Practical naming workshop

Make thirty names before you choose one.

The first idea is rarely the problem. Judging too early is. This workshop separates making from choosing so better directions can appear.

Most weak company-name sessions fail for a surprisingly simple reason: people judge too early. The first five ideas arrive, everyone starts debating them, and the room slowly shrinks around names that were never meant to survive.

A better approach is to separate making from judging. This is the same principle we use in design education: first create enough material to see patterns, then edit. The 30-name workshop below is deliberately simple. You can do it alone, with a co-founder or around a kitchen table.

Why thirty names?

Ten names are usually still close to the obvious category words. At twenty, you begin to repeat yourself. Around thirty, something useful happens: you have enough material to notice territories instead of isolated words.

The goal is not to find thirty brilliant names. The goal is to make a field wide enough that the better direction becomes visible.

Round 1: ten literal names

Set a timer for ten minutes. Write names that describe what the company does, who it serves, where it works or what it delivers. Do not try to be original yet.

  • service + place
  • audience + outcome
  • material + craft
  • category + distinctive adjective

If you were naming a small studio that helps local food brands with packaging, this round might produce names built from pack, label, table, pantry, local, shelf and studio. Some will be boring. Keep them anyway.

Round 2: ten names from meaning

Now stop describing the service and describe the effect. What should clients feel after working with you? What changes? What kind of relationship do you want the name to signal?

Try words connected to clarity, speed, care, courage, calm, momentum, craft, discovery or belonging. Then combine them with images from everyday life: a window, bridge, field, signal, tide, shelf, spark or thread.

A useful shift

“What do we sell?” produces category words. “What changes for the customer?” produces positioning.

Round 3: ten names with a constraint

The third round is where the naming workshop becomes interesting. Give yourself one arbitrary-looking restriction:

  • two short words only;
  • no obvious industry words;
  • a name that can be pictured;
  • a name that sounds good said out loud;
  • a name built from a verb;
  • a name that could still work if the company doubles its offer.

Constraints create friction, and friction helps you leave the first layer of ideas. They are not rules for the final name. They are tools for getting somewhere less predictable.

Do not vote yet

When you have thirty names, take a break. Then group them into three to five territories. You may discover that several names share the same idea even when the words are different.

For example, one group might be about clarity, another about craft, and a third about movement. Choosing a territory before choosing a final name makes the decision less arbitrary.

Score the territories, not just the words

Use five criteria and score each shortlisted name from 1 to 5:

  1. Fit: does it feel right for the business and audience?
  2. Clarity: can someone hear it once and understand enough?
  3. Memory: is there a sound, image or idea that sticks?
  4. Flexibility: will it still work if the offer grows?
  5. Distinctiveness: does it avoid sounding like five competitors?

The highest score is not automatically the winner. The scoring makes your reasoning visible. If two founders disagree, you now have something more useful to discuss than “I just like this one better.”

Then do the boring checks

Only after you have a shortlist should you investigate company registers, trademarks, search results, social handles, language meanings and relevant domains. A brilliant name that creates legal confusion is not brilliant for long.

Important: this workshop is for creative selection, not legal clearance. Availability and trademark rules vary by country, category and jurisdiction.

Start your thirty

Use one meaningful keyword in the generator, save the directions that trigger an association, then continue by hand until you have enough material to edit.

Open the name generator