Tilda Education
How to Come Up
With a Brand Name
A quick guide to choosing the perfect business name with practical tips
May 14, 2026
9 min.
Contents:
Key Naming Principles
Before you come up with a name, make sure to keep these rules in mind. They'll help you avoid the most common mistakes at the start.
Easy to say and spell. Avoid complicated letter combinations and uncommon sounds.
Ngmoco, the name of a popular mobile game developer, is pronounced "en-jee-mo-ko." It stands for "Next Generation Mobile Company," but the pronunciation is hard to guess from the name alone. Source
Memorable. A good name should stick after one or two mentions.
For example, a name like ABC Solutions is too generic. It's hard to remember because it lacks personality.
Aligned with your positioning. The name should reflect your brand and resonate with your audience. It shouldn't create negative or confusing associations.
For example, the team communication platform Slack originally means "lazy" or "relaxed." The brand turned this into a strength with the idea of reducing stress at work, even though the name raised questions at first.
No misleading associations. The name should be clear and easy to understand. People shouldn't interpret it in a way you didn't intend. This is especially important if you plan to enter international markets, words can have very different meanings in other languages.
A well-known example is Mitsubishi Pajero. In Spanish-speaking markets, the name had inappropriate slang meanings, so it was renamed Mitsubishi Montero.
How to Come Up with a Brand Name
Step 1: Analyze Your Product
1
Define your target audience. Understand who your customer is.
2
Study your competitors. Look at the names they use and think about how you can stand out.
3
Define your values and positioning. Clearly explain what makes your product different.
Let's create a name for a clothing brand focused on plus-size fashion.
1. Target audience
Basic profile: Women aged 18-45 looking for extended size ranges from US 14 to 24.
Pain points: They're tired of clothes designed to hide their bodies and the lack of stylish options in their size. They want to feel confident and attractive. They value brands that accept their bodies rather than try to "fix" them.
Behavior: They mostly shop online because mass-market brands often don't offer suitable options. They follow body-positive creators and prefer brands with a clear point of view. They are not just buying clothes, they are choosing values.
2. Competitors
Some brands highlight size directly in the name, for example, Universal Standard. Others focus on values, like Girlfriend Collective, which emphasizes sustainability.
3. Positioning
Confidence, strength, and self-acceptance. A brand for people who don't want to give up on fashion because of limited sizing.
1. Target audience
Basic profile: Women aged 18-45 looking for extended size ranges from US 14 to 24.
Pain points: They're tired of clothes designed to hide their bodies and the lack of stylish options in their size. They want to feel confident and attractive. They value brands that accept their bodies rather than try to "fix" them.
Behavior: They mostly shop online because mass-market brands often don't offer suitable options. They follow body-positive creators and prefer brands with a clear point of view. They are not just buying clothes, they are choosing values.
2. Competitors
Some brands highlight size directly in the name, for example, Universal Standard. Others focus on values, like Girlfriend Collective, which emphasizes sustainability.
3. Positioning
Confidence, strength, and self-acceptance. A brand for people who don't want to give up on fashion because of limited sizing.
Step 2: Brainstorm
Write down words associated with:
- Brand values
- The product
- The audience
- The emotions the name should evoke
Values: Naturalness, comfort, boldness, freedom, style.
Product: Silhouette, fashion, shape.
Audience: Woman, diva, goddess.
Emotions: Self-love, confidence, ease, glow.
Product: Silhouette, fashion, shape.
Audience: Woman, diva, goddess.
Emotions: Self-love, confidence, ease, glow.
Step 3: Try Different Naming Approaches
There are several types of brand names. Use the word associations from the previous step and try building names based on different approaches.
Model
Idea
Example
Descriptive
Clearly explains what the brand does
Booking.com (a booking service)
Associative
Doesn't describe the product directly but creates the right associations
Whole Foods Market (natural, healthy lifestyle)
Neologisms and altered words
Appeal to audiences who value creativity, humor and originality
Google (a playful twist on "googol," a large number), Lyft (a stylized version of "lift")
Founder names
Based on a person's name, often used for personal brands
Ford, Calvin Klein
Geographic names
Borrow meaning from a place (real or fictional)
Patagonia
Acronyms
Common in B2B and tech
IBM (International Business Machines), SAP (Systems, Applications, and Products)
Combined names
A mix of words that reflect the brand idea
Facebook, Snapchat
Metaphors and imagery
Use symbolic or emotional meaning
Nike (named after the Greek goddess of victory)
Repetition
Repeating or rhyming words
Coca-Cola, KitKat
Descriptive. Your Size, True Fit, XL Studio. Clear and straightforward, but can feel too literal.
Associative. No Limits, Bold Shape, Own Your Form. Focus on emotion and identity rather than size.
Neologisms. Veluna (velvet + luna), Silara (silhouette + aura), Lumelle (luminous + elle). Good for modern, social media–driven brands.
Combined names. Shape Freedom, Form & Flow, BeBold Wear. Let you expand the meaning and build a stronger concept.
Metaphors and imagery. Gravity, Bloom, Attraction. Create a strong emotional connection.
Associative. No Limits, Bold Shape, Own Your Form. Focus on emotion and identity rather than size.
Neologisms. Veluna (velvet + luna), Silara (silhouette + aura), Lumelle (luminous + elle). Good for modern, social media–driven brands.
Combined names. Shape Freedom, Form & Flow, BeBold Wear. Let you expand the meaning and build a stronger concept.
Metaphors and imagery. Gravity, Bloom, Attraction. Create a strong emotional connection.
Step 4: Check Availability & Register Your Name
1
Before launching, make sure your name is unique. Check if the trademark is already registered, whether the domain name is available, and if social media handles are free.
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See instructions on how to activate it
AI Tools for Brand Name Generation
To speed up the process and generate more ideas, you can use AI tools.
Specialized tools
There are platforms designed specifically for generating brand names. Many of them offer free versions and are easy to use, no setup required. For example, Shopify Business Name Generator, Namelix, or Atom.
Shopify is a popular e-commerce platform. It also offers a free AI-powered business name generator that helps entrepreneurs find name ideas for businesses across different industries, from beauty and fashion to education and finance.
If you're not sure where to start with your brand name, Shopify lets you choose an industry or business category and then suggests possible name ideas based on it.
Namelix is an AI-powered brand name generator that helps create short, memorable, and brandable names. To use it, you'll be asked to enter keywords related to your business. One useful feature is that Namelix shows whether the generated names are available as domain names for your website and even suggests possible logo options.
Namelix not only generates brand names but also suggests possible logos and shows whether a brand name is available to buy as a domain.
Atom is an AI-powered business naming platform that asks detailed questions to generate more relevant brand name ideas. It also shows whether related domains are available, lets you purchase them directly on the platform, and offers a trademark check based on publicly available sources.
In addition to common features, Atom lets you run a trademark check using publicly available sources.
General-Purpose AI Tools
You can also come up with a brand name using common tools like ChatGPT, DeepSeek, or Claude. Unlike dedicated name generators, they let you describe your business in more detail, explain your target audience, and refine the results through a conversation. This makes them useful for brainstorming, comparing different naming directions, and improving rough ideas step by step.
ChatGPT is one of the world's most widely used AI assistants, developed by OpenAI, a U.S.-based AI research and deployment company. It has more than 800 million weekly users.
DeepSeek is an AI assistant developed by a Chinese company headquartered in Hangzhou. It became especially popular after the launch of its reasoning models and has gained a large user base, with third-party estimates reporting around 130 million active users by the end of 2025, mostly in China.
Claude is an AI assistant developed by Anthropic, a U.S.-based AI safety and research company. It was launched relatively recently, but has already become one of the most recognized AI tools for writing, research, and business tasks.
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