Best practice tips for choosing a company name

So you’re getting close to choosing a great name for your new company. Remember, this name could represent you and your work for years so it’s worth running it through some checks upfront.

Keep it short and memorable

The shorter the name the more easily it will be remembered:

• Don’t choose a name that wouldn’t fit on a company-branded T Shirt.
• Don’t choose a name that will take a customer too long to type into Google.
• Don’t choose a name that will take too long to say when answering the phone.

Choose an easy spelling

Don’t choose a name that is difficult to spell or has an ambiguous spelling. People will get your company name wrong. Avoid these commonly misspelt words.

Check the website is available

If the name is available at Companies House the next step is to check the website domain name is free too. You can check using a service like 123reg.

If the .com or .co.uk isn’t available try a different domain extension like .io or .co.

There are now hundreds of different domain extensions to choose from but if you’re still struggling for the domain name you want try putting a two or three letter word at the beginning of the domain name e.g. if countingup.com was taken try getcountingup.com instead.

Check the name is not trademarked

Finally check to see if anyone has trademarked the name. You can do a free search on the Intellectual Property Office website. If the name is trademarked in a similar industry to yours then unfortunately you should go back to the drawing board (or you may get sued in the future).

Inspiration

If you’re struggling to come up with an available name then here are some ideas for inspiration:

• Your full name or surname (lots of examples here e.g. Ford, Louis Vuitton).
• Combine the maiden names of your mum and mother in law.
• Mythology (did you know in Greek mythology, Nike is the Winged Goddess of Victory).
• Nature (Amazon, Apple).
• Combine two words to make a new word (Facebook, Microsoft, Countingup).

Check company name availability

If you’ve just had that lightbulb moment for a new name for your company use Company Name Check to check availability.