Congratulations! You are stepping into the journey of your dreams.
Setting up and starting a business is exciting, especially when it backs years of research, hard work and dedication.
The major turnoff can be – finally arriving at a name only to know it’s already “taken”.
Deciding the company name has become more complex evermore. Along with choosing a never-ever-heard name, you should ensure the name is available for both dotcom and dot. co. Ireland versions.
When choosing a name for your business, peep into the broad areas of your business. This article talks about the best ways to name your business. A name that sets you apart from the customer’s perspective.
Criteria for choosing the company name
You can name your company in whatever way, but some parameters make the process easy and quick:
- Choose a business name that defines your services
- Choose a random business name that does not denote any particular mission
- Choose a business name that defines the story behind
- Choose a business name that highlights a customer desire
Naming this way to ensure 99% business success. Moreover, purpose and story differ with businesses. Hence, you may get the domain name. Now let’s move to explore the best tips for naming business.
Tips To Pick a Company Name That Attracts
The Intellectual Property Law administers business names in the UK. You have covered the half journey if you are familiar with the authority’s rules and regulations. The below points will help you name your business aptly:
Brainstorm and create a shortlist
While naming your company, get the best minds on the table. Brainstorm the words and phrases your customers use. Analyse the words relevant to your industry. Jot down all the possible words you can think about your product, services, or industry.
Write every word that comes to your mind at the moment and ask others to do the same. Try making the best combinations out of the words later. You may hit a good company name.
Use a dictionary
If that doesn’t work, google out the synonyms of each word you just penned down. Not every synonym is relevant. Filter these out. Create a list that features the best words. Now, you have a vast deal of words. Brainstorm and connect these to frame a good company name.
Make sure to have an easy to spell the name
Having complex business names might seem cool, but the end motive of naming a business is to attract customers. If you have to explain the reason behind naming your business so to customers and prospects, you have already lost them.
Therefore, invest a good time choosing the words and ensure that the name should be easy to pronounce and remember. Avoid using puns in your business name. Even if you find a good one, don’t go with it. It is not a good idea.
For example- If you are a direct lender with the domain name getloanfast.com, you may get a customer searching for small loans in Ireland. As opposed to this, if you name your company bestloans.ie.com, it may receive controversial remarks. No one can advocate selling loans at the best terms in entire Ireland. It may not receive the desired response.
Choose a name that fulfils a need and is easy to read. People will have difficulty remembering and searching for your company name. Make sure they don’t stumble remembering their name.
Check the name’s implication
Businesses end up finalising a name that often signifies wrong or unfavourable implications in other countries’ languages. It is a significant blunder. Finalising a business name require-buying a domain and hosting, registering the business officially and marketing it.
Realising it later may impact your business’s reputation and sales figures. Before exposing your business name to the world, be thorough with the implications. After all, you are not there to be offensive, so why take risks?
Avoid using non-alphabetic characters in the name
Never use “&”, “$”, “*”,”#” %”, etc., in business names. Special characters create confusion in the mind of the website visitor and customers. Some website domain and hosting guidelines restrict this practice. Avoid names with hyphens. Hyphens are complicated and hard to memorise. The worse outcome of naming your website this way is – your customers will hardly be able to locate you online. Avoid naming your site this way.
Know the company house rules
If you plan to incorporate a company in Ireland, you should be familiar with the rules.
- It must be a unique name not similar or the same as the existing one.
- It should not signify or sponsor a city.
- It should not suggest a connection with the government. Nor it should defame the government in any way.
- It should not include sensitive words and expressions. If you want to include it, you need to seek permission from the concerned authority.
- The registered name should be 100% English or 100% “Gaelic”. You cannot use a combination of both terms.
- Using certain words like bank, banc, Canal Bank, university, institute of technology, charity, holding group, society, .ie, .com, and architect require permission from the government.
Apart from this, only certain company types can register a business in Ireland. These include:
- LTD (Limited Company)
- Public Limited Company (PLC)
- Designated Activity Company (DAC)
- Company Limited by Guarantee (CLG)
- Unlimited Company (UC)
- Societas Europea (SE)
If your business belongs to any of these, you can register a company name in Ireland. Although there is a proposal to relax the rules a bit, until it happens, one has to comply with the existing setup.
Check domain name availability
Once you have figured out 4-5 names for your company, identify the availability of domain names on the domain checker. It could be a strenuous task as many shortlisted domain names could reveal “taken” status. You can check domain names on godaddy.com.
Check all the names you have figured out and choose the available one. One choosing the name, check whether it aligns with the authority’s standards or not. It is important because registering a business will become difficult then. Check trademark on the business name. If someone else owns the trademark, you will have to start again.
Bottom line
It is always good to have multiple ideas and perspectives while finalising a business name. You can even conduct a customer poll to get ideas. A business name represents your culture, mission and personality. Make sure it tunes in with your aspirations and customers’ expectations.
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