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Hi guys I hope I could get some help here.

I am in the process of registering my own company but I can not figure out a catchy name for the company.

I have been working for years as an IT Consultant/Developer in the Enterprise Document Management world, usually hired by large companies (banks, oil & gas etc…) On the side I have been doing more and more smaller Web Content Management and Web Design work with a group of friends.

Now I would like to merge all those activities in one company with one name.

I would not like a name that will explicitly describe us or what we do. I would like a name to which you can attach any slogan and is NOT explicitly using words that describe our field of expertise like document/content management.

I like your Plato’s Gnat name – I read it once and I can not forget it. It sounds “serious” but not pretentious. You will not be embarrassed to put it on the business card and hand it over to an old-school executive, but could also be a name of the design agency.

Something like that

… I would appreciate any idea… at least to get the spark… I had few ideas but non of the sounded alright after one day.

It is specially difficulty for me since the company would mash corporate IT consulting services and creative IT service – does this make any sense?

Any help is really appreciated…
Thanks. M.

I had an idea of the name I would appreciate your opinion…
Since one of the characteristic I bean geard to is attention to Details…
I was thinking about the name:
Set Apart
Set Appart

What do you think about second one… It is kind of play with App(lications) Art

How does it sound in your opinion?
is it “Serious” enough?
Is it wise to you misspelled words?
Some other suggestion?

Thanks for any idea you can share…

M.

Not distinctive enough / too cute / too similar to A List Apart: http://www.alistapart.com/

Avoid cute misspellings — they’ve been way over done.

Other than wanting a name that is “cool”, what kind of brand positioning, personality or tone do you want the name to convey. Be as specific as possible. For example, James Bond cool, or James Dean cool? What do you want the name to evoke. Do you want it to evoke a place of peaceful sanity –

Oasis

– or a maelstrom of excitement and activity –

Maelstrom
Tsunami
Cyclone
Dervish

You need to figure out your brand positioning before you or anyone else can name it. The positioning will lead you to the right name.

Yeah I noticed later that there are already plenty of those *Apart named companies ( A list apart, Six Apart, AppArt…)

For the consulting part of our work (document management consultancy/software for banks) company *needs* to be perceived as Reliable and Thorough, but I would like to distinguish it from the competition by also being Dynamic and Creative, which is in line with our Web/Graphic Design aspirations.

Companies that usually work in the Document Management Consultancy market (competitors) are usually named XConsulting, YSolutions, Z and Associates… using words like management, information, document/content, system… boring!

I definitely want to evoke activity, but we are always in control.

We need to be Bond but would like to be Dean (Bond’n’Dean  ) but if I have to choose I would say Bond cool.

Does this make any sense?

Thanks a million for all your help!

I got an idea I would like to check with you. Something like

Trig
TrigMind(s)
…

Thinking in a different direction I would like to hint custom made applications(or whatever we will do), or customization of existing (enterprise) products. My idea was something based on:

Tailor | Solutions that fit your business.

What do you think about these?
Would you suggested some variations?
Do you think it wise to you some etymological variations like Taillour?

Again, thanks for all you input.
m.

No, avoid funky misspellings.

Realize that out of the hundreds, perhaps thousands of companies I have spoken to for naming projects at Igor, nearly every one says that they are reliable, thorough, dynamic and creative — or similar aspirations. The thing is, that is the baseline that a customer expects, and no amount of saying that in the name itself is going to make a difference. If you are truly creative, you will DEMONSTRATE your creativity in your name, not try to EXPLAIN it with a thoroughly non-creative name like Creative Design Solutions.

So, you do design, along with 10 million other design companies. What makes YOU unique? What is different about you? What kind of evocative metaphors emphasize the aspects of your business that you want to emphasize?:

Rocket (speed)
Booster (assistance, speed, empowerment)
Crafty (personal site creation)
Bongo (fun, exuberance)
Swing Shift (working overtime for you)

Does that help? So… what words / associations convey WITH SPECIFIC DETAIL what you want to convey?

@snark thanks again for sharing you thoughts…
It does help a lot!

I agree with you and I don’t want to name my company with a self explanatory sentence.

Thinking of the metaphors the closest would be :

Craftsman: personal, precise, skillful
also something the communicates elegance (like vine).

Something that says “German engine in Italian car”

Am I getting closer?

Grapevine
Datacraft
Datakraft
Precision
Precision Data Engineering
Flying Horse

@snark, this is great. This is something I was hoping for.

I do like where we are going with

- Grapevine – what could be possible variations of that? Specific varietals names (like my favorite Malbec)?
- Precision is also interesting but a little bit plain.
- Flying Horse… honestly that one is most intriguing, could not say if the first association is Pegasus or the name for the new flavor of crack. Still don’t know if I like it or not? Also Google says there are a lot of companies named Flying Horse. Any variations?

Craft/Kraft is good but anything with Data – I am not sure. Would try to avoid data, because it may not be just about the data in the future. Kraftwerk (“power plant” in German) also popular electronic band? Das Kraft (maybe too German)?

Thanks everyone for suggestions.

… still without a name
help, hilfe … anyone – please.

You offered something toward my post and I want to just through some names out: They are pretty random.

Specifica
Shazaam
Distincton
Exemplar
Velocity

*I don’t know a thing about the IT business.

Kraftsman
Snowflake (‘precise, simple, elegant’…)

thanks Xena, all suggestions are appreciated.

Following this Forum and snark’s comments in my previous posts I understand that one does not really need to know much about the business at this stage.
What is important is what we want the name to represent, and it should represent everything that distinguishes us from the competition.

I will give it one more try and summarize for those who don’t feel like reading previous posts.

In most simplified form – we make custom business software (tools basically) that companies use in order to manage their documents (or any type of content). We are also diversifying into Graphic and Web Design.

What distinguishes me (and my friends that work with me) from other in the industry is following.
We are mostly all 5 year university engineers (Masters equivalent in US) and have almost 10 years experience in IT. We like to think we are more SKILLED, PRECISE and pay more ATTENTION TO DETAILS. Due to our experience and broad education our work is more THOROUGH and FUTURE PROOF, we stand behind our work and are proud of our INTEGRITY.
Even though I have engineering and IT background I am constantly thriving to add more CREATIVITY and VISUAL APPEAL to anything I do, hence my wish to branch out to Graphic & Web Design.

These keywords are what I would like the company name to evoke, plus I would prefer if the name sounds elegant (like the Wine) and that it is a real word or a combination or real words.
I don’t want to use (almost) any IT term in the company name.

Our market is mostly Europe and I don’t mind if the name sounds German, French or Italian. Eastern European is also OK since it is our background and also gives specific creative edge to our work.
I don’t mind if I need to explain the name either, talking about the name is a good thing.

I know that I have probably made this post to long, but I was hoping this last one would spark additional ideas….

My last one is “Blacksmiths” – but it is already and overly used in the industry.

@chris – Thanks for suggestions. Maybe my response to Xena could spark few more.

I could see a smile on people’s faces when I give them a business card which says “Snowflake”