Freelance work has picked up. I have a potential long-term client, a nonprofit that wants fundraising help, I have a repeat client who has hired me for three jobs, and I got my first unsolicited client interview – they liked my profile and want to see if I’m a good fit. I’m still not sure if I can make a living this way. For one, I still spend a lot more time seeking work, writing proposals, answering potential client questions – none of which is billable. That said, the work is always varied which keeps things interesting, and I can do it from my sofa or balcony. If I can line up enough of it and get a blend of steady work as an underpinning to the sporadic daily or weekly work – I might be able to figure out the ebb flow nature.
Yesterday and today I’ve worked on name brainstorming and research projects for two different clients. Yesterday’s client seemed certain that the name had to be a two-syllable name. They gave me the examples of Google and Uber and Venmo. All of which are perfectly fine and certainly recognizable. They have a pleasing ring to them, and at least in terms of google and uber, some meaning behind the words. I didn’t disagree with him, but what I wanted to point out was that there’s a good chance those names didn’t have quite the same ring when they were first pitched. With different marketing people in the room, a word like google could have been dismissed as sounding like a baby noise. Their popularity give them credibility, familiarity, and gravitas after the fact. So what makes a good website or company name? What are the key elements? Are there key elements? I’m sure someone has written a better blog post on this. Being the lazy scholar that I am, I don’t intend to go looking for it.
A Good Origin Story
Origin stories are ways for companies to show a bit of their personality. They are ways to show why they do what they do and share some of their passion for their work and what inspires them. The interesting thing about origin stories is that they can be entirely organic and real, or they can be crafted. By which I mean that maybe a design company was inspired by a mural in an alley, a rocky outcropping in a bay, a visit to an artistic neighborhood, or they simply want to honor their “home” base. They might come up with names like Seventh Street Studios or Hidden Mural Design, or Bay and Boulders Creative. I’m completely making this up as I go, but you get the idea – the name has meaning to how they got their start. Crafting an origin story might be more about choosing an image or name that fits their vision of who they are. While not the best example, I once started a literary journal called Rafters. In hindsight, it’s not a great name, because it has too many potential meanings – are we talking about rivers and inner-tubes, or the structural beams in a barn? It was the latter – I wanted something literally elevated but also rustic and foundational. Choosing symbolic words such as aqua to represent clarity and coolness (like water) can be an effective way to show personality – in which case the origin story might be about how the name was chosen.
Cool Sounding
Sometimes there is no symbolic or literal tie between the name and the work or the principles of the organization. One of the companies I was told to look at was Fancy Rhino. It’s a creative company here in Tennessee that specialized in creating video content. I didn’t see anything on their home page about why that name, but to some degree, I didn’t care. It’s pleasing to say and hear, and conjures up an interesting conflicting image that’s weighty and humorous at the same time. Another company name I was given was Red Pelican – also very easy on the tongue. If there’s a formula to this type of naming, it is to match a descriptive word with a noun in an effort to come up with something that sounds good. There’s a bar here in town called Blue Monkey – that works. Beer companies have been good at doing this: Fat Tire, Green Flash, Ballast Point, Dogfish Head, Russian River… locally, we have Memphis Made, High Cotton, Ghost River, and Wiseacre. All two and three syllables, several specific to geography, and all roll off the tongue.
Securing the Domain Name
With time, original names, especially domain names, get snatched up. Domain name speculation – buying up internet real estate – has been around as long as the internet has been around. Most new businesses, like the ones I’m working with, don’t want to buy a domain name – some of them can cost thousands of dollars. Riffing off of Fancy Rhino, I came across GracefulMonkey. It’s available, but for just over $3k. There are a whole bunch of derivatives that are available. These names are primarily created by adding a descriptive word, removing a vowel, or creating a differently spelled name. If it’s a bank that want GracefulMonkey, they might consider GracefulMonkeyFinancial. Or if it’s a shopping and delivery system, they change shipped to shipt.
I’m sure there’s a science behind this type of work. I’m sure there are algorithms that spit out unique combinations of words. MangoSky, PurpleButterfly, AquaHorizonRental, TurtleSloth. I happen to like playing with words. I like feeling the sound of them and looking for other meanings. I’m pretty sure the ten names I submitted yesterday were all rejected. I’m ok with that – it was fun to just think in a different way.