How We Approach Naming: A Behind-the-Scenes Look

Naming is one of the smallest deliverables in a branding project and one of the hardest to get right. A name has to survive trademark checks, translate reasonably across markets, and still sound natural five years from now.

Our process starts with a positioning brief, not a word list — we need to know what the brand should feel like before we can generate candidates that fit. From there we run structured naming sessions, filter against domain and trademark availability early, and pressure-test the shortlist with the people who’ll actually have to say the name out loud to a customer.

For a recent fintech client serving multiple Gulf markets, that pressure-testing step eliminated three otherwise-strong candidates that didn’t translate cleanly. It’s a reminder that naming across borders is a research exercise as much as a creative one.