If you’re searching for a name for your side project, use AI tools to generate ideas.
I came up with the name SVAROZYC in 2019 (I wrote about it in a post titled meet svarozyc). I regret that Chat GPT wasn’t available back then, as I now see its imperfections. But I won’t change it – in the meantime, I’ve registered it as a trademark and fallen into the sunk cost fallacy.
Now, I would use artificial intelligence to create a list of ideas for the name of a side project. The currently available language models are well-suited for this purpose. You can use one of the dedicated apps sprouting up recently. However, most rely on the OpenAI engine, so using the GPT model directly makes sense.
An example prompt I would now use:
You are an employee of a branding agency. Your task is to develop a name for a new company in the market that will deal with robotics, electronics, and services for the industry. The name must relate to Slavic mythology, e.g. to the name of one of the Slavic gods. Provide five suggestions.
Each of these proposals would need to be verified. I’d split this process into two stages:
Functional verification – where we check if the name:
- It is easy to pronounce (even in a foreign language). However, this criterion was more critical when business communication was primarily over the phone. With emails and visual-textual communication reigning, it’s optional for success.
- It is easy to remember. This mainly refers to the length of the name itself. Various authors suggest that the maximum length for a good brand name is 2-3 syllables.
- It doesn’t evoke negative connotations. Mistakes in this area often happen when introducing a brand abroad without checking the word’s meaning in the local language. For local-market-only brands, ensuring that the name’s association with the company’s activity doesn’t create dissonance or sound silly is worthwhile.
Formal verification – checking if another company in our industry hasn’t used the chosen name. We can use the following databases for this purpose:
- Official business registers in the respective country (in Poland: National Court Register and Central Register and Information on Business Activity);
- Trademark search engines provided by EUIPO;
- Internet domain search engines. Here, we mainly focus on the availability of top-level domains with extensions like .com, .eu or national domains.
In my next post, I’ll answer whether personal or business brands are better. Click on the notification bell on my LinkedIn profile to catch it.