Does Your Business have a Weird Name?

Twitter, Joomla, Wild Apricot, and many more are employing the use of weird business names to set their business apart from the competition but simply picking a weird business name isn’t as easy as it seems.

Have you heard of the scientific way that the Twitter was born? They didn’t hire naming consultants that can costs tens of thousands of dollars and more. The name came when a group of employees at a small podcasting firm were searching for a name. They narrowed it down to two options: “Twitter” and “Jitter.” Twitter was pulled from a hat and the most used word in the American lexicon in 2009 was born.

How about Google? The founders accidently misspelled the numerical term “googol” according to Bloomberg Business. A term synonymous with the internet came about as a result of a simple spelling error.  A weird business name born by accident.

That was then. In the last twelve months, 11 million internet domain names have been registered, a 6 percent increase from the previous year and because of that, the chances are slim that you’re going to find a name for your startup that has the Twitter effect on the world simply by accident.

In fact, naming experts like Naseem Javed, a New York based nomenclature expert may be the way of the future for all high budget startups looking to stand out of a very large crowd.

Javed says, “Ten, twenty years ago you could start a business and take the name in any direction,” he says. “Now, with 200 countries on the cyber-platform around the globe, finding the right name has become an expert’s field.”

One of the latest trends is to use the Google derived double-O in business names. “Basically, you put the double-O in the center, and then you drop one letter on the left and one letter on the right,” Javed says. There are at least 760 registered with weird business names with Double-Os.

What are the naming expert’s advice for naming your company? First, weird may be good but being too weird won’t bring the masses to your product or service. What does somebody get from Xignux? Weird is sometimes effective but you don’t want to be so weird that the customer doesn’t gain a desire to further investigate your company.

Next, don’t overanalyze or make the name too deep. If your company name has a complicated, creative name but it doesn’t make the customer want to know your story, you’ve failed. Make it catchy, easy to grasp, and it should produce a sense of curiosity and professionalism.

How can you come up with your name on your own? Try one of the many company name creators that are on the web. You might just find one that describes your company perfectly. Be careful, though. Check with your state’s secretary of state to make sure that the name hasn’t been registered and also make sure that there is no trademark. If the name generator comes up with “Microsoft”, you might want to try again.

If you already have picked a name, use the ActiveFilings Free Company Name Search to find out if that business name will be approved by your state.