How to Choose a Business Name

When starting a business, choosing a name is one of the most important tasks on your plate. You’ve likely come up with a few names already, and may even feel pretty confident about them.

However, picking a business name involves more than just coming up with something catchy. A great name will be memorable, make your company easy to find, and align with your goals as an organization. Most importantly, your name must be totally unique and avoid any possible legal issues.

Whether you’re starting an LLC, S-Corp, or other company formation, a lot goes into starting a business. You need to ensure you spend ample time coming up with a name that works. To help you discover the best possible name for your new company, we’ve assembled this guide with tips covering:

• What to Consider When Choosing a Business Name
• Tips for Choosing a Business Name
• What to Do Once You’ve Picked a Name

When choosing a name for your business, you need to consider more than just its catchiness. While a catchy name is nice, there are plenty of legal concerns and genuine business concerns that should affect your naming decision.

Here are some of the primary factors you should think about when picking a business name.

Recognizability

Whatever name you choose needs to be easily recognizable and ideally communicate something about what your company does. For example, look at Coca-Cola, the company makes cola drinks, which is clearly identifiable in the name. However, you can still have a successful name without it telling customers what the company does. For example, Apple is among the most valuable companies in the world, and its products have nothing to do with fruit.

While that may make it seem like there are few rules to naming a company, both Coke and Apple have recognizable, memorable names that won’t easily be forgotten, and can fit in a variety of branding situations.

Simplicity

Your company name shouldn’t be too long or complicated. You want people to remember your company so that they can search for it later. A simple name also presents wider branding opportunities as simple, short, memorable names fit in more locations.

Uniqueness

The most important thing when it comes to naming a company is keeping it unique. This prevents potential customers from mixing you up with an unrelated business and helps you avoid legal trouble. Depending on the state where you form your business, there may be a variety of laws that dictate how closely your company name can resemble that of an existing company. Additionally, using a unique name increases the likelihood that you can grab a .com domain for your company website and that your business can be found when people search for it by name.

Now that you know what you need to consider when choosing a business name, here are some tips to help you choose the best name for your new company:

Review state naming guidelines

When forming a business, no matter what kind, it’s essential to remain aware of state laws regarding company names. Most states have laws that prevent you from using a name that matches that of another company in your state. These laws usually extend to include any names that could be seen as trying to deceive a customer into believing your company is another company.

To find your state’s laws regarding business names, you need to search for the naming guidelines on the relevant agency webpage. Typically, the agency in charge is the secretary of state, though that’s not always the case, so be sure to double-check. The same site that contains the laws regarding company names should also include a registered business names search option where you can see if your preferred name is already in use.

Choose a memorable, easily spelled name

Once you have a good grasp on what you could name your company without getting in trouble with the state government, you need to select a name your customers can remember. Some good tips for choosing a memorable name are to pick something that is easy to spell and reasonably short. We recommend avoiding words that are spelled in an unorthodox way, as people who hear the company name out loud will have a hard time spelling it correctly.

Consider SEO when naming your company

You want your company to be searchable. To achieve this, the company name needs to be unique and easy to spell. Unique doesn’t just mean “doesn’t match another company”; it also means that searching for it won’t return search engine results for unrelated terms. As a good example, Nike does have an alternate meaning aside from the shoe brand, but unless you’re a fan of Greek mythology and antiquity, you probably weren’t searching for the Greek goddess of victory. This makes it easy for Nike to return the desired search results.

Ensure the name is consistent with your brand

Ideally, your name should somehow reflect what your company does or what your brand represents. To return to the Nike example, the company makes shoes, but more specifically they make sportswear. Because sports are competitive, choosing the name of a goddess of victory made sense. Whatever name you choose should relate back to your company in some way.

Once you’ve selected a name, you need to confirm that your name isn’t taken. Run a business entity search on your state’s website. If nothing comes close, you should be able to claim that name.

Next, you need to get to work filing the appropriate forms to create the business. If you aren’t ready to file for formation, but you have a name that you wish to use, there is usually a way to reserve a name through your secretary of state’s website.

Creating a business takes a lot of time, effort, and hard work. At times, choosing the right name might be the furthest thing from your mind as you work to choose the right company type and work on other facets of starting your business.

If you need assistance navigating the process of choosing a business name or require help with another element of company formation, we are here for you. Feel free to contact us at +1 (307) 683-0983 to connect with one of our experienced paralegals and get started.