What’s in a name?
During a party years ago, when I was pregnant, our friends began "helping" my husband and I to come up with a boy's name for our baby. At the end of the evening, they had come up with names, when put together with my husband's last name, were that of a character from Star Wars, a jazz icon and a famous bourbon. Needless to say we did not go with any of the above.
Choosing a name for a company or product can be just as tricky and one must be just as cautious. A recent segment on the television news magazine Sunday Morning, entitled "Playing the name game" brought this point home.
Just a few points (there are many more) to consider when choosing a name for your company include:
- Choose a name that can grow with your business
- Be descriptive
- Unique, but easy to spell and memorable
- Think big
- Is the domain name taken? – important for a presence on the web
For more information, check out this article from the website Canadaone by Julie King, entitled "Choosing a business name" and this article by Susan Ward from the website about.com entitled "5 rules for Choosing a Business Name"
One of the most important things to do once you have a few ideas for a name, is to check to see if that name is already being used. There is a formal search that you will have to go through in order to incorporate, but before you spend the money on a search, many people check out a number of easily accessible sources to see if a name is taken.
Corporations Canada has a database which can be searched for federally incorporated companies. For corporations who have incorporated in Ontario, the Oncorp database includes names of companies registered in the province. Most of the other provinces in Canada have similar databases available for searching. There are many other sources that business librarians can point you towards to do further checking.
On the flip side, there are a number of things NOT to do, read up on the most common mistakes that people make when naming a company. And for a check list of the steps to follow when incorporating a company, check out this page from about.com on how to incorporate in Canada.
Good luck naming your "baby"!
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