Finding a partner and finding a name aren’t all that different. After all, both have a pretty significant impact on your day-to-day life and are choices you don’t want to take lightly.

Whether you’re naming your business, a product line or even an event, you want to find a name that makes you happy. And don’t forget all the opinions you’ll face along the way—just like that one friend who never likes your significant others, you’ll face critics, allies and opinionated parties throughout the naming process.

So, what naming lessons can we learn from love? How can you approach naming with an open mind—and avoid heartbreak along the way? 

Building the Hinge profile. I mean, naming brief.

Just like a dating app profile is the first place for someone to make a good first impression, a naming brief helps you land on a name that meets your needs.

If you’re not into the great outdoors, you probably don’t want to swipe right on someone whose passion lies in bouldering every Saturday morning. If coined names give you the ick, well then you want your naming agency to know that from the outset.

At Agenda, we always start with a kickoff conversation that informs our naming brief. We’ll tap into your likes and dislikes when it comes to names and then play it all back in the brief. Ultimately, you’ll be presented with a brief that includes things like…

Types of names.

No, not star signs or Meyers Briggs personality types, but the nuts and bolts of how a name is constructed and gives meaning. Is it a real word or a composite? Is it descriptive of what we’re naming or completely abstract?

Territories.

These are the different ideas we’ll explore through naming, each brought to life through illustrative names. Like a potential date’s interests, you want to make sure you like where these territories are headed because the names we’ll come up with will be very much along these lines. 

Explore & Avoid.

What are your green and red flags? Names that start with “C”? Greek gods and goddesses? These help give us fodder for naming while also steering clear of potential landmines.

But remember—the perfect naming brief is like finding that elusive perfect profile. Just because everything looks right on screen/paper, it might feel a little different when you meet face to face. But more on that later. 

So many fish in the sea

Some people think there’s that one perfect someone out there for you. Others are more skeptical. We fall into the latter camp, at least when it comes to naming. That’s why our team goes wide when generating names, finding all the different ways into the brief, exploring nearly every corner of the internet, tapping into AI for inspiration and working to build a high volume of names to cut down from.

From there, we narrow down to the names that truly fit our brief. And then, we do our due diligence. This involves pre-screening names for initial trademark viability. Think of it like having your friends Instagram stalk someone you matched with to vet them on your behalf. Except in our case, we’re searching names against keywords and competitors to make sure someone in your space—or a prominent out of category brand—isn’t already using the name. 

Ultimately, you’ll need a trademark lawyer to do full legal screening on names before you can make it official, just like you need an officiant to officially tie the knot. But by taking this critical step, we can help make the legal process go a lot more smoothly and hopefully help you avoid heartbreak down the line.

The first date.

It’s finally here. The big day. The first date. Or rather, the first naming presentation. Are you feeling butterflies in your stomach just thinking about it? Us too.

Except unlike on a first date, we give you more than one name to get to know. Usually, more like 15-25. Each name is presented with some rationale—think of it like the name’s backstory. And, we show how it would look in the real world, like on swag or a business card, so you can imagine a future together. 

Hopefully by the end you’re feeling excited, hopeful and ready to take things to the next level. Just like a great first date. But wait…

Love at first sight? Be wary…

Have you ever fallen fast and hard only to have it end poorly? It’s the same way with naming. One of our biggest pieces of advice is to not fall in love—and to remember that neutral is good. Sometimes that person you think is kind of meh ends up being the steady partner you were looking for.

Same with naming. Sometimes the flashy names aren’t the best fit for your business. 

Also, don’t forget there’s that critical step of full legal screening. If you fall for only one name and find out it’s not available, you’re bound to be disappointed and it may be hard to go back to the drawing board with an open mind. That’s why we recommend shortlisting 5-7 names to take into full legal screening. Depending on how many trademark classes and geographies you’re filing in, and how crowded they are, you may want to take more or less into full legal screening. 

Making it official

So, you’ve done it. You’ve found those 5-7 special someones that send your heart fluttering. Now what? 

Now, it’s time for a lawyer to check things out so that you can make it official with the one name that will become the one. Hopefully, several of your shortlisted names are available. Then, we can help advise on the one that’s truly the best fit for your needs. 

You’ll also want to register a domain name. It may not be name.com but maybe you can get namehealth or nametech. No matter what, we’re here to help. 

And then, the real fun begins. Applying it to visual identity. Ordering the swag. Changing out signage. Signing up for social accounts. Just like a relationship, launching a name takes work. But when you see your name out in the real world, it will feel totally worth it. We promise.