Choosing a new business name is one of the most important decisions you make. It influences many other decisions, including purchasing decisions. For example, most businesses need, or at least want, some branded materials. So here is a simple guide to choosing a name for your business.

Give yourself room to grow

The golden rule of starting a small business is to put down strong roots before you can grow strong branches. In other words, establish yourself in one area before you can reach out into another. If you start out with a really specific business name, you may find yourself running into trouble later when you want to expand.

For example, “Jeff’s book store” may be 100% accurate when you first start your small business. But what if you decide you want to expand into related product areas such as stationery? What if you want to expand into services such as academic tuition? Choosing a more generic name (like, say, Amazon) gives you room to grow.

Avoid copying the competition

In principle, it’s preferable for your company to have a totally unique name. In practice, it’s more accurate to say that your business name needs to be unique in your niche.

Avoid choosing a name that could confuse customers. So identify your competitors and avoid using a company name that could be confused with theirs.

As a rule of thumb, it’s totally fine to use a name that’s similar to a company operating in a completely different niche. For example, in the UK, there used to be a delivery company called Hermes. There was and still is a luxury fashion house called Hermès. These two companies coexisted for many years without friction because they operated in completely different niches. (Hermes has since rebranded as Evri.)

By contrast, you must avoid using any name that could reasonably be confused with a competitor. Firstly, your competitor might take legal action against you. Secondly, you might find your competitor benefiting from your marketing budget. Since they would probably be the more recognizable name, your marketing might send customers to them rather than you.

Make sure you can claim a relevant domain

The most obvious reason to claim a domain is so that your business can have its own website. Most businesses need one of these at some point. Even if you don’t technically need one, you’re still likely to benefit from having one. At a minimum, having your own domain stops anybody else from claiming it.

Another good reason for having a domain is that it allows you to create customized email addresses. This looks significantly more professional than using free email.

See if you can claim relevant social media handles

You are almost certainly going to need to use social media for business to at least some extent. That means you want proper business social media accounts. Ideally, these should be in your brand name. If your exact brand name is already taken, you want something very close to it.

There are automated tools you can use to check the availability of your intended company name across multiple social media platforms. These make it quick and easy to do this increasingly important basic check.

Check if your name works in other languages

At a minimum, check if your name works in French. Essentially make sure that it does not trigger negative connotations either when spoken or when written.

If you’re operating in an area where you expect many international customers, check if your name works in the main languages they speak.

Do not rely on the internet for this. Get actual native speakers to check your name for you. The cost of this is almost certainly far lower than the cost of having to rebrand.

Useful resources

Use NameMesh and/or Naminum for company name inspiration.

Use NameCheckr to check the availability of domains and/or social media handles.

Get general information on starting a business in Canada here.