I’m currently reading The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki. In Chapter 2 there is a section devoted to how you should choose a name for your business. I found some of his points particularly interesting given that I have tried to come up with a name for my business in the past and failed miserably. Here are some of the more interesting points:

• Have a first initial that is early in the alphabet His reasoning behind this is that some day your organization’s name will appear in an alphabetical list. He also recommends avoiding names that begin with X or Z because they are difficult to spell out after hearing them.
• Pick a name with verb potential Examples given here include people “xerox” documents instead of photocopying them and, more recently, people “google” for something instead of searching for it. I also came up with my own examples. People often use the term “hoover” to mean vacuum; Hoover is the brand. Kleenex is another good example; again, it’s the brand name and not a hankerchief.
• Sound logical The name of the business should “match” what you do. He cites the names of some Pokemon characters as good examples of this; Geodude and Lickitung, for example. I can see what he means by this. I know what Pokemon are and I don’t watch it but I could probably take a good guess at what each character does based on its name.