What You Need to Know When Naming Your Startup

In Amsterdam in 1632, a painter in his mid-twenties began changing the signature he put in the corner of his paintings. In his youth he had used only a monogram, "RH", then added an "L" for Leiden, his home town, and most recently signed "RHL van Rijn". The new signature had neither initials nor surname. Just his first name: Rembrant.

Shortly afterwards, at the start of 1633, he added one more letter to that name. Rembrant became Rembrandt. The added "d" didn't change the pronunciation. In official documents his name mostly continued to appear in its old form, without the "d". But on his paintings he used the signature with the "d" almost without exception until his death in 1669. We still don't know why he added it.

Signing with your first name was unusual in the Netherlands of the time. Art historians see the Italian masters behind it: Leonardo, Raphael, Titian. They too were known to the world by a single name. The young painter wanted a seat at that table. That single word we see on museum walls today is the trace of a moment of decision.

A name isn't a label, it's a claim

Rembrandt's signature is a reminder that a name isn't a label you stick on something afterwards. It's a claim about what you want to be. The same goes for the name you give your startup. It will be the first word a customer hears, the first line an investor jots down, and the subject of the sentence a friend uses when recommending you to someone else.

There are a few practical filters to stop you rushing this decision.

Make it easy to say and to spell

A name spreads by word of mouth first. Can someone who hears it once type it correctly into a search box? Try a simple test: say the name to someone over the phone and ask them to write it down. If you have to spell it out letter by letter, that becomes a small tax you'll pay every day from then on. Choosing an unreadable word just to be striking leads people to ask, "What was that company called again?"

Don't lock yourself into one city or one product

The "L" in Rembrandt's signature said he came from Leiden. Shortly after he moved to Amsterdam, that letter dropped out. Company names date in a similar way. Burying the single product you sell today, or the neighbourhood you work in, in your name can hem you in tomorrow when you grow. Give a hint of what you do, but don't close off where you might go.

Don't confuse your company name with your trade mark

Registering your company name with the trade registry when you set up doesn't mean your brand is protected. A company name identifies the business itself; a trade mark distinguishes the goods and services you sell. In Turkey, you register a trade mark with TÜRKPATENT, the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, and the process is governed by Industrial Property Law No. 6769. A registered trade mark is protected for ten years from the filing date and can be renewed for further ten-year periods.

Before you apply, research similar names. Trade marks are registered according to the 45 classes of the international Nice Classification: 34 for goods and 11 for services. The name you choose must not belong to someone else in the classes you operate in. Descriptive words that everyone uses, such as "manufacturing" or "software", may not be considered distinctive on their own.

Check your digital address from the start

Before you settle on the name, check the domain and the social media accounts you'll use. It's rare for a name to be free everywhere; but knowing how much confusion a name held by someone else on one channel could cause later is part of the decision. Watch out for Turkish characters too. Letters such as "ı", "ş" and "ğ" can cause problems in domain names and usernames, and a customer abroad may not know how to read them.

Give it a story, not a need for explanation

A good name is original enough to spark curiosity and simple enough to remember. If you have to explain at length to everyone you meet what your name means, the name isn't speaking for you. To build an identity behind the name, take a look at our personal branding guide too.

Renown is a name spoken again and again

The English word "renown" comes from the Old French verb "renomer": to name again, to mention a name over and over. At its root is the Latin "nominare", to give a name. What we call renown is nothing more than a name being said again and again by other people.

Psychologists have shown that even how easy a name is to pronounce affects this repetition. It's called processing fluency: the mind finds what it processes easily more familiar and more trustworthy. In a study published in 2006, Adam Alter and Daniel Oppenheimer looked at companies that began trading on the New York Stock Exchange between 1990 and 2004. Shares of companies with easy-to-pronounce names performed markedly better on their first day of trading than those with hard-to-pronounce names.

The effect faded over time. But at the first encounter, when people didn't yet know much about the company, the name had quietly found its way into their decision.

A final word

On her balcony, resenting the surname of the man she loves, Shakespeare's Juliet says:

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

A lovely line; but the rest of the play doesn't prove Juliet right. What keeps the two young lovers apart is precisely the name they bear. Now ask yourself: in ten years, will your startup's name fit the place you've grown into, or will you be trying to fit into it?