How to find a suggestive name for your brand

So you are in need of a good brand name for a product or service you are selling. You don't want to come up with a completely arbitrary term because consumers will have no idea what it is you sell just by reading the brand because it's an entirely made up word. Instead, you want your brand to bring to mind an important aspect of what you are selling, without being so generic that you will not be able to trademark it.

Ordinarily, coming up with a suggestive brand name can be difficult and time-consuming. However, here are some shortcuts.

1. Use Markavo's suggestive brand generator to find a brand (with an available domain). It's Free.

Think of a product you sell (for example, "coffee") or a verb that brings to mind an important aspect of your business (like "run" for a running shoe store). Type it into the generator and review the list of suggestions.

Find a result that you like? Simply click it and see if the domain name is available for registration.

A lot of good domains are already registered by squatters looking to sell the domain for a significant mark up. Before you spend a large sum on a premium domain, be sure to have us perform a common law trademark search so we can give you a sense of how likely you would be to secure a federal trademark registration.

Note that it is not possible to force a domain name squatter to sell you the domain for a reasonable price by registering the trademark. They owned the domain before you secured the trademark, so they won't be considered an infringer.

2. Consider running a naming contest.

With the help of Squadhelp, you can have naming experts generate a list of hundreds of creative brand names that are appropriate for the product or services you will be selling.

In your creative brief, you state what domain name extensions must be available (for example, you only want a brand that has a .com available for a reasonable price).

Before you award a winner of your naming contest, have us perform a common law trademark search so we can give you a sense of how likely you would be to secure a federal trademark registration.