We jumped for joy when we saw that one of the best and most expensive naming companies in the world, A Hundred Monkeys, included us in their page of competitors! They have a special section dedicated to the best naming companies. The idea is to show that A Hundred Monkeys are not afraid to reveal the alternatives in this business and to show their potential clients how important the name is, especially when it comes to the name of a naming company.

The launch of the Rabbiter

Actually A Hundred Monkeys inspired us to start our company in the first place. In the end of 2008, we learnt that there is a naming company that charges $75,000 per name and that was intriguing, to say the least. Back then, we already had a good portfolio of names that we were really proud of. We thought “We can start doing this for start-up companies for as much as $500!” In March, 2009, the Rabbiter started catching brand names that jump and now, just 2 years later, we are in the list of the best naming companies, ranked by the very company that ignited our passion.

Naming a naming company

We have read on the website of A Hundred Monkeys that the idea behind their name is that if you put 100 monkeys on typewriters, at least one monkey will come up with a good name. That was a very brave name and a very brave explanation. Well, they gave up on the explanation and we understand why. When we were creating our name, we wanted to emphasize on the idea that we will create brand names that make businesses jump. So these businesses need names that can jump and we are the ones to provide them with such. We called ourselves the Rabbiter – an enigmatic name, easy to remember… and a hundred times shorter than many others…

Inspired by the requirements of our clients, by the rules of our competitors and by what we do for a living, we present our version of the 5 most common myths about brand naming:

1. Names should start with letters early in the alphabet.

Well, this is probably a very relevant rule… for the age when computers and respectively search engines were not yet invented. When was the last time you looked for a company or product in an alphabetized show guide? In today’s digital era brands can be found easily through computers, phone, tablets, etc. Now let’s take a look at the top 100 global brands for 2010 - some names that start with the last 3 letters in the alphabet are Xerox, Yahoo, Yves Saint Laurent, Zara and Zurich. These names sound more than right to us…

2. Names should not sound offensive in any language.

The truth is that there are too many languages in the world. For example “sure” sounds like “death” in Estonian, but that does not mean that you should not use that word in your name. Today people have a global thinking – it will be harder and harder to scare someone to death with an English word like “sure”.  When creating the name, you should just avoid negative connotations in the most common languages, like English, Spanish, French, German and also in the local languages of the markets where you plan to operate. If necessary you can also rebrand your product for some new market. Focus groups could be helpful in this situation.

3. Suggestive names are easier to remember than coined names.

As professionals who create and study brand names every day, we prefer a name that is not obvious and that makes you think for a second, thanks to its metaphor, its structure or thanks to some hidden idea. As strange as it might sound, names that are too obvious are actually easy to forget. This is probably because people do not try remembering the name as they are sure that they have already memorized it. For instance Starbucks is harder to read at first, but once memorized, it is hard to forget. While a name like Elite Coffee (a real brand by the way) is very easy to read and understand, but hard to remember. This is because one will say in a few days "Oh I remember that name, it was something like Top Coffee or Premium Coffee... something like that".

4. Names should be SEO-friendly.

No, your website should be SEO-friendly, not your domain name. Consumers will keep coming to your website if they remember your brand name. In order to increase the traffic to your web page, your brand name needs to be catchy, unique and different. Do not turn your brand name into a 3 word description of your product or service. Remember, you can always put that description in the Meta Keywords of your website and your advertising materials.

5. Outsourcing the name development to a naming company costs more.

When speaking of costs of the naming process, all the resources should be taken into consideration – time, efforts and salaries. Imagine this: the CEO and 3 Brand Managers brainstorm for a week and they come up with names that can not be registered as a trademark, or their domain names are already secured, or nobody can spell them as they should. Does this sound familiar to you? So how much time, efforts and salaries that costs? This is why there is room for naming companies on the market. And some “hunt” better than others.

Now you know what we think you should not do. Learn what we think you should with our 7 golden rules.