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What’s in a name?

Posted by Babs on March 7, 2010 · View Comments 

Something that I’ve long wanted to understand better, and plainly just don’t “get” – it never sinks in to a proper understanding for me – is how to name a business.

I know there are all kinds of psychological thinkings and references to it all, but I rarely remember them and prefer to go with a gut feeling, finger in the wind, when it comes to business naming (and personal, for that matter). Hopefully we’ll have some comments from people that do know what they’re talking about and who get it right themselves.

One recent surprise has been with the promise for the Blogmistress brand. Only a year ago a friend referred to me as her “blogmistress” after creating her WordPress blog – and after a while, this seemed to attract some attention. So I ran with it, and now have a fast growing Facebook fan page and work flowing in to the point that I’ve needed to pull in others to work with me! Could this partly be due to the name – slightly cheeky yet saying pretty much what we do? I always hated being referred to as a webmistress – but blogmistress has a note of fun that suits me well. I was previously working under my own name, but had really focused that “brand” as more general and on the strategy side of things. Perhaps focusing so makes it easier for people to know what we do.

S&M xmas toys?
Image by massdistraction via Flickr

Many years ago I ran a web design agency called Elementally – I loved that name and was so proud of it – until about the 8th time of having to spell it several times on the phone! “No, that’s a l l y not a r y”. Seems that name was a bit clever for its own good – the idea was sound – bringing together elements of the web – but missed the mark somehow.

And then later I registered a domain name for “Internet marketing in action” – and thought that would be wonderfully positive (if a bit lengthy) – until I noticed how the domain read with no spaced! Duh! I did not think that internetmarketinginaction would really encourage people ;-) . Another domain I registered years ago was facilitability and its one I still love that but just know it would not work as I imagine.

On a more personal note, in recent years I’ve become known as Babs rather than Barbara. In my 20s I really did not like being called “Babs” – for me it brought to mind Babs Windsor from her Carry On… days (this was pre-Eastenders) – and I have nothing in common with her at all! Though now many laugh when I tell them I was called Barbie by friends and family in my early 20s – now that is funny! So after years of being Barbara, and then having a few chums call me Babs, it kind of works for me now – I don’t know how or why, but it does – so Babs I am now!

When it came to naming my children I was very careful to avoid anything beginning with A or R – my husband was firm on that one, understandably. My boy somehow named himself and then his middle name is my Nanna’s maiden name – she was someone I respected. And the girlchild – well I just knew she would enjoy variety, so she is Elizabeth, for the many variations from which she can choose.  I was not bold enough to go with “Daisy”, and indeed that would not suit her as her first name – but it’s there and now she uses it to name all her snugglies and spiders and whatever else crosses our path!

What’s in a name for you? Share your stories and experiences, and your knowledge if you know of such things (or simply have a knack for such things).

Babs

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  • LindaMattacks
    I settled on CoZo for the company name a s shorthand for comfort zone. It wasn't meant to be used for web or SEO promotion. It's an umbrella for the different types of work I do and business services offered.

    That started out originally on the premise of: How do you get more business when you're a one-man-band/ micro company and selling is anathema?

    It's easier for most people to stretch and test their comfort zone than ping themselves out of it into the unknown, only to ping back again sharpish...:-)
  • There's one point I'd like to make about business names for sole traders like "moi" ... there is danger in taking on a generic name like (in my case) "The Words Factory" or "The Write Words" etc.

    This is quite simply that in advertising that type of brand name, if you're not careful you can end up advertising all your competitors' businesses at the same time as your own.

    I have tried numerous names over the years but always come back to a home truth that really applies to any sole trader working in a crowded, highly competitive field, and that is that YOU are the brand.

    By all means use a strong strapline to pick yourself out - I've used these plus others in the past with quite a lot of success:

    Suzan St Maur - good ideas put into words

    Suzan St Maur - writing words that sell

    Suzan St Maur - welcome words

    ...etc.

    I think where you're operating a) on a relatively local basis and b) in a marketplace that isn't overcrowded with competitors - like Morag's business, for example - it's much safer to use a generic name and properly promoted it can become the "Hoover" or "Cellotape" of its genre.

    But where you're one of dozens, hundreds or even thousands, your own name is what's going to differentiate you from the rest.
  • Morag
    Actually, Suzan, mine is a very niche business but the one thing it IS is overcrowded with lots of small competitors, because mums who use cloth nappies, get enthusiastic and then set up a website - they are not motivated by profit (which is good, as there isn't any!) but by The Cause. So yes The Nappy Lady is very generic, but because of the overcrowding it is precisely the term that people will search for a nappy seller under.
  • I was christened Margaret Louise, two names I've never really got on with. When I was about eight I decided I was going to be Maggie, and that's who I've been ever since, except to my mother! Nobody else thinks of me as Margaret, so when I was staying with a friend and my mum phoned and asked to speak to Margaret, they told her she'd got the wrong number!

    The plus side of having either Maggie or Margaret as a name is that I was the only one with that name at my school. My husband comes from a family with a taste for more unusual names and the only requirements we had for our children was that their names shouldn't be commonplace and I wanted my daughter to be able to shorten hers in different ways in case she didn't like it, as I had. So we ended up with a son called Caleb and a daughter called Rhiannon, which since she was a baby has always ended up being shortened to Nonnie.

    As for business, I called my business after myself - Maggie Berney Office Services, which could be shortened to MBOS (Emboss). Possibly not as inspired as many names I've seen, but it's me and it's simple.
  • Morag
    When we were at your house once when your mum was there, and called you Margaret, I had ABSOLUTELY no idea who she was talking about. You are very definitely a Maggie, not a Margaret.
  • Names fascinate me too. Ethnic Supplies came about after a woman in a gift shop in Weybridge told me "or the products are beautiful but are too ethnic for what I would carry in my shop"

    African names tend to have meanings assigned to them depending on what clan you are from. I was named after my grandmother and my given name " BAYIGA2 means to learn depending on the context in which it is used.

    I named my son Ivan after my favourite cousin at the time of his birth. I also thought it was rather cool
  • Sarah Arrow
    I have always hated my name with a passion. Thin Lizzy sang about his daughter "my Sarah" in 1979 and it grated on me then almost as much as it does know.

    When I was 14 I declared I was going to be Tiffany after "Breakfast at Tiffany's", then along came a songstress who sang about loving her radio, Tiffany was soon ditched and I decided I would be Jessica. I never got round to changing it. Then along came the kids and after two weeks of having no name, I named my eldest daughter after me - Jessica. Kira means bright light in Greek, she is my husbands first daughter and he never thought he would have kids, so she is his bright light. Then came Jasmine, our flowering shrub - we just liked the name.

    As for business names, we were going to be Arrow Road Service Express but the acronym is rather unfortunate... the name we wanted was taken, so we had to make do with something else.

    Babs, I cannot imagine you as Barbie as much as I try....
  • Morag
    I never even ventured onto my own first name, which no-one in Tamworth had ever heard of. Trouble is, it rhymes with Bograg, Snotrag, Toerag and the most unfortunate Jamrag, so those were the nicknames that stuck. I came close to using my middle name at school (Ailsa), even though I hated it!

    On the other hand, I cannot tell you how sexy Moh-ragg sounds in French!
  • Now that sounds like an interesting story, Morag...

    I could be reconciled to be being called Ann, by a certain tall and handsome Italian I know ;)
  • Morag
    Oh it was, Ann. I've got a short story about it which is entirely NOT fiction. :) Jean-Francois is delicious, and my neighbour as well.
  • Ann Godridge
    I so empathise with the spelling of the business name, Babs, and I'm responsible for ours too :(

    Qualia Systems seemed like a good idea at the time. It was a word I picked up from a David Lodge novel I was reading, it had all the right kind of meanings for a software product that was based on qualitative as well as quantitative reasoning, and implications of quality as well

    *sigh*

    I think naming is one of the most difficult things to get right.

    Oh, and do call me Elisabeth, or Liz. That's what I was known as until I was two, and then again when I met my mother and her family in my thirties.
  • Morag
    I'll deal with our children's names first. We had various very specific rules.

    1. Had to be a family name, preferably on both sides
    2. Had to work in both French and English, given that we have a house in France
    3. Two forenames

    Robert Michael Gaherty was easy. By the time we came to Tom, we realised we had run out of boys' names that fit criterion number 1. So he became Thomas Louis Gaherty, with the Louis being named after a close French friend of ours.

    However, it did mean we had absolutely no names left for another boy child, and since the thought of having a girl was anathema to us, that was the end of our childbearing days!

    As for the business name www.thenappylady.co.uk, I was busy pondering all the other cloth nappy business names around at the time. I really didn't fancy Snugglebuggle, CosyBums, Cotton Bottoms etc. Far too twee. Other names were just not very relevant - Twinkle, Twinkle and Cuddlebabes, for example.

    And then suddenly I thought "well what about The Nappy Lady?" Does what it says on the tin. Interestingly, my husband (who was usually right on the mark about things) ummed and ahhed about it. He wasn't sure it would work.

    Was he insane? I don't know! But it's an inspired name, because absolutely everyone remembers it. Whoever they bought their nappies from for child number one, when they want to buy top up items, they automatically google Nappy Lady. And up I pop. Thanks, competition. :)

    PS I recently saw a website called www.putitright.co.uk, and all I can see in it is the word tit!
  • The Nappy Lady is perfect - and no doubt appeals to many with it's forthrightness, Morag!

    And I like the story behind naming your boys - that's quite lovely!
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