Generate and shortlist brand names using four naming techniques

Most beginners name a brand in about four minutes — they think of something, feel a small rush of satisfaction, and stop. Then they spend the next two years explaining how to spell it. Naming is a volume game before it is a taste game, and this lesson gives you a repeatable way to produce forty candidates and cut them down to five you can actually defend to a client.

Words in this lesson

Before you brainstorm: build a word bank

You cannot generate names from a blank page. You generate them from raw material. Spend ten minutes writing down words in four buckets for the business you are naming.

Our worked example through this lesson: a laundry pickup-and-delivery service in Ibadan, aimed at young working professionals who leave home at 6am and get back at 9pm.

WHAT IT DOES:      wash, fold, press, iron, starch, pickup, dropoff, laundry, dry clean
WHAT IT GIVES:     time back, freedom, fresh, crisp, clean, ready, sorted, no stress
WHO IT'S FOR:      young professional, hustler, corper, banker, tech worker, commuter
FEELING / IMAGE:   Monday morning, crisp white shirt, agbada, hanger, sunlight, breeze,
                   basket, aṣọ (cloth), òwúrọ̀ (morning), "e don ready"

That last bucket matters most. Names that stick usually come from an image, not from a description.

Technique 1: Descriptive

The name says plainly what the business does. Ibadan Laundry Service. Fresh Fold Laundry. Press & Go.

Strength: zero explanation needed. A stranger scrolling Instagram knows what you sell in one second. Good for a young local business with no marketing budget.

Weakness: hard to own. There are forty "Fresh Laundry" pages already, and it boxes you in. If the Ibadan business opens in Abuja next year, the name fights you.

Write ten descriptive options anyway. Some will survive when you soften them later.

Technique 2: Compound (two words fused)

Take one word from the "what it does" bucket and one from "what it gives" or "feeling", and jam them together. This is how a huge number of Nigerian startups got named — Paystack, Chowdeck, PiggyVest, Flutterwave.

From our word bank:

FoldRun     PressPal    WashCycle   CrispCart
FreshDrop   BasketBoy   IronDesk    LaundryLoop
SortedSuds  DropFold

Strength: feels modern, is usually easier to get as a domain and handle, and still hints at what you do.

Weakness: it can slide into sounding generic-tech. If you can swap either half for another word and it still works the same, it is not distinct enough.

Technique 3: Borrowed meaning

Take a real word — English, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Pidgin — that carries the feeling of the brand rather than the function. Kobo, Cowrie, Iroko, Sabi, Eko, Zenith. The word already has weight; you attach your business to it.

For the laundry service: Aso (cloth). Owuro (morning). Breeze. Hanger. Monday. Starch.

Local-language names are underused by beginners because they feel too small. They are usually the opposite — they are the easiest way to sound like a Nigerian brand rather than a copy of an American one, and they are far less crowded on Instagram.

Two cautions. Check the word carefully with a native speaker, including tone and slang usage — a word that is innocent in one Yoruba tone is rude in another. And check it is not already a well-known brand in another category.

Technique 4: Coined

Invent a word. Jumia, Selar, Kippa. You are making a sound, not a sentence.

Three ways to coin without producing gibberish:

• Chop a real word. Laundry → Laundr, Lundri. Owuro → Wuro.
• Add a friendly ending. -a, -o, -i, -ly, -fy: Folda, Aso.ly, Crispa, Wuroly.
• Blend two words at the seam. Fresh + Express = Frexpress. Wash + Basket = Washket.

Strength: you can own it completely — trademark, domain, handle, all clean.

Weakness: it means nothing until you spend money making it mean something. A coined name needs a tagline and a clear description doing heavy lifting beside it, which is exactly what the next two lessons build.

Run the sprint: forty names in forty minutes

Set a timer. Ten minutes per technique, ten names each, no editing while the timer runs. Writing bad names is part of the process — name eleven is often only reachable through names one to ten.

Keep them in one list with the technique tagged, so you can see which approach your best ideas came from:

1.  Fresh Fold Laundry     [descriptive]
2.  Press & Go             [descriptive]
...
14. CrispCart              [compound]
...
26. Owuro                  [borrowed]
27. Aso Sorted             [borrowed]
...
38. Folda                  [coined]

Shortlisting: five tests, scored

Now switch off the generator brain and switch on the judge. Score each name 1–5 on these five tests and keep only the top five totals.

The spellability test deserves the strictest scoring, because in Nigeria most discovery happens through word of mouth, WhatsApp status and voice notes. If a customer has to ask "is it with a K or a C?", you have built a leak into your brand.

One more filter to run over your final five: say each name out loud in a full sentence the way a customer would.

• "I dey use Owuro for my laundry."
• "Send it to CrispCart."
• "Have you tried Folda?"

Names that felt clever on paper often collapse here.

Do not fall in love yet

You now have five names, not one. Resist choosing a favourite, because the next lesson runs each of them through CAC, Instagram, and domain registrars — and it is completely normal for your top two to be gone. Students who arrive at that lesson with only one name they are emotionally attached to have to start over. Students who arrive with five ranked options just move down the list.

Common mistakes

The short version

• Naming is a volume exercise, not a flash of inspiration. Forty names, then judgement.
• Build a word bank first, or every name comes from the same corner of your head.
• Four techniques: descriptive, compound, borrowed meaning, coined. Work through all four deliberately.
• Score the shortlist against tests — say it aloud, spell it down a phone line, search it.
• Avoid clever spellings. Every "K" instead of "Q" is a lifetime of correcting people.
• Do not fall in love yet. Availability checking comes next, and it kills names.

Try it yourself

Pick the first of your three portfolio brands. Build the word bank, then run the full forty-minute sprint — ten names per technique, no skipping the technique you find awkward. Score them with the five-test table and cut to five.

Then do this before the next lesson: record a voice note saying your top five names, nothing else, and send it to three people who match the target customer. Ask them to type back the spellings and say which one they would remember tomorrow. Whatever you scored, their spellings are the real result — bring that feedback with you.

Bonus question to answer for yourself: which of the four techniques produced most of your top five? That tells you something about the brand's personality, and you will use it when you define the voice later in this module.

You'll know you've got it when you can produce forty genuine candidates before judging any of them.