Hardworking names have always mattered. But we’re entering an era where it’s critical to get the most out of every naming decision you make.
Not just to stand out from your competitors, but to stand out, period. The world is a noisy place right now, and it’s not likely to quiet down.
If you’re looking at your 2026 pipeline and want to set up a workflow that supports creating the kinds of names you’ll still be happy with in 2027, here’s a checklist to get you started.
Here's the play:
Align
Before a single name is brainstormed, nail the "who" and the "why."
Clarify ownership
First, make sure you know exactly who needs to be on the same page, and get them there. Avoid inviting too many cooks into the kitchen, but don’t wait until you’ve landed on “the name” to bring important people along.
Make sure everyone agrees the project actually warrants a name. Not everything does—sometimes a clear description or visual solution is more respectful to your customer's needs and attention span.
Define success
Get everyone to agree on what the name should do for the brand and business. What’s the job to be done? Change hearts and minds? Stake a claim in a new market? Dazzle and delight?
Establish the naming strategy
Get stakeholders to share a vision of what the name should say and how it should say it. This helps move the conversation away from "I like it" opinions and toward "it works" decisions.
Develop and scrutinize
This is the heavy lift.
Make names
Create a wiiide net of names that fit the strategy.
Whittle them down based on:
Strategic fit: Do they really meet the criteria you established?
Legal availability: Can you protect the trademark in your key markets?
Linguistic risk: Does the name mean something unintended or otherwise ~bad~ in other languages?
Platform discoverability: Can customers find you where you want to be found the digital ecosystem?
Conversational fit: Does it sound right in the conversations your customers need to have about you?
Finalize
Don’t stop too soon.
Build the case
Go back to your stakeholders and make the case for why the names that survived the above process deserve careful consideration.
Final validation
Perform a linguistic deep dive and/or audience validation if the stakes are high.
Register and protect
File for your trademark, and set up a plan to monitor and enforce it.
Craft your story
What’s the story of the name? Plan your internal education (so teams use it correctly) and your external communications (so customers understand it).
Document the journey
Log the decision in your internal knowledge systems and add it to your master repository. (MEGA PRO TIP: This is one of the most helpful, and least adopted, naming operations strategies we encourage. Being able to re-explore not just the final name and why it was chosen, but what else was considered, can be really helpful to future projects!)
Want to make naming decisions more seamlessly?
If your current naming process feels like naming whack-a-mole—where requests are rushed, decisions are mired in internal politics, or you’re naming way more than your brand can successfully support —we’d love to partner.
At Wild Geese Studio, we specialize in helping global organizations build smoother naming engines. Whether you need help building a better operation for managing naming decisions, developing future-ready names, or managing potential risks through linguistic and cultural research, we’d love to show you how we can make you more effective.
– Caitlin Barrett
Founder and naming expert, Wild Geese Studio
Your strategic naming partner for development, operations, and evaluation