What’s In A Name?

Your business’s name and the image it projects are important. The few words used in the name will speak volumes: is it traditional, contemporary, clever, straightforward, exclusive, to-the-point, abstract, memorable, recognisable?

When you build an image you usually only have one chance to get it right because images tend to stick. Remember the jewellery chain Ratner, forever associated with the word ‘crap’ after a famous speech by its own boss? Or Marks and Spencer, which shows, for different reasons, how powerful a lasting image or branding can be. Despite its well-publicised ups and downs in the last few years, it’s still on the whole known for quality and reliability.

There are a few occasions when your business doesn’t need a name or strong branding, perhaps because you’re planning a low key business where you have enough captive customers lined up and are unlikely to need anymore. This could be if you’re providing a gardening or child care service just for the families who live in your hamlet, or when you know that all the bread and cakes you can make will be sold through one or two local bakeries. In these circumstances a name, image and snazzy logo could even be counter-productive, seen as too slick and a waste of money.

But for most businesses, the name, image and branding that goes with it make up one of the key steps to success, so it’s worth spending some time thinking about it.

Thinking Up Your Name

You could decide on a name that identifies with your local area. This can work well, whether you’re selling locally or further afield, something like Devon Creamy Yoghurts or Cumbrian Woodcrafts. Or consider an abstract name, something that conveys a business philosophy, a bright new beginning, a way of life. The Post Office famously changed its name to Consignia but it was greeted with widespread ridicule and was eventually dropped. The old British Steel became Corus after a merger, but that name stuck. Names like these don’t actually mean anything, but the branding people who dreamt them up must have decided they conveyed the right corporate image.

Thinking up names is a knack and it’s something you either have or you haven’t. It’s not something you learn. If you’re stuck, find a friend or family member who’s good at competition slogans and get them to have a go. And if that still doesn’t produce anything then name the business after yourself. Plenty of others do.

When you’ve decided on your name:

• Make sure no one else is using the name already. It’s important that you don’t infringe their copyright or trademark if they’ve registered the name. Check with Companies House (www.companieshouse.gov.uk).
• Then check the internet and your local phone book. If someone nearby is already trading under that name then think up another. If they’re 300 miles away then it’s less of a problem. What is important is that the customer can distinguish between you, and that you can’t be accused of plagiarising the name of the other business, masquerading as them or trying to poach their trade.
• Check to make sure the name is available as a website address. Do a Google search on ‘domain names’ to find someone to register it for you. (See Chapter 11 on setting up your own website.)

 

Other points to bear in mind:

• You can’t use offensive names.
• The name of a limited company or limited liability partnership must be registered at Companies House.
• It can’t be the same as another registered at Companies House.
• There are restrictions on using words like ‘Royal’.