but it's on so many blogs, social profiles, articles, and everything else online that it just makes no since for me to keep pushing my company name which has no recognition anywhere online in this industry except for it being my website.

If a prospective client searches my company name, they'll get a few things, but mainly just my website, but if they search my name they'll see all of my blogs (even the old ones) articles I have written, some forum threads, an article or two written about me or one of my sites, contributions to examiner...basically they will see that I am in the business and active throughout the web. It would take me years to build that up in my company name.

KristineS
07-15-2010, 01:32 PM
I have the problem of my name vs. the company name too. The company for which I work, but do not own, has started a couple of subsidiaries in the past couple years. I've been responsible for the Marketing for all of them, and have become very closely associated with the companies. A lot of people will refer to the companies as "Kristine's Company" and not the actual name. If you search my name I come up for all sorts of press releases and company blogs and comments on forums on behalf of the companies.

I guess the main issue for me right now is I'm becoming a brand on behalf of someone else. That's something that I still haven't quite figured out how to address. I'm also kind of amazed that the company has allowed it to happen. There certainly are enough articles out there about the dangers of allowing someone who works for you to become the face and voice of your company.

vangogh
07-15-2010, 08:24 PM
Kristine that probably works more in your favor than the company's. For example say you left to work for another company in the same industry. You get to keep your name and hence the brand you've built on it. That brand goes with you to the next company. Your current company would then have to start over. Think about it. People refer to "Kristine's Company." They might not even notice the difference if the company behind Kristine changed, because the brand they see is you.

davek
07-19-2010, 02:10 PM
Examining this issue at an SEO or internet marketing standpoint.. regardless of the actual name of your company, you want to have the domain name for your website to be something that contains one or more major keywords relevant to your business. For example, if you're company name is HuggyTreeLandscaping.. you want the domain name of your website to be something along the lines of landscapinginatlanta.com

Hope this helps.

iamjohns
07-19-2010, 07:32 PM
you know names are very important they are the catch of the bate which means depending on how people are interested in your name they will come back and forth and want to enter possibly buy something that may lead to your name , i like the city name tho its interesting also it will be very productive on the google search yet sometimes your webpage might be on the second or third page so not so many people may go there good luck with publicity though , its a good head start....

DeniseTaylor
07-20-2010, 12:41 PM
Just wanted to chime in with my thoughts:

There are appear to be a lot of real-life experiences on this thread, which are golden. There are personalities and customer bases to take into account, as well as location.

But it seems that whatever you do, what you actually do should be mentioned in the name. So in the case of Dave's Plumbing, the word plumbing is used so you can tell it's not a tavern.

I have friends with local businesses and they use descriptive words in their business name, so their name actually becomes an advertisement each time it is used: Professional Electrical (which relates a sense of trust) or Reliable Cleaning (meaning they show up and they don't flake).

Online, it's advantageous to use a keyword related to your industry in your title to help get search engine exposure: Carpet Cleaning Experts. Of course there are always redirects for domains to add to it's versatility.

vangogh
07-21-2010, 12:00 PM
I like using a word describing what you do as well, hence the word design in my domain and business name. I don't like setting absolutes on this though, because so much can come down to your goals for the business and even the budget you have to spend marketing.

Using a descriptive word simply means less work in having to communicate to people what you do. Take Google for example. Granted now we all know what Google does, but their name itself gives no clues. Early on they needed to communicate they were a search engine. They were able to do that and now we google instead of search. On the other hand the nam Google is pretty easy to remember and spell and pass on and use as a verb. I don't think their name is the reason for their growth, but it probably helped at certain points.

Whatever words you choose to use in your company name, there are going to be trade offs. I think it's more important to understand those trade offs than think in absolutes about using a specific word. For example in Dave's case his business name is in the format "location service" That works great within his location and saves some money having to associated the service with his business. On the other hand it would make it hard to change services or offer them in a new location. Neither of which are likely to be issues to Dave. I on the other hand started out offering hosting services and had the word hosting in my business name. I later decided to drop hosting services, which required a name change.

Blessed
07-22-2010, 10:32 AM
This is a good topic Dave.

It took me awhile to decide what to call my graphic design business - I had several ideas, but when I would "google" them they came up too many times in the search engine so one day I was watching the dog play and called a friend of mine who is in the business and asked "what do you think about 'Crazy Dog Creative'" he liked it, offered to draw me a dog for my logo and here I am. I'm not convinced that it is the "best" name I could have given my business - but it is memorable and I don't plan on changing it!

vangogh
07-22-2010, 08:36 PM
Jenn your name works fine. The word creative does let people know something about what you do and Crazy Dog is memorable and easy to spell. It's easy to look back and think up better names, but by then it's often too late. Then again I did change my company name after 2 or 3 years and it worked out well.

Four94
07-23-2010, 01:29 PM
Good question.

We got our name because we are 4 guys who live around the Chicagoland area.

There is road called "I94" that connects us all to the city.

Thanks,
Mark Richardson

Rzacny
07-23-2010, 03:30 PM
Once you have established a strong presence, then you could have most any name (Lemon Rock, Frog Butt) and it would suffice. But in the beginning, I believe that your either need a simple descriptive name for you business, or you need a strong descriptive 'tag line.' In the early stages it cetainly helps a bunch for people to be able to know what you do without asking or guessing. The name or the 'tag' should say it. The attorney is right, names don't prevent sales, it's the reputation and profitability that makes a good sale happen.

vangogh
07-23-2010, 07:49 PM
Mark good reason behind your choice of name.


Once you have established a strong presence, then you could have most any name

True. I think what your name comes down to is branding and what the name communicates to people. Once you've established your brand and people know your name and what you offer, it probably doesn't matter what name you're using. Then again some names are going to be easier to remember and can help expand the reach of your business. Early on when no one knows your brand or associates it with any services or products it can help if your services/products are included in your name. It instantly communicates what you do. There are other ways to communicate what you do though.

Your name can have advantages and disadvantages at different stages of your business. It comes down to deciding when you think those advantages will best come into play and when you want to minimize any disadvantages.

Harold Mansfield
07-24-2010, 11:54 PM
In the domainer forums, I always see people looking for "catchy, brandable" domains and then they list well known domains that had no meaning to anyone until a few million dollars of worldwide advertising branded it.
I always think to myself, "Do you have the budget to make it a recognized brand, or will it just sit in limbo with no ad support making people wonder what the hell it means"?

People who search for manes like that for their business never evaluate the entire picture of how a name became recognizable and "cool", they just keep trying to emulate it without the resources.

webcoredesign
08-01-2010, 11:43 AM
I would have thought your original business name would have attracted more calls.

A business name beginning with "1st" automatically ranks above "A" and "1" in accordance with Yellow Pages protocol. I don't know if this is applicable to other alphabetically sorted systems....

Harold Mansfield
08-01-2010, 11:51 AM
I would have thought your original business name would have attracted more calls.

A business name beginning with "1st" automatically ranks above "A" and "1" in accordance with Yellow Pages protocol. I don't know if this is applicable to other alphabetically sorted systems....

That was the idea, but I didn't really have the budget for any kind of listings where that would have helped me. The other site is still up and running, but it has just been easier to get my name ranked for key terms and phrases. I participate in a lot of wordpress discussions and forums too, that may have a lot to do with it.

prettyimpress
08-10-2010, 09:13 AM
Yeah, name is very important. Someone believe that a good name can bring you good luck, and a bad name will bring you bad luck. Nowadays, many people just pay for the names. They give much money to specialist and ask them help with the name. A good name worth much.

vangogh
08-10-2010, 11:00 PM
That is true if you can find a good name. It can mean a lot. I still think it's more about the advantages and disadvantages of different names and choosing one with the balance that works for you. Interesting point about people choosing names based on the luck it will bring. I bet that happens more often than not. One thing about a name is whether or not it helps you still want it to be something you like personally.