Catchy Business Names

Ideas for Brainstorming Company Name Ideas

Brainstorm catchy business names with these 7 ideas for creating good company name ideas.

It can be a challenge to name a business. There's so much to think about, and it requires a kind of creative thinking with words that a lot of us (even creative people) don't do every day.

In the struggle to name my own jewelry business, I came up with a lot of strategies for brainstorming company name ideas. I'll share them with you here:

1. Get Comfortable With Your Thesaurus

A thesaurus is a tool for finding synonyms (words that mean the same thing as other words). It is your first and best tool for brainstorming company name ideas.

I prefer using an online thesaurus, but you can also use a hard copy, which you can find in the reference section of any library, if you prefer.

Using Your Thesaurus

• Make a list of important words that are relevant to your business. Include words that describe your product or service, words that describe benefits or special features of your business and words that evoke the image you would like to portray to your target customers.
• Look those words up in a thesaurus.
• As you look up all of your words in your thesaurus, read through the synonyms the thesaurus suggests, and make note of any words you think are interesting or possibile options for a company name.
• Remember, you are brainstorming at this stage. The words don't have to be perfect. Your goal is to come up with a fairly long list.
• It will be easier to combine words together if you have several words from different parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs).
• You can keep notes in whatever way works best for you. I like doing everything on my computer because it's fast and easy to move words around and save and edit the lists for later.
• You might prefer a more visually oriented approach though, such as using poster board and drawing a big mind map with all of your keywords.

2. Get More Words From Your Thesaurus

• Take the words that you liked from your thesaurus brainstorming session and look those words up in your thesaurus to get even more words.
• Again, make note of any words that you like from this process.

Related: How to Choose a Company Name

3. Combine Words

Now you should have a substantial list of good words. Try combining those words from your lists to see if anything works. You'll find more combinations if you were sure to note words from different parts of speech while you were building your brainstorming list.

4. The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English

This list is posted on many websites and is exactly what the title says, a compilation of beautiful English words. Take a look at this list for some inspiration for business name ideas.

5. Specialized Terms from a Specific Area of Interest

All kinds of areas of interest and fields of study use specialized terms that are not part of everyday language but may evoke the right mood or meaning for your business.

You can find beautiful words and phrases in art, music, dance, science, mythology and all kinds of other areas of interest.

6. Language Translators

After all of your brainstorming, you might come up with a few words that you like, but for whatever reason, they aren't quite right for your company name.

To get variations on those words, try using a free online language translator to translate the words you like. Enter the words into the translator, and see how they're expressed in different languages.

7. Combine Two Ideas

Once you've looked at several sources for company name inspiration, you might have some good company name ideas in mind.

If you don't have a few good company name ideas at this point, take a look at all of your lists and see if you can combine words from different sources. For example, a word from your thesaurus brainstorming sessions and a word from some type of specialized language combined together could be the ideal name for your business.

Next Steps

Once you have a list of several good business name ideas, be careful that you don't fall in love with one company name at this stage. There is still a little more research to do to make sure the name is a good fit for your business.

Take your list of catchy business names, and use the tips in the article on choosing a company name to choose the best name for your business.

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