Business Name Ideas

Most business names can be grouped into 6 categories. Historically, most business names have fit into the following types Surname, Descriptive, Suggestive, Arbitrary, New Word, and Acronyms.

One of the most common types of business names in history derive from the owner's last name. Companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Sears, Porsche, Honda, Proctor & Gamble, and Spalding are all surnames of their founders. This type of name is still good in small markets, but national and global companies have gone away from these types of names in favor of the other types.

Some company names describe what they sell, or what service they provide, directly in the name. Houston Lighting and Power, United Parcel Service, American Airlines, Sunglass Hut, Thrifty Car Rental, Mattress Firm, and DISH Satellite TV are a few examples. Although they can sometimes lack creativity, these names help to define exactly what the company is selling. When searching for a company that sells XYZ customers often find "The XYZ Company" before they find other businesses.

Suggestive business names don't come out and define their products or services directly, but they do hint at the products or services that they provide. Some examples of Suggestive company names are MicroSoft, RadioShack, Circuit City, DirecTV, Office Depot. These names can be catchy and also easy to remember. When you hear these names for the first time you often can infer what they provide.

Some of the most popular companies are named after arbitrary words and concepts that don't directly relate to their products or services. Starbucks, Target, Oracle, Apple, Sonic, Amazon, Twitter, and Nike are examples of Arbitrary names. Arbitrary names are scalable and versitile. Companies with arbitrary names can often change their focus without having to rebrand their business.

Some companies have created new words for their moniker. Google, Ebay, Skype, Roomba, Vonage, TiVo, Sirius Radio, are examples of companies who invented new words, or new spellings of existing words, to represent their company. Founders who feel that all the good company names have already been soken for turn to new words to represent their company.

Although most companies that go by an acronym have meaning behind their acronym, most customers do not know the words represented by the acronym. BMW, KFC, IBM, ABC, NBC, CBS, and AT&T are examples of companies that are known by their acronym.

Naming Force can help you get a custom business name designed specifically for your business. With thousands of namers we can submit hundreds of name submissions for your business endeavor. Start a new naming contest.