company-name-selection
Agent: Brand Designer
L2 brand designer (1x) responsible for brand foundation, visual identity, and positioning expression through design.
Department ethos: ideal-design.md
Skill Description
Facilitates the company or product naming process including options generation, linguistic screening, and a scored recommendation that balances memorability, meaning, and availability.
When to Use
- When a new company or product needs a name and no structured naming process has been initiated.
- When stakeholders have generated name candidates informally and need an objective evaluation framework to make a final decision.
- When a product line expansion requires a name that fits within an existing brand architecture (endorsed, sub-brand, or standalone).
Workflow
- Naming Brief: Gather requirements including target audience, brand personality, competitive landscape, linguistic constraints (markets, languages), and any non-negotiable criteria. Deliverable: naming brief document.
- Name Generation: Produce 20-30 candidate names across categories: descriptive, evocative, abstract, coined, and acronym. Use techniques like word blending, metaphor mapping, and phonetic exploration. Deliverable: long-list of candidates with category labels.
- Linguistic Screening: Screen candidates for negative connotations in target languages, pronunciation difficulty, and phonetic similarity to competitors. Deliverable: annotated long-list with linguistic flags.
- Availability Check: Verify domain availability (.com and relevant TLDs), social handle availability, and preliminary trademark search in target jurisdictions. Deliverable: availability matrix per candidate.
- Shortlist Scoring: Score the top 5-8 candidates against weighted criteria: memorability, pronounceability, distinctiveness, brand-fit, domain availability, and trademark risk. Deliverable: scored shortlist with rationale per name.
- Recommendation & Presentation: Present the top 3 recommendations with visual mock-ups showing each name in logo lockup, URL, and app icon context. Deliverable: naming recommendation deck.
Anti-Patterns
- Committee naming without criteria: Letting stakeholders vote on names without an agreed scoring framework. Why: preference-based voting favours the loudest voice and produces safe, forgettable names.
- Skipping linguistic screening: Selecting a name without checking meaning and pronunciation in target markets. Why: names with unintended negative connotations in key markets create costly rebranding situations post-launch.
- Premature domain fixation: Eliminating strong name candidates solely because the exact .com is taken. Why: domain variations, alternative TLDs, and domain acquisition are solvable problems; a weak name is not.
- Ignoring brand architecture: Naming a product without considering how it relates to the parent brand and sibling products. Why: inconsistent naming across a portfolio confuses users and fragments brand equity.
Output
On success: Produces a naming recommendation document containing the scored shortlist, top 3 recommendations with visual mock-ups, availability data, and a rationale tying the recommended name back to brand foundations. Delivered as a presentation deck for stakeholder decision.
On failure: Report which naming constraints proved irreconcilable (e.g., no candidates pass both trademark and domain checks), what trade-offs exist, and recommend relaxing specific constraints or expanding the generation round.
Related Skills
brand-foundation — Brand personality and values inform naming criteria and evaluation.brand-identity-v1 — The selected name feeds directly into logo and identity design.
1---2name: company-name-selection3description: This skill facilitates the company or product naming process including options generation, screening, and recommendation. Use when asked to name a company, product, or feature, or to evaluate naming candidates. Also consider when a rebrand requires a new name or when a product line extension needs naming consistency. Suggest when the user is about to register a domain or trademark without a structured naming evaluation.4---56# company-name-selection78## Agent: Brand Designer910L2 brand designer (1x) responsible for brand foundation, visual identity, and positioning expression through design.1112Department ethos: [ideal-design.md](../../../../departments/design/ideal-design.md)1314## Skill Description1516Facilitates the company or product naming process including options generation, linguistic screening, and a scored recommendation that balances memorability, meaning, and availability.1718## When to Use1920- When a new company or product needs a name and no structured naming process has been initiated.21- When stakeholders have generated name candidates informally and need an objective evaluation framework to make a final decision.22- When a product line expansion requires a name that fits within an existing brand architecture (endorsed, sub-brand, or standalone).2324## Workflow25261. **Naming Brief**: Gather requirements including target audience, brand personality, competitive landscape, linguistic constraints (markets, languages), and any non-negotiable criteria. Deliverable: naming brief document.272. **Name Generation**: Produce 20-30 candidate names across categories: descriptive, evocative, abstract, coined, and acronym. Use techniques like word blending, metaphor mapping, and phonetic exploration. Deliverable: long-list of candidates with category labels.283. **Linguistic Screening**: Screen candidates for negative connotations in target languages, pronunciation difficulty, and phonetic similarity to competitors. Deliverable: annotated long-list with linguistic flags.294. **Availability Check**: Verify domain availability (.com and relevant TLDs), social handle availability, and preliminary trademark search in target jurisdictions. Deliverable: availability matrix per candidate.305. **Shortlist Scoring**: Score the top 5-8 candidates against weighted criteria: memorability, pronounceability, distinctiveness, brand-fit, domain availability, and trademark risk. Deliverable: scored shortlist with rationale per name.316. **Recommendation & Presentation**: Present the top 3 recommendations with visual mock-ups showing each name in logo lockup, URL, and app icon context. Deliverable: naming recommendation deck.3233## Anti-Patterns3435- **Committee naming without criteria**: Letting stakeholders vote on names without an agreed scoring framework. *Why*: preference-based voting favours the loudest voice and produces safe, forgettable names.36- **Skipping linguistic screening**: Selecting a name without checking meaning and pronunciation in target markets. *Why*: names with unintended negative connotations in key markets create costly rebranding situations post-launch.37- **Premature domain fixation**: Eliminating strong name candidates solely because the exact .com is taken. *Why*: domain variations, alternative TLDs, and domain acquisition are solvable problems; a weak name is not.38- **Ignoring brand architecture**: Naming a product without considering how it relates to the parent brand and sibling products. *Why*: inconsistent naming across a portfolio confuses users and fragments brand equity.3940## Output4142**On success**: Produces a naming recommendation document containing the scored shortlist, top 3 recommendations with visual mock-ups, availability data, and a rationale tying the recommended name back to brand foundations. Delivered as a presentation deck for stakeholder decision.4344**On failure**: Report which naming constraints proved irreconcilable (e.g., no candidates pass both trademark and domain checks), what trade-offs exist, and recommend relaxing specific constraints or expanding the generation round.4546## Related Skills4748- [`brand-foundation`](../brand-foundation/SKILL.md) — Brand personality and values inform naming criteria and evaluation.49- [`brand-identity-v1`](../brand-identity-v1/SKILL.md) — The selected name feeds directly into logo and identity design.
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