My first job coming out of university was in an industry I never knew existed: Naming. My company named everything from drugs (Viagra) to cars (Nissan Xterra) to computer chips (Intel Core Duo). It was a great job, but contrary to popular belief we did not spend our days lounging in hammocks spouting out random words that appeared in our stream of consciousness. The creative needed to be framed within a business strategy. The question I hated most was “Is _____ a good name?” How should I know…what’s the strategy?

This post was inspired by a comment I read on Twitter bashing some of the company names at the PhocusWright Travel Innovation Summit. It’s the same sort of stuff I heard when we unveiled the Joobili name and more recently when Tnooz launched. I decided to come up with 6 Rules of Naming using examples from the travel industry.

Rule 1: There’s no such thing as a perfect name

Imagine being in the room when someone suggested naming a new airline Virgin. Just the kind of airline I want to trust my life with, right. That someone happened to be Richard Branson but if it’s anyone else he is laughed out of the room. I challenge anyone to send me a brand name with no potential negative connotations, no spelling/pronunciation issues, no translation difficulties, no URL or trademark conflicts and no confusion with existing brands. Good luck.  Please keep Rule 1 in mind as you read through the rest of the rules.

Rule 2: Clarity or Flexibility- you can’t have both

All names fall somewhere on the spectrum of Concrete (British Airways) – Mildly Suggestive (Travelocity) – Strongly Suggestive (Expedia) – Abstract (Kukunu). As you move down the spectrum you experience the Clarity vs. Flexibility trade-off. Southwest airlines chose a concrete name that clearly positioned the company in the minds of consumers. Nowadays Southwest has expanded to cover the entire US and I’ve spoken with at least one Southwest exec. who wished for a name that wasn’t limited to one corner of the country. That said, the clarity of the name was surely an asset in the early days of the company. The right answer comes down to a question of short-term vs. long-term strategy.

Rule 3: Choose one message

I can’t count number of naming briefs I received requesting a name that communicated Trust, Innovation, and Easy-to-use. A name can communicate one message, and perhaps allude to one more- that’s it! Remember that your name will always appear in context; in a logo, on a website, on the product, etc. Pick one message and use your other communication channels and context to convey secondary messages.

Rule 4: How does the name make you feel?

There is a lot of research into unconscious emotions connected to specific sounds and morphemes (word parts). Having a high vowel ending like Joobili connotes fun. Hard endings like the ‘t’ in TripIt connote precision. Do a search on Sound Symbolism if you want to learn more. I recommend saying your name out loud a few times to make sure it fits with the company vibe you’re trying to create.

Rule 5: Get creative with the URL

Really you have no choice on this rule. Quick fact for you. Last I checked there are 500,000 words in the Oxford English dictionary and over 4 billion URLs indexed by Google. You do the math. Spelling is the unfortunate victim of the lack of short, .com available names. Jubilee became Joobili, T News became Tnooz, Glider became Gliider, Voyage became Voyij and the list goes on. My advice is to start with the name, then use the URL availability as a good filter to select among your favorites. Alternate spelling is just one work around. You can also look at modifiers like travel, trips, media, etc. or other top-level country-specific domains. I’ve also seen a few more .travel domains popping up.

Rule 6: Create a name people will hate

Consensus is the killer of creativity. Please, please, never choose a name based on the majority winner of a company-wide survey. If 10-15% of people hate your name I see that as a good thing. In the words of my old boss, “If nobody hates the name it is too familiar”. Do we really need more Trip+Noun names like TripAdvisor, TripIt, Tripbase, TripCase, TripWare… or are you better off creating a name that a few people will hate?