So names matter, and having the right name at the outset is key. With Dragon’s naming experience and passion for name creation, we can help create successful names that stand out from the crowd, achieve status as trademarks and ultimately transform your business.

The starting blocks

So what makes a good name? A winning name connects with its audience and sector, transcends linguistic boundaries, gains lasting impact and, most importantly, is legally protectable.

Over the hurdles

Even the most distinctive and appropriate name for a brand can fall at the hurdle of trademark availability. The trademark classifications 01 to 45 cover every sector from chemicals to security services, and many of these, particularly for food and technology, are increasingly crowded.

A brand name is an asset for an organisation; it has a ‘hidden value’ on the balance sheet. So a canny corporate legal team may protect as many brands as possible, which means that most of the good ones will be already taken. Once registered as a trademark a name becomes the company’s intellectual property; any other brand daring to attempt copy risks serious legal implications. So understanding what it takes to create a name as valuable IP that stands out from the existing millions in the various categories of international trademark registers is paramount.

A winning formula?

Perfectly good names can be victims of fortune and just as only a few truly innovative products make it, so names themselves have to be carefully nurtured and developed. That means considering a few things up front…

- How brave is your company prepared to be? Can you break paradigms and stand out from the crowd in your sector? The answer is not automatically ‘yes’. Confident strategy may be better than radical strategy, especially if support is limited

- Brand names that are too descriptive or ‘laudatory’ – i.e. ‘superdelicious’ - are no longer acceptable as trademarks, but there are many other ways to create great long-lasting names that do work

- How does any new brand fit with your parent brand architecture? Should a new name relate directly to the parent name or might this strategy be too limiting and in danger of becoming generic?

- A name written as text has little stand out, while a name on a sign or on the front of pack in a unique graphic style can live and breathe and thrive as a brand

Names that grow on you

Good names don’t just emerge. They are cultivated from a blend of rational, creative and legal approaches – the inspired and the painstaking – with a dash of patience and luck. It is hard to imagine a telecoms giant being named after a citrus fruit, or a petrochemical giant named after an item on a beach, but Orange and Shell are great examples of single-minded ideas that have been built to last. So names need time to grow and become familiar – but an approach that gets the name right at the start can certainly reap benefits for the future.

Can we make a name for you?

If you would like a copy of our 'A-Z of Naming' please contact Deborah Carter, Senior Consultant, Dragon Rouge in London on 020 7262 4488.