Choosing a great business name, an expert's checklist for naming a company, entrepreneurs and startups guide to choosing a business name.

1. HOW TO
CHOOSE A
GREAT
BUSINESS
NAME
AN EXPERT'S CHECKLIST ON WHAT
TO LOOK OUT FOR WHEN NAMING A
COMPANY.

2. Entrepreneurs are excited about starting a business, another important thing
they’ll have to decide is what company name to adopt. A business name is simply a
way to identify a business, entity or idea legally. Choosing a business name can be
quite tedious and brain tasking. The name you decide to choose should be one that
reflects your business appropriately and has a positive global perception. I had a
friend tell me recently ‘'Oh I’ve had to submit names twice to Corporate Affairs
Commission (CAC) for business name search in Nigeria and it was rejected even
after making payments''. If you don’t want to go through all of the stress of name
rejection and yet choose a great business name that would stand the test of time
and market changes, here is some expert advice. Before you get all enthusiastic
about choosing and submitting a name to CAC, below is a checklist that you should
use as a guide when naming a company.

3. INVITE FRIENDS TO JOIN
YOUR NAME
BRAINSTORMING
SESSION.
1

4. Leverage on your friendships and let your friends help you in the creative
process to suggest interesting business names. Share the idea of the
business concept with them (current and future products and services) to
help them make a suitable choice. Consider between 6 to 10 names that
best suits your ultimate idea and if the names have an interesting story
behind them that would be good for your brand story. Then go through the
next steps to validate the names selected.

5. CHECK IF THE NAME
IS EASY TO
SPELL AND
PRONOUNCE.
2

6. Some of the really great company names are easy to spell. You wouldn’t
want to have prospective clients misspell your company name. So choose a
name that is unique and has a clear spelling, yet tells people what you do.
The easier to spell, the easier they’ll find you online. You also wouldn’t want
people trying to figure out the spelling of your company name or the
pronunciation instead of figuring out what to buy from you. E.g. Mango,
Medplus, you can’t go wrong spelling these names.

7. CHOOSE A NAME
THAT
IS EASY TO
REMEMBER.
3

8. keep your company name short, catchy and intriguing. At most three
syllabic words, so people can easily remember it. Whilst the additional
descriptive words like services, solutions e.t.c should ideally not be more
than two short words. The name should be one that easily resonates in the
minds of people and one that creates a strong connection with customers.
E.g. Apple, Mckinsey & Company.

9. CHOOSE A
COMPANY NAME
FOR THE
FUTURE.
4

10. Think about the future of your company, not just today. What are the likely
products or services would you start offering now. Also what products,
solutions, services and brands do you intend to introduce in the future. If
you’re too specific in your name, you may miss out on some prospects for
growth or diversification in the future and may have to change your name
later on which also has it’s own risks and costs. Figure out whether you’ll
incorporate it later or have it as a limited liability company in the future. E.g
Unilever Nigeria Plc is a company name that reflects universality as they
can comfortably create nutrition, hygiene and personal care brands without
altering their name. Starbucks Coffee Company changed their logo in 2011,
removing the company name from the logo to emphasize ambitions beyond
coffee. It's therefore important to choose a name that is marketable,
makes business sense and that aligns with the future growth goals of the
company.

11. DO AN ONLINE
SEARCH
FOR THE
PROPOSED NAME(S).
5

12. When you do a search on Google or on Search, you’ll discover if the exact
business name already exists. Also identify the result listings for companies
who use similar names, you intend to use. If you find offensive things
associated with the name, or if there are company names similar that’s
already being used or closely related in spelling or additional words, then
you may need to check up other names chosen or go through the creative
process again if other names don’t pass this stage. If you have closely
related names, to avoid it being rejected, you may need to make some
changes and add other words that are not generic to it, so it’s not
extremely similar or deceptively similar with another registered business
name. As there are strict guidelines imposed by CAC to ensure that
business names are not similar to the ones already registered to avoid
confusion amongst customers and undue competition. Your company name
should therefore be one that protects you socially and legally.

13. CHECK FOR
DOMAIN
AVAILABILITY.
6

14. Check Godaddy to confirm if your intended company name domain is
available, in order to avoid the risks associated with registering a name or
trading with a name for a while and on getting to developing a website,
you’ll then discover that your domain name is not available. Nothing can be
so discouraging to find out that your domain name has been taken and the
trademark has been registered. Confirm the availability for .com, or .com.ng
or any domain extension as the case applies that is suitable for your
business.

15. CHECK THE AVAILABILITY
OF THE BUSINESS NAME(S)
ON SOCIAL MEDIA
PLATFORMS.
7

16. Check on Facebook fan page to be sure of the availability of the chosen
name, twitter id availability, Instagram and other social media platforms
that you intend to use for your business both now and in the future. This
ensures consistency and enables easy search across all social platforms. So
you don’t register a business name or publish a website and find out the
Facebook name is not available or the name is too long for a social media Id.

17. TEST
THE
BUSINESS
NAME(S).
8

18. Once you have about three or four selections that have passed the checklist
2 to 7. Then focus on testing the idea with other people, not necessarily
friends but a wider focus group. You want to choose a name that doesn’t
just appeal to you but to your prospective customers and the public. You can
do a poll on Facebook or Twitter and invite people to vote for the name they
feel it’s more appealing and has a connection with the product(s) or
service(s) your business offers.
You can also decide to do a survey where stages 2,3,4 are presented as key
indicators that can be measured by the survey participants and also you can
get real time feedback to validate your decision. Doing this, you’ll have an
idea of the best name options based on the poll results, you can then go
ahead to confidently submit those likely business names to Corporate
Affairs Commission.

19. www.truekolourshub.com
Expert Writer
Onyinye Etoniru