Naming is not a creative exercise
Published
Every naming project starts the same way. The client wants a list. The longer the list, the better. They believe that somewhere inside a list of four hundred names, the right one is hiding.
It is not.
A brand name is a bet on a set of values that do not yet exist in the market. It does not describe the company. It does not explain what the company sells. It is the beginning of a reputation, which means it only means something after years of work have made it mean something.
What this means in practice is that the name almost never matters as much as the client thinks it does, and the process of naming almost always matters more. A naming process that requires everyone in the room to agree is a process designed to produce a mediocre outcome that offends no one.
The best names come from a decision, not a consensus.