Okay, I've probably spent 150 hours reading about branding and naming... two corporate structures, three websites, and a half-dozen products now. Here's where to start:
The author of those pieces has some really good ideas. Now, some feedback:
1. Do what other people aren't doing. Sounds obvious, but you're almost certain to pick something that sounds like what others are doing in your field unless you take a really bold stance. Look at 37signals: They named most of their products after camping. They compete primarily with business software with boring titles. They started marketing first and foremost to design firms. Cool.
2. Look at negative words. Every is "Super Awesome Perfect Strategically Integrated Systems" - much more interesting to be "Apocalyptic Computers" than "Desktop Systems Corp." -- Of course if you brand negative and your product sucks, people curse you even louder.
3. Keep a running list of words in a notepad file. Just let it get bigger and bigger to mix and match later.
4. Try putting the names of people/things you admire into Wikipedia, follow the links around, and read the words in the file. Start with Renaissance artists and inventors if you like. Explorers, military leaders, writers, humanitarians, reformers. There's lots of interesting words associated with them. Rome and Japan have a bunch of words that everyone's heard of but rarely thinks of.
If your name is creative, everyone will hate it at first. And even if it sucks, everyone internal will come to love if you start using it. Don't trust either of these reactions. Finally, "Web 2.0 names" will almost certainly sound really, really stupid in five years.
Good luck - the process takes a while, but business life really is easier and better with a cool, memorable name.
I remember reading a story when eBay did this. Just found something related in wikipedia.
"The frequently repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiancée trade PEZ Candy dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media. This was revealed in Adam Cohen's 2002 book, The Perfect Store, and confirmed by eBay."
http://ezinearticles.com/?Monster-Amazon-Crocs---Why-Creativ...
http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Weird-Words-Make-Great-Brand-N...
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Power-of-Storytelling-to-Build...
The author of those pieces has some really good ideas. Now, some feedback:
1. Do what other people aren't doing. Sounds obvious, but you're almost certain to pick something that sounds like what others are doing in your field unless you take a really bold stance. Look at 37signals: They named most of their products after camping. They compete primarily with business software with boring titles. They started marketing first and foremost to design firms. Cool.
2. Look at negative words. Every is "Super Awesome Perfect Strategically Integrated Systems" - much more interesting to be "Apocalyptic Computers" than "Desktop Systems Corp." -- Of course if you brand negative and your product sucks, people curse you even louder.
3. Keep a running list of words in a notepad file. Just let it get bigger and bigger to mix and match later.
4. Try putting the names of people/things you admire into Wikipedia, follow the links around, and read the words in the file. Start with Renaissance artists and inventors if you like. Explorers, military leaders, writers, humanitarians, reformers. There's lots of interesting words associated with them. Rome and Japan have a bunch of words that everyone's heard of but rarely thinks of.
If your name is creative, everyone will hate it at first. And even if it sucks, everyone internal will come to love if you start using it. Don't trust either of these reactions. Finally, "Web 2.0 names" will almost certainly sound really, really stupid in five years.
Good luck - the process takes a while, but business life really is easier and better with a cool, memorable name.