How do branding firms determine which names work and which ones don't?  This post takes a look at the methods some use to sort everything out.  If you're looking to name stuff the systems mentioned here may help you get where you need to go.

It seems that most folks in the naming business have a system that helps them sort out the names with great potential from those that are pretty much guaranteed to fall flat or cause problems down the road.  From what we can tell these systems tend to measure between two and about a dozen different criteria. 

A sampling from stuff we found via Google:

Igor - a naming firm in San Francisco uses Appearance, Distinctive, Depth, Energy, Humanity, Positioning, Sound, "33," and Trademark.  (If they anagramed it to get a name it'd likely be TAD DEPTHS, no?  Maybe that's why they didn't anagram it...) 

Sedo - an online domain name service offers "search engine friendliness, branding potential, legal situation, possible buyers, and marketing strategy."  (They come out rather poorly in the anagram arena as they've got no vowels.)

Med E.R.R.S. - a medical branding firm offers a unique service that evaluates names for "potential problems arising from look-alike and sound-alike names. It also reveals other potential nomenclature problems with the proposed trademark, such as confusion with medical terminology, jargon, abbreviations, associated equipment, and laboratory tests."  Certainly makes sense when trying name a drug that won't accidentally end up in the wrong hands due to sloppy handwriting or a misheard phonecall.  (Yep, there will be no "Phiagora" medications approved any time soon.)

Martin Jelsema over at The Branding Blog suggests measuring, meaning, unique(ness?), relevancy, benefit suggestion, memorability, appropriateness, positive emotion, pronounceability, descriptiveness, taste, length, legs, and stakeholder appeal are the variables worth measuring.  Certainly seems like a bakers dozen is enough to cover everything, right?

Metaphor Naming Consultants - another San Francisco verbal branding firm gives us following list of stuff: Is it... appropriate, credible, appealing, pleasing to the ear, pleasing to the eye, distinctive, unique, unambiguous, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, available, ownable.  Then... if you want a GREAT name you're given a few more things to consider, including target audience, addressing needs, positioning, brand development, benefits, marketability, and market interest.   (This is attributed to Metaphor by M. Jelsema - above.)

Signature Strategies wants names to be memorable, relevent (sic), meaningful, sayable, unique, trademarkable, not confusing, in good taste, not limiting, not dull, not trendy, graphic, animationable, and "other." 
 
GT&A Marketing says you should evaluate memorability, trademark, ease of pronunciation, style/cachet, translation, length, sound, suggestiveness of benefits and implies that there are more things that are involved in determining if your brand "sucks."  (We really like the attitude of this firm.)

A truly cool paper was written on "Onometrics" that provides guidance for evaluating terminology that actually has significant application and crossover with name evaluation.  The paper suggests seventeen different categories - which are:  accuracy, precision, descriptiveness/transparency, unequivocalness, mononymy, appropriate register, precedent, conciseness, appropriate simplicity, form correctness etymological purity, derivability, inflectability, series uniformity, acceptability, euphony, and pronounceability.   The list makes us want to go back and look through our list to ensure we cover every aspect they mention - even though some might make a name LESS desirable.

There seem to be some common themes.  First - (and this wasn't one you would get just by reading the stuff above...) there are literally dozens of companies offering "name evaluation" on the internet that never tell you what they're actually going to do to evaluate your name.  They offer stuff like "years of experience" and "advice on how to fix problems" but give you no clue as to what you'll get.  Kudos to the companies and people listed above for having the courage to show and tell.  When someone says they're going to do something for me and can't explain how they'll get the job done I tend to take my money elsewhere...

Second - just about everyone considers availability in some way, though no one seems to consider the many different types of availability.  (More on this in a moment.)

Third - Everyone would probably defend their method through the expiration of their last breath.  There is an implication that by showing our method we're saying that the other methods are deficient in some way.  In this sense Stokefire is the same as the others.

(We'd go on but we're getting tired of all the similarities already...)

How does Stokefire do what we do?  We measure everything.  And we mean it.  The average project has us evaluating about fifty variables lumped into six categories.  We've identified over a hundred variables that we can evaluate, though it is unlikely that we'll ever do all of them at once since many are applicable only in certain industries, languages, or regions. 

Here's a sneak peek at how we do it.  (We call it "FAINTS" since that's what most people nearly do when they see the complete list of 120+ variables for the first time - and because we hate acronyms... and this one is pretty lame.):

Fidelity - Does the name ring true, is it believable, remotely possible, backed by performance, does it fit with your mission, vision, and such.
Availability - Is the name available on the Internet, trademark (state, federal, or foreign - usable and grantable), and is the term even conceptually available in your market (or do other uses prevent you from adjusting the term to your own purpose?)  Will you be the only "you" in your phonebook, your industry, the world?
Intangibles - This is the artsy side of naming. It includes things like word-shape, sound appeal (factoring in locality and nationality,) memorability, ability to create a connection, energy, and more.
Name Goals - This section is reserved for each client to introduce specific needs for the name.  In some cases a name must convey a particular emotion, or perhaps a color, or the name's sole purpose is to increase interest in a single event.  No system can predict the ideal name for every client without giving the client the ability to add and adjust criteria.  This section does just that.
Tangibles - Yep. We said tangibles.  We're pretty sure most people won't think it's a real word, but we're going to use it anyway.  Tangibles are the things we can measure or test in a name that may make it easier or harder to use.  Variables include things like length (both letters and syllables) ease of pronunciation in each of the target languages, ease of spelling, parsing issues (consider "penisland.com",) and more.
Strategy - We lump depth of marketing, distinction, risk, and a few other variables that address the ability of the name to deliver strong business-related results in this category.

More on this - and on some of the sub-level details in days and weeks to come.