7 Types of Brand Names You Need To Know (Before Choosing A Name For Your Brand)
Choosing a brand name can be frustrating, especially when starting as an entrepreneur.
When I started my freelance design business about 3 years ago, I was unsure which name was best to call my brand because I never knew which. So, I kept changing my brand name almost every time, just like a chameleon would change its skin color if it played on a flower plantation.
Thankfully, I have learned a lot about brand, branding, and design over the last 2 years. So, I’ll walk you through the popular types of brand names available, their examples as well as the pros and cons of each of these types of brand names.
There are 7 popular types of brand names;
1. Descriptive
2. Evocative
3. Invented
4. Acronym
5. Lexical
6. Founder
7. Geographical
So, at the end of this article, you’ll know which group your brand name belongs to (If you already have a brand name) and which name to choose for your brand (If you are yet to choose a name).
Are you ready? Let’s get started.
#1 Descriptive Brand Names
When you make shoes and your business name is Maze Shoes or you sell food and your shop name is Amazing Foods, people don’t need to go an extra mile to understand what your business is all about. This kind of name is known as a Descriptive Brand Name as it readily passes your brand message to your target audience.
Common examples of companies that use this type of brand name are:
Descriptive names readily convey the products and services offered by a company and because of this, they tend to be unremarkable and leave little or no room for creativity and interpretation. They often rely on a clever tagline to do the work of storytelling and conveying personality.
The upside is that they clearly communicate your brand’s core competency. The potential downside is that they hinder your brand as it grows and looks to expand to other industries.
Descriptive names are also notoriously difficult to trademark as they rely on common words and phrases.
#2 Evocative Brand Names
You might have wondered why Apple, Amazon, and Nike chose the names they bear, which doesn’t even correlate with the product and service they offer. These names make sense in definition but don’t correlate with what they do. Evocative names use suggestions and metaphors to bring to mind the experience or positioning of the brand.
They are often creative and unique and leave some space for interpretation. They enable you to tell a powerful brand story, creating a brand that is bigger than just the product and service you offer. In this way, an evocative name can be the cornerstone of a brand’s positioning, whereas other types of brand names cannot.
Powerful examples of evocative names include:
- Nike
- Amazon
- Apple
- Virgin
- Monocle
Generally, evocative names are easier to trademark because of their originality. It can be sometimes challenging to create strong emotion about your brand in your audience’s mind as they might need to go an extra mile for them to know what your brand is really about compared to descriptive names. Entrepreneurs who choose evocative names tend to spend more on marketing than branding because their brand name does not readily tell their story.
For instance, imagine in your mind that you are just hearing about Apple or seeing their logo for the first time, what comes to your mind?
#3 Invented Brand Names
The best part about brand names is that if you can’t find the perfect word, you can always make one up. Invented names are etymological fabrications that are nothing if not distinctive.
Invented brand names offer the most creative latitude for a brand, but that doesn’t mean they’re easy to conjure. Many invented names are built from Latin, Greek, or other foreign root words and modified to best embody the brand’s personality.
Successful invented names include:
- Exxon
- Kodak
- Xerox
- Verizon
- Adidas
- Pixar
Each of these brands has managed to build monumental brand equity with their invented name over the years. The challenge with invented brand names, though, is that they have no inherent meaning when first invented. While they’re a breeze to the trademark, invented names can require significant time and marketing spend to build a meaningful narrative around them.
#4 Acronymic Brand Names
Did you know that SLACK is an acronym? It means Searchable Log of All Conversation and Knowledge.
Acronyms have been used for brand names since branding first originated. A long history does not mean this type of brand name is effective, though. While functional and utilitarian, acronyms are sorely lacking in meaning and emotion.
Examples of brands with acronymic names include:
- IBM
- SLACK
- UPS
- BMW
- MTV
- GEICO
- HP
Brands like IBM, AARP, BP, and UPS haven’t been hampered in the least by the fact that their names are nothing more than a series of unrelated uppercase letters. KFC’s diversion to acronymic naming type allowed the brand to temporarily disassociate itself from the consumer backlash against trans fats.
A startup these days would be hard pressed to come up with a great reason to name their company with an acronym, though. As a rule, acronyms are hard for audiences to remember if it doesn’t form a pronounceable word and even harder for attorneys to trademark.
#5 Lexical Brand Names
Lexical brand names rely on wordplay for their memorability. Puns, phrases, compound words, alliteration, onomatopoeia, intentional misspellings, and foreign words are all styles of this popular naming type.
Lexical names are often clever — sometimes, arguably, too clever — and get their impact from pairing or modifying existing words for linguistic effect.
Examples of lexical brand names include:
- Dunkin’ Donuts
- Krazy Glue
- Sizzler Steakhouse
- Krispy Kreme
- Flickr
- Tumblr
The risk with these types of names is that they can appear shamelessly salesy. Modern audiences have been exposed to decades of inferior advertising techniques and don’t often identify with clever wordplay.
That said, lexical brand names aren’t all bad. Intentionally misspelling a word so you can leverage its original meaning while skirting trademark concerns, is a subtler approach to lexical names that have been used to great effect by notable brands like Flickr and Tumblr.
Just keep in mind that in branding, as in everyday life, there’s nothing worse than a pun that makes your eyes roll out of their sockets.
#6 Founder Brand Names
Whether for reasons of heritage or self-importance, there will always be brands named for the people who started them. This tradition stretches back to the earliest brands as well. The era when Fords tooled every street and Kellogg’s sat atop every breakfast table was one where few brands weren’t named for their founders.
These days, founder-based names are less common, but brands like Ben & Jerry’s, Martha Stewart, and Ralph Lauren have made them work. Brands that use founder brand names are often luxury.
Examples of founder names include:
- Kellogg’s
- Ford
- Ben & Jerry’s
- Martha Stewart
- Ralph Lauren
- Mrs. Fields
- Calvin Klein
Aside from sating the egos of their principals, founder names are definitely easy to trademark. They can be distinctive if positioned correctly, but require some marketing efforts to build equity (unless, of course, the founder is already famous).
#7 Geographical Brand Names
New York Life, Nantucket Nectars, Arizona Tile — Sometimes brands are inseparably tied to the regions that birthed them. Geographical names saturate a brand with all the cultural and historical associations of its namesake — for better or worse.
You’ll most often find geographical names tied to companies that once catered to a geographically limited audience but have since made it big.
Examples of the geographical naming type include:
- New York Life
- Nantucket Nectars
- American Airlines
- Arizona Tile
- California Pizza Kitchen
- Kentucky Fried Chicken
- Florida’s Natural
Naming or renaming your brand after its home region obviously has inherent limitations. It’s also likely to have been done already. Put a city or a state name in front of a product or service and you’re almost certain to find an existing entity. California Tan? Already exists. Portland Automotive? Been done. Miami Subs? Yup.
Back to where I started. Having the knowledge of the different types of brand names, their advantages, and disadvantages, I was able to come up with my personal brand name which I also use for my freelance business, Ayooketona.
Ayooketona was coined from my name Ayoade Oketona and it’s more of a Founder Brand Name. I chose a founder brand name despite all its limitations because I’m currently a solopreneur and I run my freelance business alone (Except for instances when I have to collaborate with other experts to get the job done).
Psychologically, when people are dealing with freelancers, they connect and trust them more as persons than as a company/business.
I hope this article is insightful and by now you should be able to tell which category your brand name belongs to. If you need more help with naming your brand, drop a comment and I would reply as soon as possible.
