For a startup, choosing a name requires careful thought. Some names are obvious – Facebook, Twitter. Some take a little thought – Google, for example. How companies go about choosing their names is often a very personal decision, and can come up with some weird but wonderful monikers. If you’re struggling with naming your new creation, here’s how some others arrived at their names:
wireWAX co-founder Dan Garraway came up with the company name after a good old-fashioned brainstorming session. Writing out every word they liked on a piece of paper, they sat in a café determined not to leave until the decision was made. After an hour of putting together pieces of paper, the magical combination of wireWAX appeared. Connotations of joining, of technology, of old and new sprang to mind – not to mention how easily it rolled off the tongue – and the name stuck. Dan even received a phone call from an impressed domain company who had noticed the new arrival.
OneDrum employed the services of a branding company, who worked with them to establish an identity after research showed that the original name, Quolos, wasn’t working. However, it was founder Jasper Westaway’s suggestion of OneDrum – one beat that the team move to, a single container to store belongings – that came through.
Flubit, an online network for getting discounts on products, was unusual in that the name came before the product. Founder Bertie Stephens had the idea rattling round in his head for years before the product came along. The inception is amusing: during a meeting where Bertie and his partner were pretending to understand various acronyms, they made up their own, ‘flubit’, which the rest of the meeting obediently also pretended to understand. Stephens likes the fact it doesn’t have a preconceived meaning – meaning people can put their own spin on it.
Hailo came from two talented ex-Agency folk, who generously took a deferred payment until the black cab app company took off. Eeve is an amalgamation of events and evenings – perfect for a photo-sharing app with friends, where evenings are when many things happen. Wazoku is derived from the Swahili for ‘good idea’ – encapsulating its mission to harness creativity and ideas in companies – and came from a night in the pub, Google translate and some creative input from friends.
Gloople, the UK’s first social shopping platform, is an amalgamation of ‘glue’ and ‘people’. Co-founder Warren Knight said, ’We wanted to build an ecommerce platform that had the latest social media, social and mobile commerce and internet marketing tools that allowed small businesses to have a big brand experience and could grow their online store to match their clients needs. So we glued them to an easy-to-use ecommerce CMS. As we are using the latest technology for the social integration so it drives traffic back to the online store, we wanted to make it all about the people. ‘Glue + people = Gloople!’
How did you come up with you company name?
