Every startup needs a name. This company name needs to reflect the business you are in and ideally have enough flexibility so you it can encompass whatever business you might grow into. As a practical matter we would like a new name to be available as a URL, best of all perhaps as a .com. The name should also be easy to remember, spell and all that.
There are many tried and true ways to help us come with ideas like coming up with lists of words that relate to the product/service you will provide or the values you want to stand by. These words can then be tried in a Thesaurus to find other similar words. Or you can go to a translation tool and have a word translated into maybe 200 languages to find one that sounds great and unique.
Below we have collected links to a bunch of online tools that aim to make it easier for you to discover the name of your next unicorn. Just remember, when you have a name that you think sounds good, contact us so we can make sure that you can protect your new brand with a trademark registration. If you don’t, you might find yourself back to square one thinking of a new name after having received a seize and desist from the lawful trademark owner.
Namelix
Namelix is an impressive tool that first uses your keywords and some choices from you to create a name. Then they throw this to a site called Brandmark which allows you to create a logo, icon and color scheme. Some of these names and icons seems like the must have been used before, you should for sure check the trademark status.
Rewind & Capture
Rewind & Capture is a website that offers a lot of interesting articles about how to name your business and how famous companies came have their names. They also offer a tool that gives their opinion about how strong a name is based on the nature of the name (length, syllables etc.) and availability of domain name and social media accounts. They then link to a number of different services that can help you come up with a name, both software and consultants. We are interested to see they even link to two trademark consultants!
Wordoid
Wordoid is a funny tool that helps you come up with a brand new word based on parameters like number of characters, base language and some word or syllable you say you want to include. It can also search the domain registry directly to see if the domain for that new word is available. Great fun to play with!
Cool Name Ideas
The actual name generator of this tool works in a similar way to many others. Just enter a keyword and get some suggestions. But you can also view available domains and interact with the platform to get naming advice.
BrandBucket
BrandBucket has come up with and registered the domain names for lots of potential company names. They have even had designers create logos for these names. Search by industry or names and if for example, you think “MESH” and the domain “MESH.LY” is suitable for your new company, they will sell it to you for only USD7195!
NameMesh
NameMesh is a free tool for finding the right, and available, domain name. Considering how useful (and hard) it is to find a domain that also matches your company name, this tool can be quite useful.
NameRobot
Here is a company that takes the task of company names quite serious. NameRobot has a free plan that you have to register for and also paid levels. They have many different tools to help you merge, combine or creatively spell words in such a way that it creates a unique and suitable brand name.
BizNameWiz
BizNameWiz lets you input one or more words and it then tries to come up with some different versions of spelling, combinations etc. Most of them are probably pretty useless, but you have to sort through a lot of dirt to find gold so… they also have direct links to let you register the domain if you find one you like.
FreshBooks
Freshbooks is an online bookkeeping system that we really like, but they also provide a tool that claims to help you generate ideas for your company name. Maybe it can help you shake out some ideas, but really not the best. You pick an industry and input some keyword you want to include in your name and it spits out some suggestions.