Search online for “what makes a great brand name” and you’ll find plenty of strong opinions. Articles, agency blog posts, naming guides, and even books about naming often contain their own lists of qualities that make or break a brand name. Some lists are long, like Catchword‘s “The 10 essential qualities of great brand name.” Other lists are simpler: a page on Novanym‘s site titled “What makes a great brand name?” contains just four bullet points. And some agencies insist it depends entirely on the underlying strategy—that there are no universal qualities of good brand names.
The list below compiles and organizes qualities ascribed to great brand names from a range of different sources:
- A Hundred Monkeys blog post, “Characteristics of the Best Names for Companies“
- The Brand Gap, by Marty Neumeier
- Business Insider article, “Expert Explains What Makes The Best Brand Names So Good“
- Catchword blog post, “The 10 essential qualities of great brand names“
- Derrick Daye blog post, “The Strategy Behind Successful Brand Names“
- Designing Brand Identity, by Alina Wheeler
- Eat My Words SMILE & SCRATCH Test
- Franke+Fiorella, identityWise, Naming: What Makes a Brand Name Great
- The Igor Naming Guide
- Laura Ries blog post, “The 9 keys to naming success“
- Novanym page, “What makes a great brand name?“
- Rewind & Capture article, “What Makes a Strong Brand Name?“
- Tanj naming guides, Now Name It and Make a Name for Yourself
- Zinzin naming guide*, The Art of Naming
This is not necessarily an exhaustive or perfect list of what makes a brand name great—decisions around whether to include and how to categorize items can always be debated. But we’ve done our best to make the list complete and avoid redundancies. And when we find new ideas and/or new, reputable sources to include, we’ll add them to this list. We’d love to get your thoughts; feel free to comment, ask questions, or make suggestions below.
| Quality | Source(s) | No. of sources |
|---|---|---|
| Distinctive | A Hundred Monkeys (Rarity) The Brand Gap (Distinctiveness) Catchword (Distinctive, provocative, buzz-inspiring) Derrick Daye Designing Brand Identity Eat My Words (Not a Copycat) Franke+Fiorella (Ensuring distinctiveness) Igor (Distinctive) Laura Ries (Unique) Rewind & Capture Zinzin* (Differentiation) | 10 |
| Strategic; conveys key message(s) | The Brand Gap (Appropriateness) Catchword (Appropriate for your brand) Derrick Daye (Branded) Designing Brand Identity (Meaningful) Eat My Words (Suggestive) Franke+Fiorella (Building off the strategy) Igor (Positioning) Laura Ries (Suggestive of the category) Rewind & Capture (Suggestive) Tanj (Communicate key messages and On brief) Zinzin* (Breadth) | 10 |
| Easy to say | The Brand Gap (Easy Spelling and Pronunciation) Catchword (Easy to spell and pronounce) Derrick Daye (Easy) Eat My Words (Not Hard to say) Laura Ries (Speakable) Novanym (Easy to say) Rewind & Capture (Pronunciation) Tanj (Easy to pronounce) | 8 |
| Easy to spell | The Brand Gap (Easy Spelling and Pronunciation) Catchword (Easy to spell and pronounce) Derrick Daye (Easy) Eat My Words (Not Spelling-challenged) Laura Ries (Spellable) Novanym (Easy to spell) Tanj (Easy to write) | 7 |
| Exciting/creative | A Hundred Monkeys (Provocative) The Brand Gap (Likability) Catchword (Engaging & memorable) Derrick Daye (Energetic) Eat My Words (Not Tame) Igor (Energy) Laura Ries (Shocking) Zinzin* (Temperature) | 7 |
| Legally available | The Brand Gap (Protectability) Catchword (Available and protectable) Derrick Daye (Ownable) Designing Brand Identity (Protectable) Franke+Fiorella (Protecting your investment) Igor (Trademark) Rewind & Capture (Trademarkable) | 7 |
| Looks good | Catchword (Visually evocative) Derrick Daye (Flow) Designing Brand Identity (Visual) Eat My Words (Imagery) Igor (Appearance) Rewind & Capture (Visual Appeal) Zinzin* (Visual) | 6 |
| Can stretch | The Brand Gap (Extendibility) Catchword (Flexible and enduring) Designing Brand Identity (Modular) Eat My Words (Legs, not Restrictive) Novanym (Not blandly descriptive or made from generic key words) | 5 |
| Linguistically viable | Catchword (Culturally sensitive) Designing Brand Identity (Positive) Franke+Fiorella (Paying attention to linguistics and universal meaning) Rewind & Capture (Associative) | 4 |
| Memorable | Catchword (Engaging & memorable) Derrick Daye (Story) Tanj (Easy to remember) Rewind & Capture (Memorability) | 4 |
| Sounds good | Catchword (Natural sounding) Derrick Daye (Flow) Igor (Sound) Laura Ries (Alliterative) Zinzin* (Voice) | 4 |
| Timeless | Business Insider (“Avoid trends”) Catchword (Flexible and enduring) Designing Brand Identity (Future-oriented) Rewind & Capture (Longevity) | 4 |
| Short | The Brand Gap (Brevity) Catchword (Concise) Laura Ries (Short) | 3 |
| Deep, with layers of meaning | Derrick Daye (Depth) Igor naming guide (Depth) Zinzin naming guide* (Depth) | 2 |
| Emotionally resonant | Eat My Words (Emotional) Franke+Fiorella (Connecting emotionally) | 2 |
| Has personality | A Hundred Monkeys (Personality) Igor (Humanity) Zinzin* (Personality) | 2 |
| Relevant to audience | Eat My Words (Meaningful, not Annoying, no “Curse of knowledge”) Tanj (Relevant to audience) | 2 |
| Domain name availability | Novanym (Original, with perfect .com name) | 1 |
| Eponymous | Laura Ries (Personal) | 1 |
| Focused | A Hundred Monkeys (Focus) | 1 |
| Mysterious | Igor (33) Zinzin* (X-factor) | 1 |
| Simple | Laura Ries (Simple) | 1 |
* The Zinzin naming guide is no longer counted in the “No. of sources” column because it lists qualities that are redundant with those listed in the Igor Naming Guide.
This Useful List will be updated periodically with new list items. Please share any suggested additions in the comments section.
Spot on list, as I read it carefully.
Very fun how you’ve made the list interactive and statistically orderable 🙂
Kudos!
Nice work.
Thanks, Bryce! Glad you’re finding it useful.
Thanks for the tips! I will give it a try! I also heard about Squadhelp.com – seems like a legit site where you can open a contest for brainstorming a name for your brand/business and even for coming up with taglines and stuff. I am thinking about launching a contest for naming my business on this site if I don’t find anything good in name generators. Real people brainstorm better than machines 🙂
Hi Stephen, thanks for the comment! Coincidentally, Squadhelp is a major sponsor of the podcast, so by all means, check it out. One of the keys to getting good name ideas from a team (whether on Squadhelp or not) is a clear, tight naming brief. Check out our ebook on writing a naming brief, our free downloadable naming brief template, and this post about what goes in a naming brief. Reach out with any questions.
Updated on April 24, 2020 to reflect Catchword’s updated list of “essential qualities of great brand names.”
Starting a new business with a perfect business name is very much important in today’s competitive market. You have posted a valuable information that may help people in choosing an appropriate name without the impact of the SCRATCH factors. During my struggle
NamoBOT helped me a lot in brainstorming the name for my startup.