NAMING: Brainstorming Exercises

A name is the seed your brand grows from. If done right, it does double duty. It reinforces what your brand stands for and creates an instant, almost involuntary connection with the people encountering it for the first time. Get it wrong, and every piece of identity work that follows has to work twice as hard to make up for it.

Naming is deceptively hard because it looks like wordplay but functions like strategy. Before you generate a single name, you need to know what that name is being asked to do.

During these brainstorming exercises:
/ determine what your name needs to accomplish
/ decide how it will work with an existing product, service, belief, activity, or skill
/ determine what kind of name to develop: descriptive, invented, expressive…
/ develop objective criteria to evaluate the names you generate

Types of Names

Descriptive
Tells you literally what it does or offers. Low risk, low memorability, but very fast to understand.
Examples: General Motors, The Container Store, Whole Foods

Invented (Coined)
A word made up from scratch, often built from Latin/Greek roots or pure sound. Fully ownable, but requires marketing investment to give it meaning.
Examples: Kodak, Xerox, Häagen-Dazs

Expressive (Suggestive)
Hints at a benefit, feeling, or attribute without spelling it out directly. Room for interpretation and story.
Examples: Nike (Greek goddess of victory), Amazon (vast, endless), Dove

Evocative
Draws on an existing word or concept, often metaphorical,  and asks the audience to make the leap.
Examples: Apple, Shell, Patagonia

Founder/Real Name
Uses a person’s name to lend authenticity, heritage, or personal accountability to the brand.
Examples: Ben & Jerry’s, McDonald’s, Trader Joe’s

Acronym/Initialism
Compresses a longer descriptive name into letters—practical, but can feel cold or interchangeable if not paired with strong visual identity.
Examples: IBM, NASA, H&M

Experiential
Built around an action, ritual, or feeling the brand creates rather than what it sells.
Examples: Uber (the idea of “on-demand”), Airbnb, Spotify

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