CHAPTER 1

The 5 Qualities of a Super-Sticky Name

Think of five brand names that made you smile the first time you heard them. My fab five:

Chubby Hubby (ice cream flavor)

Scrub Daddy (sponge)

Nerdwax (eyeglass adhesive)

Bed Head (hair care products)

Super Evil Megacorp (video games)

We appreciate it when names surprise us, entertain us, and give us a happy little jolt of dopamine. Names that make us smile are infectious. They are the ones we talk about, tweet, and repeat. Why? We enjoy making others smile too.

I relish the grin on someone’s face when they ask the name of my own company, Eat My Words, or about the names I’ve created over the years. It’s impossible not to smile when someone says Gringo Lingo (a Spanish-language school in Colombia), Church of Cupcakes, or Thank God It’s Coffee.

In case you skipped the Introduction, the SMILE & SCRATCH name evaluation test is based on my philosophy: A name should make you smile instead of scratch your head.

SMILE is an acronym for the 5 qualities of a great name. (SCRATCH is the flipside, which I cover in the next chapter.)

SMILE: The 5 Qualities of a Super-Sticky Name

Suggestive

Memorable

Imagery

Legs

Emotional

Suggestive Evokes Something about Your Brand

A name can’t be expected to say everything, but it can suggest something about your brand. Not in an overly obvious way but in a way that activates the imagination. Have you heard of the Impossible Burger? Fans swear the plant-based Frankenmeat, made in a lab, tastes like the real thing. As my friend Tim heard a waitress exclaim at the Atlanta airport, “Vegetarians be trippin’!” The company name, Impossible Foods, is far more appetizing than say, Meat Lab. (Meat Farmers, a twist on Beet Farmers, would have also been clever, but since the product isn’t technically meat, the name could be confusing.) The Impossible Burger is available on menus nationwide. Try one at a White Castle or the Slutty Vegan.

One of my favorite suggestive names is that of a California cannabis confections company that creates products for sophisticated women of a certain age. I named it Garden Society.

A terrific way to use “the power of suggestion” is with a symbolic word or metaphor that implies comparison. One master of the metaphor was Frank Zamboni, inventor of the renowned ice-resurfacing machine of the same name. Two of the metaphorical names he created were Grasshopper, a machine to roll up artificial turf, and the Black Widow, a machine to fill in dirt on top of cemetery vaults.

Car companies have nailed metaphoric names. SUV names are great examples. Explorer, Expedition, Yukon, Denali, and Wrangler all suggest rugged outdoor adventure. Fragrance companies are also masters of metaphorical names. Desire, Euphoria, Passion, Rapture, and Escape all evoke experiences women find desirable. (Coincidentally, Escape is the name of an SUV, too. Imagine cars designed by Calvin Klein. I’m not as excited about the thought of Ford manufacturing cologne.)

Want a name that conveys that your business is well established? Try words that symbolize strength, power, or longevity. For instance, companies named Oaktree, Life Force, and Ironwood sound rock solid. This technique also works for conveying trust. But having the word trust in your name can sound suspect or disingenuous. (Would you buy a used car from Trusty Sid?)

Suggestive Coined Names

Cleverly coined (invented) names can be beautifully suggestive, but the trick is, you don’t want your name to sound forced or unnatural. For a name to be awesome, it must embody a tricky trifecta. It must (1) feel like a real word, (2) be intuitive to pronounce, and (3) be intuitive to spell. Lightly coined names are a good place to start. For instance Optima or Speedo. Another strategy is to combine a dictionary word with an interesting suffix. This technique is effective for suggesting your brand personality. Samsonite sounds unbreakable. Sugarfina sounds elegant. Sodalicious sounds bubbly.

The highest form of coining a name is a well-executed mash-up, formally called a portmanteau. This technique combines the sounds or meanings of two words to form a new word. (Think: mathlete, labradoodle, and gaydar.) A favorite portmanteau that I created is a beer-on-tap growler station named Chuggernaut, which marries the words chug and juggernaut. Other standout examples are Carbonite, Groupon, Pinterest, and the Baconator. One of the greatest academic achievements in name coinage is America’s first cannabis college: Oaksterdam University. This bastion of “higher learning” is a sublime blend of Amsterdam, the cannabis capital of the world, and Oakland, California, where the school is located. (I can sometimes catch a whiff of it from the nearby office of my publisher. Just sayin’.)

Other terrific coined names suggestive of an enjoyable brand experience include Jamba Juice, Zumba, Zappos, Twizzlers, and Razzles. Those names are especially fun to say, as is the classic peanut butter–infused taffy confection, Abba-Zaba. The name and the candy bar are equally irresistible.

Compound coined names such as LinkedIn, Face-book or PayPal work well, although those particular company names aren’t especially exciting unless you were an early-stage investor.

Other Suggestive Names

Under Armor (athletic apparel)

Airbus (aircraft)

Alert (caffeine gum)

Cotton Candy (grapes) Hollywood Hair (hair extensions)

Provocative Names

There are suggestive names and then there are those other suggestive names. You know, the risqué kind that you don’t want your kids to ask you to explain.

Trigger warning: if you’re easily offended, you may want to skip ahead to the next section.

A provocative business with a sign that’s photographed more than the Golden Gate Bridge is a nail salon in San Francisco’s historic “gayborhood.” Ten years ago I named it, ahem, Hand Job. I actually presented the name as a joke, but my client Bao loved it and went nuts. (An embarrassing moment: one of my employees asked me to pick up some Hand Job underwear for him, and I had to ask what size briefs he wore.)

Names with the “wink, wink factor” can work for the right audience. They can be especially effective at easing discomfort.

Nothing is more awkward for a teenage girl than talking about ovulation, pregnancy, and STDs. My client Olivia Richman created a YouTube channel to make the topic seem less squeamish. I named it Glamour-Puss, M.D.

While I don’t recommend bathroom humor for names, you can get away with it if your business specializes in “doing your business.” For more than a decade, Poo-Pourri toilet spray has introduced products with cheeky names, including Master Crapsman, Royal Flush, and Trap-A-Crap. Several years ago my team worked with the company and named Poo-tonium, Sitting Pretty, and the less tasteful version, Sh*ttin’ Pretty.

Anytime you have a provocative name, you must prepare to be persecuted. One whose faith was tested is the Toronto-based soft-serve ice cream chain known as Sweet Jesus. These extreme fun-damentalists poke a flaming pitchfork at religion. Their attempt to expand into the United States was met with what the New York Post described as “a Christian holy war.”

A petition called for Sweet Jesus’s parent (not Mary or Joseph but a company named Monarch & Misfits) to change the Sweet Jesus name and issue a public apology for misusing “Our Lord Jesus Christ.” They were also petitioned to change their branding. (A holiday ad featured a nativity scene where Baby Jesus was replaced with an ice cream cone. Good Lord, these devilish worshippers are going straight to hell.) The founders of Sweet Jesus dug in their cloven hooves, fueling more cries of outrage and calls for boycotts of the “demonic” ice cream company. As of this writing, they have a store in Mall of America.

Memorable Makes an Association with the Familiar

According to the latest research in cognitive psychology, we remember things that can easily be merged into our existing knowledge base. One of the basic mechanisms of memory is association. The stickiest names are associated with words and concepts that are already familiar to us.

Consider the company LeapFrog. Most of us played the childhood game of leapfrog. Because we have a connection to it, the name LeapFrog is easy to remember. Case in point: at a networking event if you meet “Lucinda from LeapFrog,” you may forget her name three seconds after she introduces herself. You have a far better chance of remembering the name LeapFrog because you have an existing association with the name. If you don’t have an immediate connection to the name Lucinda, it’s easily forgotten. During your conversation with “Whatshername,” she tells you LeapFrog makes educational toys. She doesn’t have to explain that they help children leap ahead. You get it.

When we can associate a name with a word, phrase, or song we already know, it’s much easier for us to recall it later from our brain’s dusty filing cabinet. But when we try to remember a new name without anything familiar as a reference point, it’s much more difficult for us to connect it and therefore remember it.

How many of the 10 company names below will you remember one week from now? What about 24 hours from now?

How can we remember any of these? Most of us have the attention span of a squirrel monkey.* Because we are rarely there in person to explain our names to potential customers, I didn’t tell you what these companies do. They make scheduling software. How would anyone know?

If you do invent a name, make sure it still feels somewhat familiar. When I first saw a billboard for Intel’s chip Pentium, my immediate thought was, “I don’t remember Pentium being on the periodic table of elements.” If you’re going to rearrange the molecular structure of a word to form a new one, make sure it gets a positive reaction.

A Memorable Long Name Is Better Than a Forgettable Short Name

Last spring I helped my better half, Glenn, load his truck with the spoils of an online auction, specifically an unwieldy tiki bar for our tropical backyard. As I steadied the teetering tiki, I scanned the crowd to see who had won the other eclectic treasures. In the distance I spotted a heavily tattooed biker wheeling away a life-size ostrich. (I know it was life size only because in South Africa I rode one bareback.) Even more hilarious than an ostrich on wheels was the marginally offensive slogan on the tatted guy’s T-shirt. When I shouted a compliment to him, he hollered back, “Thanks, I got it online at Better Than Pants.” I had no free hand to jot down the name. How could I remember it? How could I not?! It’s stickier than a spilled piña colada. I know because nearly a year later I’m still able to recall it.

Super Evil Megacorp is another long name that no one ever forgets. This video game company is majorly funded and majorly fun. Business cards say, “This certifies that you had a genuine encounter with Super Evil Megacorp and that no anti-matter weapons were used on you. This time.” You can buy a T-shirt in the Super Evil Megastore.

Other long names that people find easy to remember include We Buy Ugly Houses, Two Men and a Truck, Hell or High Watermelon (wheat beer), and This Blueberry Walks into a Bar (cereal bars).

Honestly, How Memorable Is Your Personal Name?

Your first and last name say absolutely nothing about your business, expertise, or brand personality. Plus, your name may be hard to spell, pronounce, or remember. Why would you want to have a business name with the same difficulties?

One service professional who got it right is Tejal Topiwala, a part-time interior designer. For many people, her name is intimidating to pronounce. She had the foresight to know that the name might be a barrier for people who may not want to pick up the phone and call if they’re unsure how to pronounce her name. We branded her company Paprika, with the tagline “Spice up your space.” This new identity makes a nod to her flair for color, lends itself to wordplay, has beautiful imagery, and is a fantastic conversation starter. And, most of all, it lets prospective clients know that she’s creative.

If your first or last name lends itself to wordplay, you may be able to create a clever brand name out of it. NFL Hall of Famer Steve Young creatively used his last name when he formed his Forever Young Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping children. Professional debt slayer and retirement specialist Katie Hyer is ingeniously branding her business 401Katie. And Nir Eyal, author of the New York Times bestseller Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, shares fascinating research in his blog, Nir & Far.

If your name is truly fun to say, you may be able to get away with using it. Frank Zamboni did when he patented the Zamboni ice-resurfacing machine. Fans cheer it at hockey games and some even get to ride on it.

The name Zamboni is so well loved there have been songs and poems written about it. One fan, Theresa Loong, an honors graduate of Harvard University who knows how to drive a Zamboni(!), affectionately described Zamboni as “a wonderful, magical, frivolous word rich with vowels, consonants, and pleasurable mouth contortions that roll off the tongue like a Buddhist chant.”

Can you imagine if someone talked about your name with so much affection? Certainly no one would gush over the Smith Ice-Resurfacing Machine. And the Smith family wouldn’t be making cold hard cash selling branded merchandise, from paperweights to playing cards, as Zamboni does. Apparently sales are quite brisk. Since the company introduced miniature Zamboni replicas, millions have been sold around the world. How many would be sold if the machine was named the Smith Ice-Resurfacing Machine or the Resurfia?

Fake It to Make It Memorable

When we moved to San Diego, Glenn and I had the bitchin’ idea to decorate our backyard bamboo fence with a long row of surfboards. We were able to get the first 19 boards donated by our neighborly Obecians (what we call ourselves here in Ocean Beach). In need of a few more boards, I cruised into our local surf shop, Coconut Peet’s. A laid-back dude, “Coconut Joel,” showed me their cheapest beater boards and helped me choose the best of the worst. Before I left, I asked to meet the shop’s namesake, Peet, who I assumed would be a salty character. Joel laughed and said, “There is no Peet.” He explained that the big kahuna’s name is Billy, and there has never been a Peet. Billy thought the name Coconut Peet’s sounded better than Coconut Billy’s. (I agree.) An unexpected benefit of Peet being a figment of the imagination is that when customers say, “Peet said I could get a discount,” everyone who works there knows that person is a lying SOB. (Those are the same blowhards who tell you they’ve partied with Tommy Bahama. Yep, that’s a fictitious name, too.)

Other Memorable Names

Yummy Tummy (shapewear)

Crunch (gyms)

Tropical MBA (entrepreneurship podcast) Yelp (customer reviews)

Kickstarter (crowdfunding)

Imagery Aids Memory through Evocative Visuals

When I first started dating Glenn, he invited me to a whitewater weekend on the American River. I was about as eager to ride those rapids as a cat is to take a shower. Years ago on a nightmarish trip to Zimbabwe, I had gone rafting on the crocodile-infested Zambezi River and was completely traumatized when the boat flipped and I was caught underneath. Glenn, who is a certified river-rafting guide, assured me that the American River was about as treacherous as Splash Mountain at Disneyland. To further alleviate my fear, he thought to prepare me in advance for every twist and turn by having me visualize the experience. “You’re going to love the names of the rapids,” he exclaimed, rattling off his favorites: “Meat Grinder, Satan’s Cesspool, Troublemaker, Pre-op, Postop, Hospital Bar.” My heart was already racing—for all the wrong reasons. I was having a panic attack. Come hell or high water, I was not going rafting! That’s the power of a name with imagery.

Names that are associated with images make a strong impression and are hard to forget. Think of someone you’ve met in your lifetime who has a memorable first name. I met Daisy, Forrest, and Chopper (a helicopter pilot) backpacking in New Zealand in 2003. I never saw them again, yet I never forgot their names. I knew Wilma, a masseuse, for all of 55 minutes. When I asked her if anyone ever forgot her name, she looked puzzled. Clearly no one ever had. (I refrained from asking if she had a daughter named Pebbles.) Names like these are easy for us to recall because they have such strong associations with things we can visualize. These associations help cement them into our brains.

To further illustrate this concept, try this fun test inspired by a memory exercise from my favorite business bestseller, Made to Stick—Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Dan and Chip Heath.

Spend 15 seconds studying the seven sets of letters below. Then, look away from the page and jot them down from memory.

W SJBL TDM VFD RNY CNH LDOJ

How many did you remember? Most people can remember just a few. Now turn the page and try it again.

I haven’t changed the letters or the order in which they appear. All I’ve done is change the way the letters in the seven sets are grouped. Once again, study them for 15 seconds, and then see how many you remember.

WSJ BLT DMV FDR NYC NHL DOJ

I’m not a betting woman, but I suspect your memory greatly improved the second time around. You have obviously figured out why. The first time you were trying to remember random letters with no apparent visual cues. The second time was much easier because the letters were associated with familiar things you could picture: the Wall Street Journal, a bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwich, the Department of Motor Vehicles, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, New York City, the National Hockey League, the Department of Justice.

Before Wells Fargo was mired in scandal, someone once said to me that they had always liked the name because “it connotes reliability and speed, and it has wonderful imagery of the Wild West. The stagecoach delivered the mail, come rain, snow, or ambush.” Sure, after more than 150 years of building a successful brand and investing millions of dollars in advertising, the name Wells Fargo does evoke all those things. But those words alone don’t conjure up pictures of the Wild West. Don’t confuse the image of your brand with the image your name alone projects.

When You Don’t Want to Imagine That

I was totally grossed out when I saw one of the sponsors of a charity event I was invited to was named ToiletTree. The logo was a tree. A tree I imagined where one might pee. Or worse. Ewwwww. The imagery is disgusting. I thought surely they must sell supplies for commercial restrooms. “Butt” no. ToiletTree sells personal care products, including ones for better oral hygiene. Electric toothbrushes. Flossers. Things you put in your mouth.

I suspect the company was trying to be clever because if you say ToiletTree fast, like an auctioneer, you might hear “toiletry.” But if a person only hears the name, they would assume it was spelled Toiletry. It would forever need explaining. I can imagine something like this phone conversation: “It’s spelled ‘toilet’ then ‘tree’ like a Christmas tree.” The perplexed person on the other end is now thinking about how Santa goes to the bathroom. As a name, ToiletTree stinks.

The name Norcal Waste Systems needs no explaining. It’s unfortunately descriptive and evokes unpleasant imagery. It’s not a name you would want to show off on a T-shirt or water bottle.

When the company was formed in 1983, the name Norcal Waste Systems was fine for the commercial businesses it served. But 25 years later, with hundreds of thousands of residential garbage-collection customers, the name was far from appealing. Waste had an especially negative meaning to the environmentally conscious communities it served in Northern California, Oregon, and Washington. What these customers cared about was recycling, composting, and reclaiming useful materials before they were buried in a landfill. Ironically, Norcal Waste Systems was an industry leader in all these areas. But no one would ever guess that based on the name.

In April 2009 Norcal Waste Systems changed its name to Recology, fusing the words recycle and ecology. This progressive new name evokes its environmental shift, resonates with both residential and commercial customers, and is a source of pride (instead of embarrassment) for its employees.

Other Names with Imagery

Timberland (outdoor gear)

BlackRock (private equity)

Lionsgate (motion pictures)

Leaf (electric car)

Hard Candy (cosmetics)

Legs Lends Itself to a Theme for Extended Mileage

To get the most out of your name, give it legs. A name with a theme will lend itself to wordplay, letting you get more mileage out of it. Names with legs provide endless “verbal branding” opportunities.

A strong theme can be extended to many elements of a brand:

You don’t have to be a Jimmy Buffett fan to appreciate Latitude Margaritaville, the 55-plus retirement communities inspired by the music and lifestyle of the legendary singer. Who wouldn’t want to retire on Castaway Court or have return-address labels from Tiki Terrace? The vacation vibe is pervasive and persuasive. Other street names include Flip Flop Court, Attitude Avenue, and Landshark Blvd. I bet neighbors don’t hesitate to borrow a cup of salt when they live on Lost Shaker Way. Other names carrying the Margaritaville theme are the Barkaritaville Pet Resort and the Coconut Telegraph, a local business center.

Any business can have a name with legs. Public relations pro Lynette Hoy is a fiery woman who isn’t afraid to pick up the phone and pitch the press. When I met her, she was using her personal name as her business name: Lynette Hoy PR. But the name didn’t evoke anything about her high-energy personality. We rebranded her with a name and tagline that said it all: Firetalker PR, with the tagline “Hot on the press.”

Lynette took it from there, creating a firestorm of branding ideas. Her official title is Fire Chief. She works in The Firehouse. And her packages include Fire Starter, Fan the Flame of Success, and Ignite Your Visibility. She lightly peppers her marketing materials with her theme, keeping it fresh and fun but not cutesy, corny, or over the top. The ringtone on her phone is the classic R&B funk song “Fire,” by the Ohio Players, which she cranks up during her speaking engagements to “fire up” the audience.

Find a theme that can be stretched like carnival taffy. In addition to fire, lucrative themes with endless wordplay include magic, music, travel, nature, romance, and art. The theme of food is also highly extendable, as we’ve discovered at Eat My Words. Here’s just a “taste”: Our service packages include Key Ingredients, Supermarket Special, and The Whole Enchilada. Our blog is called The Kitchen Sink. And our general-information email address is [email protected].

Wobbly Legs

Names that are poorly coined, made up of a meaningless jumble of letters, or formed out of desperation to get an available dot-com often don’t have a leg to stand on. They can make the mistake of trying too hard to play off their name. Noom is a silly name for a weight-loss app. The company sprinkles equally ridiculous words throughout its otherwise charming copy. Some I find particularly cringe-worthy are Noomtastic, Noomily (family), and Noomers. A fun play on the word would have been Noomaste, like namaste, a word many of its millennial users would know from yoga. That wouldn’t have been too much of a stretch.

Legs Can Help Names Work as a Family

When you launch a product, it’s hard to look into your crystal ball and know what the future holds. But if you can develop a naming theme early on, it will help you tremendously down the road. Apple did this with iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad. And even though the word cloud has become terribly overused, the name iCloud is instantly identifiable as being from Apple. This makes it stand out from the rest of the “cloud crowd.” It works for them. (But it doesn’t work for you or your products. Don’t even go there.)

Here is a family of names of medications that needs no help:

If your name doesn’t have a theme, you can still extend it through the personality of the brand, as Ben & Jerry’s has:

Another creative way to name a product family is with matching initial letters. Ford has done this over the years by giving their models creative names that begin with the letter F:

If you’re going to do this, try using an initial letter that has many words associated with it like S, P, C, D, M, or A. Avoid limited letters such as K, Z, and X. (As a rule, it’s never a wise idea to start a name with the letter X, which makes pronunciation difficult. It’s also the most difficult keystroke on a Qwerty keyboard.)

Some Names with Legs Can Be Monetized

Hooters makes an obscene amount of money selling more than 250 items of merchandise featuring its name and silly slogans, including baby bibs that exclaim “Show Me Your Hooters.”

If you have a catchy name, you can monetize it. Imagine this: you launch a new business and don’t have the brand recognition, cachet, or celebrity endorsements of Nike, Polo, or Louis Vuitton. Yet fans of your name will clamor to show it off on hats, T-shirts, mugs, and more. Instead of you having to pay for advertising, your customers will pay you to advertise your brand.

Emotional Moves People

I once spent a queen’s ransom on a piece of bling because the name made me feel like a million bucks: the Boss Lady Ring. I deserved it.

According to Forrester Research, 50 percent of every buying decision is driven by emotion. Not only do we buy things that make us feel good, but we are also inclined to buy things with names that make us feel good.

What about when products have little, if anything, to differentiate them other than the name? Will someone spend more if a product has a name that makes a strong emotional connection? Absolutely! It happened to me one sticky summer.

For three sleepless-in-San Francisco nights, I was under attack by a relentless mosquito. I was fighting a losing battle and desperately needed to put one of us out of our misery. Searching for relief on Amazon at 2 a.m., I discovered the perfect weapon: an electric mosquito zapper shaped like a squash racquet. (Squash! How ironic.) Amazon gave me a choice of four similar products: BugKwikZap, The Executioner, Zurgon, and Elucto. Which of these names do you think makes the strongest emotional connection with those suffering from a blood-sucking mosquito feeding frenzy? (Hint: it’s sounds like a total badass.) Yep, The Executioner. Ding! Ding! Ding!

The Executioner conjures up an empowering brand experience: “You’ve eaten your last meal, little f*cker! I’m going to incinerate you into oblivion.” BugKwikZap, Zurgon, and Elucto don’t electrify our emotions like The Executioner. (Tip: if you have a strong product, don’t give it a weak name.) Even though The Executioner was the priciest of the four, its name was irresistible. It spoke volumes and conjured up exciting imagery. A killer product with a killer name. Bam!

You may not ever need an electric bug zapper, but I bet you’ve bought a bottle of wine. Think of how many times you’ve picked up a bottle just because the name was appealing. If you shop by the label, as the majority of wine buyers do, it’s hard to resist a love-at-first-sight name like Fat Bastard, 7 Deadly Zins, Layer Cake, Educated Guess, Little Black Dress, and Cat’s Pee on a Gooseberry Bush.

Use Emotion to Increase Sales

The hip Hotel Vitale on San Francisco’s Embarcadero waterfront experienced a 25 percent jump in wedding business when we changed the ho-hum names of their wedding services to ones that were, pardon the pun, emotionally engaging.

Previously, a bride and groom planning a wedding may have skimmed Post Reception Bar Rental, but nothing says “party time” like Last Call for Alcohol. The name makes an instant emotional connection because it’s fun, meaningful, and loaded with imagery. Suddenly, a coed bridal shower doesn’t sound excruciating for the groom when it’s named Shower Together. All these names bring levity to the stressful task of wedding planning, add value, and make everyone smile, even the parents footing the bill.

While I’d like to share more sales figures with you, name metrics cannot be quantified unless a name is changed, and even then, with refreshed branding and new advertising, the name cannot take all the credit. Hotel Vitale can attribute the 25 percent increase in wedding sales to the name changes because they were simply words listed in a guide. Nothing else changed. Restaurants can try this by changing the name of a dish on the menu. Something as simple as changing Chicken Soup, to the more emotionally driven Grandma’s Chicken Soup will boost sales although not at the Slutty Vegan.

Birds Do It, Bees Do It, Even B2Bs Do It

Most B2B (business-to-business) companies fear that if their name is unconventional, they won’t be taken seriously. Listen, scaredy cats, you need to let go of your old-school way of thinking. Why should you believe me? I run a B2B firm with a playful name, Eat My Words. For more than a decade, our name has been a magnet for high profile clients, including Coca-Cola, Disney, Google, Amazon, and Xerox. A fun business name suggests “We love what we do, and you’re going to enjoy working with us!”

Creative service firms have a lot of leeway with their names, but how about if they have conservative clients? Consider a consultancy for the biotech, pharma, and medical device companies named FreshBlood. You don’t have to be a vampire to love it.

Don’t be quick to dismiss law firms from having cool names either. Perhaps the best example of a grin-inducing B2B name comes from whip-smart attorney Leila Banijamali.

When Leila started saying her last name out loud to potential clients, she realized she would be making a mistake by naming her practice after herself. She enlisted our services to give her business a breakthrough name that evoked her firm’s core strengths: foundational legal support for creative agencies and emerging growth tech companies.

Focusing on the strengths of Leila’s practice, our creative team ideated around the concepts of foundation and support. Those are two rich veins for name ideas. We explored metaphors for architectural elements, structures, and strength, and finally landed on a name with a perfect fit: Bedrock.

The name transformed Leila’s firm. She told me, “Once we became Bedrock, the confidence in our brand shot up. So did our revenues. We started landing more interesting work and clients that are a better fit for us. I’m certain that without a magnetic name, we wouldn’t have attracted as much business. People are delighted with our name because it isn’t trying to be self-important. It shows our brand is not about the firm’s partners; it’s about the client experience.”

If a law firm can enjoy success with an unconventional name, any business can. Objection overruled.

Other Emotional Names

Shazam (music app)

Ticklebelly (cake pops)

Lush (soap and cosmetics)

Snuggle (fabric softener)

Caesars Palace (casino)

Next, let’s look at the flipside of SMILE: SCRATCH.

* According to a study published in the journal Behavioural Processes, squirrel monkeys forget an event less than 20 seconds after it occurs. Of the 25 species that were studied, the squirrel monkey’s abysmal performance barely exceeded that of a bee.