In addition to the 4 tips we offered above, here are 6 more tips.
5. Avoid decision by committee. You’ll find yourself trying to find consensus – which can lead to a very plain name. If you must involve others, pick a small group of people who understand you and your business (and pick a mix of right-brain types and left-brain types so that you can have some variety.
6. Avoid plain words. Plain words make it very difficult to differentiate your company from your competitors. For example, there were hundreds of thousands of logo design businesses around the world when we started thinking about crowdspring. We knew that we would be expanding to many different industries (graphic design, web design, industrial design, writing, and many more) and so we didn’t want to name our business Great Logo Design or ManyDesigners – it would have been descriptive, but not memorable and certainly not sufficiently unique.
7. Be careful with geographic names. Some people use their city, state or region as part of their company name. If you plan only to work in your city, then this might serve you well. But a geographic name could hinder you later.
8. Avoid obscure words. Obscure words or references might be difficult to spell or pronounce. Be especially sensitive if you're trying to reach a mass audience (such as on the Internet). Obscure or invented names can work – Xerox is a great example – but this often requires a huge marketing budget and tremendous effort.
9. Avoid trends and fads. You’ll want your company’s name to evolve as trends evolve, so be careful to identify the trends and to avoid following them. For example, in the late 1990’s, it was trendy to use a .com after your company name if your company was an Internet business. After the Internet bubble burst, the .com became synonymous with having no business model and those companies who survived very quickly dropped .com from their names.
10. Consider the domain. Look for a name that is also available for registration as a domain (ideally, as a .com domain). You should understand that .com domains are very popular and you’ll struggle to find available domains that match your company name. Many people obsess during this process. That's why name suggestions on crowdspring include a matching domain name!