Five ways to find a small business name

1. Start with a feeling, not a description

Descriptive names like Quality Plumbing Solutions blend into the crowd and are nearly impossible to own online. Start instead with the feeling you want customers to have: speed, calm, craft, trust. Then look for words and sounds that carry it.

2. Invent a word

Coined names like Xerox or Etsy meant nothing until the business gave them meaning. Invented names are the easiest to trademark, the easiest to find an exact match .com for, and the hardest for competitors to imitate. They are what we make at Novanym.

3. Blend two ideas

Take two short words or word parts and join them: a craft and a place, a quality and an object. The best blends stay at two or three syllables and pass the phone test, meaning someone who hears the name can spell it first try.

4. Borrow from another language or from nature

Words with Latin, Greek or Nordic roots can lend a small business instant character. So can names drawn from plants, weather, animals and landscapes. Just check the meaning travels well.

5. Check what you can own before you fall in love

A name is only yours if you can register it, trademark it, and own the exact match .com. Do this check early. More good names die at the domain search than anywhere else, which is why every name we sell already includes its .com.

For the complete method, read how to name your business.