How to make a name for yourself

Coming up with the right name for a company or a product shouldn't be treated as a science -- but it's not monkey business either. So argue the guys at A Hundred Monkeys, in Sausalito, California.




The Internet-startup boom has spawned lots of fast-growing companies, lots of high-profile meltdowns, and lots of really bad names. Some names don't really mean anything: Agilent, Aquent, Avilent -- ad nauseum. Some names merely attach the Internet's favorite letter to some obvious words: eSpeed, e-Steel, eToys. Perilous stuff, this question of corporate identity. All the more reason to make the process of choosing a name as surefire and scientific as possible: Bring on the marketing research and the linguistic analysis! Fire up the selection software and the naming databases! Right?



Not according to A Hundred Monkeys, a two-man outfit that's based in Sausalito, California. The best way to succeed in the name game, the Monkeys argue, is to scrap the pseudoscience and go with the gut. "Naming is completely subjective and creative," says creative director Danny Altman, 55, who started the business as a part-time venture in 1992. "Ideally, you want to find a name that taps into associations people have, either consciously or unconsciously, with words in popular culture that already have certain meanings or connotations."