How did you decide on a company name?
Discussion
As per the thread subject, how did you decide on your company's name? I'm trying to come up with one for a Limited Company at the moment and am in need of a little inspiration.
I dont like acronyms (ABC Products), names with "cool" numbers in place of letters (gr8 products), incorrect spelling (Rite Stuf), those that are named to be the first listed in Yellow pages (AA111 Taxis) or those which are made up of the owners names.
I need something that doesnt sound rude or offensive in China, something that Chinese people can pronounce and something that sounds British for the benefit of British customers.
I've considered a few options, most of which came from looking at an OS map and picking the name of a small local village and adding something onto the end. Things like Marston Products, Edingale Ltd. etc.
Of course it needs to be something that's not taken and something where the .com and .co.uk domains are available.
I dont like acronyms (ABC Products), names with "cool" numbers in place of letters (gr8 products), incorrect spelling (Rite Stuf), those that are named to be the first listed in Yellow pages (AA111 Taxis) or those which are made up of the owners names.
I need something that doesnt sound rude or offensive in China, something that Chinese people can pronounce and something that sounds British for the benefit of British customers.
I've considered a few options, most of which came from looking at an OS map and picking the name of a small local village and adding something onto the end. Things like Marston Products, Edingale Ltd. etc.
Of course it needs to be something that's not taken and something where the .com and .co.uk domains are available.
Yes.
We predict our turnover will comfortably exceed the VAT threshold in year one and I will be joint MD with a friend who has run his own Ltd. company for 10+ years.
Whilst we appreciate the additional admin effort, we have decided that it is easier to shoulder the burden from the start, rather than trying to change in a few years time.
We predict our turnover will comfortably exceed the VAT threshold in year one and I will be joint MD with a friend who has run his own Ltd. company for 10+ years.
Whilst we appreciate the additional admin effort, we have decided that it is easier to shoulder the burden from the start, rather than trying to change in a few years time.
Go for something alphabetically early and short. I wanted something that was easy to say over the phone. Initially I wanted 'Delta' as I thought 'Delta Publishing' would be suitable, but there was a Delta Press. Someone suggested 'Blah' so I became Blah Publishing. This was in 1992 so I bought Blah.com in 1995 (and sold it in 2001).
. If your company does diversify in the future, then having a specific trade/product in your name could be an issue.Two halves here too:
Front half indicating the region(s) we worked in, second half something which didn't tie us down in terms of product but gave the right feel, so 'Yorkshire Resourcing' (not the actual name) and then we tagged on a bit for the trading; Yorkshire Resourcing and Vending. That way we could also do Yorkshire Resourcing and Cleaning, Escorts, Medical etc. Downside is the web address is too long so had to go for a deriveative ; YorkshireRES
Front half indicating the region(s) we worked in, second half something which didn't tie us down in terms of product but gave the right feel, so 'Yorkshire Resourcing' (not the actual name) and then we tagged on a bit for the trading; Yorkshire Resourcing and Vending. That way we could also do Yorkshire Resourcing and Cleaning, Escorts, Medical etc. Downside is the web address is too long so had to go for a deriveative ; YorkshireRES
If you want to fit in whilst in China, go for the longest possible name you can to impress everybody.
It's not unusual to find ridiculous names like;
Goochie North UK Investment, Trading and Manufacturing Corporation (United Kingdom and China) Limited.
The only down side of this pomp and circumstance is making payments to these ridiculous company names is almost impossible, you only get about 16 characters in the box on the form.
You'll fit right in when in China though.
ETA - "???????? Trading and Manufacturing Limited" works well for international trade, it's generic enough to not give anything away, and makes you sound serious.
It's not unusual to find ridiculous names like;
Goochie North UK Investment, Trading and Manufacturing Corporation (United Kingdom and China) Limited.
The only down side of this pomp and circumstance is making payments to these ridiculous company names is almost impossible, you only get about 16 characters in the box on the form.
You'll fit right in when in China though.
ETA - "???????? Trading and Manufacturing Limited" works well for international trade, it's generic enough to not give anything away, and makes you sound serious.
Edited by maser_spyder on Wednesday 17th March 20:16
lestag said:
Mine was suburb in Bristol were my wife used to live. it was short, .com available and only..... 210,000 hits if you type brentry into google...
Good job she didn't live in Fishponds!
We got our company name by one day taking the urine out of an out company we both worked for and it stuck.
I think there is value in putting something descriptive of what your company does in the name as without it you may loose customers purely because they aren't sure what the company does. People may forget your company name but if it has the business type in it's name there is a chance people will re-find you, or looking through a collection of business cards remember what you do.
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