Brand naming consultation

Naming and domain availability are one problem, not two. Most naming work fails at the last step, when a name everyone agreed on turns out to be unavailable, unusable or already someone else's trademark.

Start a naming project

Where naming projects break

  • The domain is treated as an afterthought. A shortlist built without checking availability produces a favourite that cannot be secured, and the team spends the next month grieving it.
  • The name fails the phone test. If it cannot be said once and spelled without hesitation, every customer who hears it has to be told twice.
  • It is too descriptive to own. A name that describes the service is easy to approve and hard to defend, as a brand and as a trademark.
  • Trademark comes last. Clearance is checked after the logo exists, when changing course is expensive enough that people talk themselves into the risk.

How the consultation runs

  1. Discovery

    What the business does, who it sells to, what it will look like in five years, and what it must not sound like. Also the constraints nobody writes down: an existing name in the family, a sector convention, a market you intend to enter later.

  2. Generation

    Candidates across several registers: coined, compound and evocative. Each one is judged on the same criteria, so the conversation is about fit rather than taste.

  3. Availability, checked as we go

    A name is not shortlisted before we know what it would take to secure it: registered or not, held by whom, and at roughly what cost. This is the step that keeps the process from ending in disappointment.

  4. Screening before you fall in love

    A preliminary look for obvious collisions in your sector, early enough to matter. This is a screen, not clearance: the legal opinion is your attorney's, and we will say so every time.

  5. Acquisition

    If the chosen name is registered, we can acquire it for you through our brokerage service, with the transfer completed through escrow.

What you leave with, and what we will not claim

What you get

  • A shortlist where every name can actually be secured.
  • The reasoning behind each one, written down, so you can defend the choice to a board or a founder.
  • A clear view of what the preferred name will cost to acquire.
  • A recommendation, not a menu. We say which one we would take and why.

Where it stops

  • We do not provide trademark clearance or legal opinions. That work belongs with an attorney, before you commit and before you spend on identity.
  • We cannot guarantee that a registered name can be acquired, or acquired at a given price.
  • We do not promise a market outcome. A good name removes an obstacle; it does not do the selling.

Already know what you want?

If you are looking for a name rather than a process, our curated marketplace lists brandable domains that are short, pronounceable and ready to use. If you have a specific name in mind and it is taken, that is a brokerage question.

Choosing a name right now?

Talk it through before you commit

Tell us what the business does and what you have shortlisted. We will say what each name would cost to secure, including when the answer is to keep looking.

Start the conversation