How do you cook up a new name?

One of the biggest challenges for a public relations professional can be helping a business find a name for a new product, a new service or even a new company.

Add to this the complication of trying to come up with a name that works across all media, including social media and, well, you can see how the dream of the new can quickly become a nightmare.

I was working at a startup six years ago and it wasn’t the financing, the staffing, the office space, the suppliers, the distribution or any one of countless other problems that took the most time. No, it was the name of the new product.

Even though I was working with some incredibly creative types (including the great Rob Westcott - @robtnowes) it took days and days to get to the name.

So, in a nutshell, here is the four-step recipe I’ve since practiced each time I need to cook up a new name:

Step 1: Creative thinking

Start by writing a list of words that relate to your new product, new service or new business.

Now mix up those words in interesting ways – using Scrabble tiles, index cards or a whiteboard/chalkboard can help.

Are there words you can combine in playful and intriguing ways?

Are there words that can have multiple meanings?

Are there words you MUST use?

Always keep track of all the names you come up with. Some that don’t click right now might click tomorrow with just a small tweak.

Now write out a dozen or so potential company names and move on to …

Step 2: A pinch of luck

Take some time to look over this list:

Are any of the names distinctive?

Do some of the names resonate more than others?

Can some be taken in a bad way?

Which are easy to spell … consistently?

Which are pronounceable?

Are any incomprehensible?

Run your favorite(s) by a few people:

Do the names sound pleasant to their ears?

Do they instantly get the meaning?

Do they have a favorite?

Do they reject any of them outright?

If you eliminate any names here, go back to Step 1 and come up with more. The key is to have many that you can test when you move on to …

Step 3: The secret ingredient … fun!

OK, so you have several names. Are they fun?

The real secret to a great name is one that is memorable. The shortest route to “memorable” is being fun.

Are their words or word parts you can switch to add a smile? Are there letters you can replace with other letters (“y” for “i” for example) or numbers you can use to replace word parts (“2” instead of “to” or “4” instead of “for”).

Step 4: Finding a URL

A business name that does not work on the Web is a name that has no use.

By using one of the free web tools to check (two I like are Who Is and Go Daddy) you can find out which of your favorites is available.

If a name you like is available as a URL, great! If not, will some small adjustment make it work? If not, do you need to go back to Step 1?

Like all good recipes, this one can always be adjusted to suit your needs. Happy (and creative) cooking as you come up with the name for your next social media business.

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Related reading:
Where do creative ideas come from?

Walk your way to creativity

3 ways to take physical steps to a more creative mindset

So how do you get yourself into a creative mindset? Have you considered the simple act of walking?

Here are three (increasingly complex) approaches to walking that might help you get into a strong creative frame of mind:

Just take a walk

You’ve probably experienced the benefits of a simple walk. It clears the mind and can allow your mind to wander. The location is less important than the fact that you are moving and (preferrably) outdoors.

Try this: Set out only with a goal to walk for a minimum amount of time (at least 10 minutes in one direction. Other than the traffic around you (on foot or otherwise) try not to focus too much on what is around you. Focus instead on your breathing (keep it steady) and your steps (try to keep them rhythmic). If this helps your brain solve a problem or become enlivened with creativity upon your return, great. If not ….



Walk at a varying pace

To step things up a notch, take a walk where you are engaging more of your conscious brain to think about your walk. This in turn, frees up your unconscious brain to dwell on that problem that has been waiting for a solution.

Try this: Set out on your walk as above, with a goal of walking for a minimum amount of time in one direction before turning back. Now find some recurring markers (utility poles or mailboxes work well). Between the first two markers take deliberate but measured steps. Between the next two markers consciously double the pace. Between the next two markers return to the more measured pace. Repeat this pattern all the way out and all the way back. You will get more exercise, but you will also find that your subconscious brain has been active and a creative solution to that problem has likely occurred to you. But if not ….

Walk in a defined pattern

This can be the hardest walk to do correctly but can also reap the best results in terms of freeing up the unconscious part of your brain. It is based on the same principle as walking a labyrinth. But since most of us do not have on of those handy this is a good substitute.

Try this: Find a large and preferably flat open field (schools and public parks work well). Give yourself plenty of room. Clear your mind of everything and focus only on your breathing and counting your steps.

1. Now walk for 100 steps straight ahead.

2. Turn left and walk 50 steps.

3. Turn left and walk 50 steps.

4. Walk 100 steps.

5. Turn left and walk 50 steps.

6. Turn left and walk 50 steps.

7. Walk 100 steps.

8. Turn left and walk 50 steps.

9. Turn left and walk 50 steps.

10. Walk 100 steps.

11. Turn left and walk 50 steps.

12. Turn left and walk 50 steps.

13. Walk 100 steps.

14. You should now be back where you started having covered four smaller squares inside a larger square.

You may be surprised that when you are done your mind is alive with ideas. I can’t explain this. I just know it works.

Please feel free to share you other ideas for walking (or exercise) and creativity.

Further reading:
Where do creative ideas come from?

Where do creative ideas come from?

Creativity and the importance of good sleep

What is the easiest way to boost your creativity? Get some good sleep.

No, really. And science is compiling evidence to support your need for that sleep. Increasingly science is discovering that the old adage of dealing with a problem by “just sleeping on it” has some basis in fact.

The German study
The international weekly journal of science Nature reported back in 2004 that German scientists had demonstrated for the first time that our sleeping brains continue working on problems that baffle us during the day.

Scientists at the University of Luebeck found that volunteers taking a simple math test were three times more likely than sleep-deprived participants to figure out a hidden rule for converting the numbers into the right answer if they had eight hours of sleep.

The German study is considered to be the first hard evidence supporting the common sense notion that creativity and problem solving appear to be directly linked to adequate sleep, scientists say.


Forging connections
Last year the New York Times reported on sleep benefits that included creativity in “We’ll Fill This Space, but First a Nap”(Sept. 27, 2008). A key finding reported in the story: “Sleep assists the brain in flagging unrelated ideas and memories, forging connections among them that increase the odds that a creative idea or insight will surface.”

British study
Now, the findings of a large self-reporting study by the East of England Development Agency in 2008 which polled hundreds of workers only to discover that most creativity, most new ideas, come to workers, not in the workplace, but in a more relaxing environment, usually as they sleep.

Psychology Professor Richard Wiseman of the Perrott-Warrick Research Unit at the University of Hertfordshire, England, says, "In our dreams we produce unusual combinations of ideas that can seem surreal, but every once in a while result in an amazingly creative solution to an important problem." He suggests that businesses start taking a more relaxed approach to creativity if they want to get the most from their employees.

Harvard findings
Writing in Alternative Health Journal last year, Editor Bob Condor says a Harvard researcher, Jeffrey Ellenbogen, discovered that getting enough sleep can lead to brilliant discoveries. In Snooze To Be More Creative he writes that Ellenbogen found that good sleep b y team members during “incubation” phases of work projects leads to 33 percent increase in the likelihood that people will “infer connections among distantly related ideas” that turn out to be nothing short of brilliant or ingenious. Dr. Ellenbogen says this creativity performance enhancement seems to exist “completely beneath the radar screen.”

Researchers believe that the reason for the improved performance of people who get good sleep – in other words sleeping on a problem – is that they give time to their brains to restructure memories.


Still need convincing?
Among famous fans of sleep and the creative ideas it can bring have been composer Richard Wagner, artist Salvador Dali and possibly the 20th Century’s greatest thinker, Albert Einstein. In more contemporary times Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has said the riff in "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" came to him as he slept.


We all spend – or should spend -- about a third of our lives asleep. Rather than viewing that as unproductive time perhaps we should consider it just another state of thinking – a very creative state.

Goodnight all. I’m off to do my most creative thinking!