Today we’re going over how to come up with a creative, catchy, buzzworthy name for your new product or brand. 

First and foremost, there’s a lot of work to do before you name your brand – demographics of your target audience, who you’re speaking to, etc. That is a giant element of brand identity development, but not what we’ll be addressing today (we’d be here forever guys).

Let’s use the example of a coffee shop. There are some simple formulas that will help guide you to the perfect name for your roastery.

Formulas for Brand Names

Adjective + Noun

The Lucky Cup, Yummy Roasts

Noun + Noun

Roasters and Toasters is the perfect example. This is especially common for law practices “Name + Name”. This style offers a no-nonsense approach, but can be used for less serious brands too. Rodan + Fields for example. Jimmy Johns Subs. For my non-existent coffee shop, I might call it Drips and Sips.

Existing unrelated word, sometimes with the spelling changed.

Target. Apple.

These usually come completely out of left field. In continuance with our coffee shop example, coffee places are so common that you need to keep in mind your search competition. You’d be competing in Google search for places with “coffee” somewhere in the name, so I would still recommend using the phrase somewhere in this instance. For example, if you went with the word “Puzzle”, I’d say to go for “Puzzle: Coffee House”.

Use Another Language

(Latin, Greek, French, Spanish). You can use the word alone, for example, Taso means cup… I may just stick with “Taso”, or I may go with Adjective + another language. Or maybe “Steel Taso” – combining the use of the other language method, with an adjective. See? Easy!

Give it a home!

Names with synonyms for the word “house” or “place” are pretty standard fare as well.

House of Roasts. Coffee Spot. The Caffeine Post.

Invent a word.

This is often used for products. Some famous examples include Google. You may look up word endings and beginnings on a grammar website, that’s a good place to begin. The Latin word for coffee is capulus, and a common ending to latin phrases is “um” as in consortium – so maybe I would invent the word Caferum, and add a long U sound so it reads as “Café Room”. I’ve just combined inventing a word, using another language, and giving it a home! BOOM!

Ready to learn more about branding? Happy to help! Let’s get in touch.