Five ways to come up with a good name for your business

Looking for a name for your business? Here are five ways to do it. If you need more ideas, you can ask for help from Aalho Media’s name clinic or buy an e-book containing 21 ready-made business name templates.

1. Search engine optimized name: location + industry

A basic business name is created by combining the name of a place with the company’s field of business. This is suitable for almost all businesses, but a large number of names are already in use. Search engine optimized names have been around since before search engines, because humans are a bit like search engine algorithms themselves. Which of these fictitious companies is a jewellery shop in Tampere?

• Tampere Goldsmith Oy
• Aureliasis Oy

A name like this usually works in a situation where

• people are searching for the company services or products online
• the switching costs are low from the customer’s point of view
• the business is local.

Plumbers, home cleaning services, carpet cleaners, computer repair services or accountancy firms are examples of businesses for which a search engine optimized name can work. If someone searches Google for “oulu accounting firm”, the first result is more likely to be “Oulun tilitoimisto Oy” than KTV Accounting Oy.

2. Mystical letter combination name: Founders’ initials + an English word

Pertti, Jaana and Tobias decide to set up a company offering ethical consultancy services. At the end of the meeting, they move to item 7. Company name. Tobias suggests that they could be the “Jyväskylä Ethical Consultancy Service”, but the others shoot down the idea. Tobias feels strangely insulted and suspects that Jaana and Pertti are up to some kind of funny business with each other.

Pertti suggests the name JPT Consulting Oy, because it has the initials of the founders and a nice sounding English word. Others like the name because it allows them to change the direction of the company if ethics goes out of fashion.

This is a good recipe for a business name if

• there is more than one founder (2–3)
• the name of the company does not have to indicate what the company does
• it is good if the name of the company does not indicate what it does

This is best suited to companies whose offerings are difficult for the average person on the street to understand, and to architectural firms. VRT Architects and LTV Urban Mobility Design are examples of names made in this way.

3. The name of the company without umlauts: removal of äöå

There is an easy trick to coming up with a name for a company based on Scandinavian origins, seaweed or other local northern raw materials:

1. Take a Finnish word with an ä or ö in it

2. Replace them with ä > a or ö > o

Skadaam! You have a brand name that is suitable for nationwide distribution, yet sounds familiar and down-to-earth to the Finnish ear. You can also try inflecting words, to make the number of options increase linearly.

Vehnä > Vehna

Vedellä > Vedella

If you want to extend the range, you can also change the y’s to u’s.

Äyriäinen > Auriainen

Lyöden > Luoden

4. Fake Latin: Feicelius Nominis Ltd.

Business names based on Fake Latin are particularly suitable for companies with a waiting room where customers feel poor. Or to quick loan companies. Fake Latin gives you so many possibilities to start with that it can be difficult to come up with a name at first. Here are some combinations worth trying:

noun beginning with a V, ending in a vowel + tum

Voima + tum = Foimatum

Verta + tum = Fertatum

Valo + dark = Falotum

Finnish word ending in s or l + ium

Ruis + ium = Ruisium

Sammal + ium = Sammalium

Oras + ium = Orasium (pronounced /oraasium/)

Your relative’s drinking buddy in the allative form without the ‘a’ and ‘b’ and spelled with those fancy letters

This type of name is particularly suitable for hairdressing salons or bridal salons.

Pate + lla = Batella

Jörde + lla = Yordella

Hepe + lla = Hebella

Pirre + lla = Birrella

5. Your name first and foremost

Why reinvent the wheel or the name? We all have a surname, so use it as your business name. You can also try seasoning it to your own taste. Here are some examples:

Kukkola Brothers

Kaskimaa & boys

Taaraspää & Daughters

We Toivolat Oy

Brave Siilaset

Savo & Vilén

We hope these tips will help you when you’re thinking of a name for your business. If you need more name templates, you can find them in this Finnish e-booklet, which costs half a pizza, or €3.90. Good luck!

And once you’ve registered your business, the next thing you need is a slogan. You can get them for free from the slogan generator.