Having helped set up numerous companies within the recruitment sector the hardest part is rarely the idea but more often what to call ‘it’.  The idea is usually very simple; in fact the setting up can be made to be very simple too.  What can take the time and pain is choosing the right name.

For me, there is no right name. Take Apple and Blackberry, their names have no representation of their success or failure, no reference to the products they make and sell, and no connection to the market sector they work in.  Apple for many years struggled whilst Blackberry was the market leader and innovator, now the tables have turned.  This is based on the goods and services that they sell, the people that run the business, how they are marketed and the trends of the time.  However much you want to come up with a name that will rock the world the reality is that your personal reputation will be more important than any name.

This doesn’t mean there isn’t a wrong name. Below are my Don’ts when coming up with a company name:

Don’t

1. Use your own name. It makes the business look small and ties the business and operations to you. Future sales and restructuring can leave your name and reputation tied to something you no longer control.
2. Try and be funny. Puns and wordplay may bring a short lived smile in low end retail, but not in the corporate world.
3. Make it too long. Think about the web domain and email addresses, there aren’t many short domains available but no one wants to email m.poppins@supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.com.
4. Clash with an established business, especially in your sector. Do your research, google the name, check companies house, trademarks and copyright.
5. Be location specific. Business is more global than ever, putting a city, region or country can be very limiting.

There is no magic wand when coming up with names and due to the sheer quantity of companies out there many straight forward names have already been taken.  Below are some themes that may get your creative minds thinking!

1. Merged / Mashed names. A route I went down with Delegated Solutions for Deleso, this has the advantage of a greater chance of domains being available, being short and representative of the service.
2. Random names, as used in the examples above. Apple and Blackberry have nothing to do with their products, just be aware using i as a suffix has been done a lot!
3. Initials can work well. The names of a number of established business’ seem to have been replaced and rebranded with the initials M&S, PWC & EY (Marks & Spencer, Price Waterhouse Cooper and Ernst & Young)
4. Go Latin or Greek, take the words you like in English that are over used and see if they work in another language.
5. If the above doesn’t generate much that works for you then you can fall back on the business relevant terms and phrases. With these you will have to consider suffixes (Partnership, Consulting, Solutions, etc) as so much has already been used, you may struggle to get companies house to accept them but we can always try.

There are many useful resources available to check your chosen name. You can log on to companies house or check trademarks (companieshouse.gov.uk & ipo.gov.uk) and domain registers (123-reg.co.uk) as well as numerous name generator websites (dotomator.com, namemesh.com, naming.net & translate.google.com), search the names you like to check for clashes.

Just Remember, when it comes to setting up a business, this is the hard part! Deleso makes the rest easy.