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When I was looking into this, I found two schools of thought, some people think the best thing is to have a unique name and logo, which gives no clue but is unique and rememberable.

Others think it's better to have a descriptive name and logo.

The first approach has the disadvantage of requiring more branding, while the second has the disadvantage of being less distinctive.

I think that the first approach works best if you have a marketing budget and plan to grow, while the second is much better for local businesses or lifestyle or niche businesses where organic search matters more.

VC-backed startups will probably do better with the first route, while bootstrapped side projects might work better with the second approach?



Descriptive names are not popular with existing businesses because they're hard to trademark.


Here's what Jason Cohen wrote on naming ideas:

http://blog.asmartbear.com/naming-startup.html

And on naming his company (Smart Bear):

http://blog.asmartbear.com/pick-company-name-brand.html


I think the conclusion of that first link is worth lifting into the thread here:

> In the end, I’ve never heard a founder of a successful company say the name of the company was an important factor in its success; similarly I’ve not heard of a name being the fatal blow. (emphasis original)

Solid, common-sense advice, and one reason I qualified what I said to "existing companies". For a new one, it doesn't really matter. But for Nike, it really is important to them that their name isn't descriptive.




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