Large corporations spend lavish amounts seeking names for their products that grab a consumer, or convey positive feelings. Book authors do
same. As do magazine writers. So, say you are planning something that needs a name: your new company, a speech, an article, your website, your email address.
STOP! Stop, and think.
Don’t go with first thing that hits you. Think about aim of this endeavor. What are you trying to convey to those who will see or hear it?
Joe Black, for example, has been selling life insurance for years, is now planning to incorporate, and needs a name for his new company. He likes ring of Consolidated Advisors & Financial Associates Inc.---CAFAI for short.
Whoa, Joe!
What’s aim of name? Is it to impress people with a long, unwieldy, impersonal, remote-sounding phrase? Or is it to convey same reliable, personal service that Joe Black is already known for?
The answer is obvious, Joe. Incorporate under your own name. Joe Black, Inc. has benefits of continuity, credibility, recognition, reliability, and stability---none of which attach to CAFAI.
A speech is different. Speeches, and articles, need names that grab people. Unless you’re a famous person, or talking about a famous person, enterprise, or event, you need some other way to attract their attention.
And all you’ve got to work with is title. So look over what you’ve written, and write down all different titles you can think of for your work.
As you look at each of them over, ask yourself if you’d go to a talk with that title. If not, cross it out. Now try to shorten ones that are left. The fewer words better.
Do any of them have a bit of mystery, or wit, or maybe an interesting play on words?
Need some stimulus? Go to library. Fiction. Mysteries. Look over titles. Which ones stir you to pull them out, and scan a few pages? Why?
