ACoRP → Community Rail Network
AISFPDC → FIS
AMT-Sybex Affinity Suite
Naming is one of the hardest things in branding to get right. The obvious names are taken or generic. The distinctive ones need explaining. A good name works in every context: on a business card, in a news headline, in a conversation, in another language. It has to be available, ownable, memorable, and still make sense in ten years when the context has changed completely. We are a London brand naming agency. We have named organisations, prizes, services and brands across multiple sectors and languages, some still in service twenty years on. We treat naming as a strategic discipline, not a creative exercise.
A name means nothing on its own. It is an empty vessel. You pour the meaning in afterwards: the positioning, the identity, the website, the way the brand behaves. We will run a naming project on its own. More often, it is where the positioning, identity and website work begins.
What makes naming succeed
Naming fails when it is driven by personal preference. The leadership team picks the name they like. Legal signs off on something available. Nobody tests it properly. The result is a name that works in the room but not in the market. Our approach starts with a naming brief: what does this name need to do? What does it need to communicate, avoid and achieve over the next ten to twenty years? The answers become the criteria against which every candidate name is evaluated, removing subjectivity from what is often a very subjective decision. A good name does not need to be explained. It does, however, need to be right.
When you need a new name
01 / You are launching something new
A new organisation, prize, service or initiative needs a name before it can do anything else. We build names from scratch that are distinctive, available and built for the long term.
02 / You are launching a sub-brand or service line
A new product or division needs a name that works with, and not against, the rest of your portfolio. Brand architecture and naming need to be resolved together.
03 / You are merging or divesting
M&A situations often produce the hardest naming questions. Keep one name? Create a new one? Combine both? The right answer depends on the strategy, not the politics.
04 / You have outgrown your current name
A name that made sense at launch can become a constraint as an organisation grows. If your name no longer reflects what you do, who you are or where you are going, it may be time to change it.
What we do
Naming brief and criteria
Defining what the name needs to do strategically before generating any candidates. This is what keeps the process objective.
Name generation
A structured longlist of candidates across different naming approaches, descriptive, associative, invented, founder-based, evaluated against the agreed criteria.
Legal clearance screening
Preliminary checks for trademark conflicts and domain availability before investing in the shortlist. We work with specialist IP lawyers for full clearance.
User testing
Testing shortlisted names with relevant audiences to understand perception, pronunciation, recall and associations before a final decision is made.
Name recommendation and rationale
A clear recommendation with the strategic case for each shortlisted name, so the decision is made on evidence rather than instinct.
Community Rail Network
ACoRP, the Association of Community Rail Partnerships, had outgrown its name. The acronym no longer reflected what the organisation stood for or made it easy for new people to get involved. Following a strategic brand review, we created the new name Community Rail Network: clear, open and built for growth. ‘Following DC&CO’s strategic review and recommendations, we felt confident to change our brand to better reflect who we are and what we do.’
FIS
AISFPDC was a membership organisation formed from two merging trade bodies. The existing name no longer worked. Our brief: create a new name for the combined entity that was clear, credible and gave the leadership team something to believe in. The result was FIS, short, strong and immediately usable across every context the business needed.
AMT-Sybex
AMT-Sybex create enterprise software for the global infrastructure and energy industries. The goal was to make them investor-ready. We repositioned the business as a product-led company, turning technical acronyms into names that better reflect what each product does. The result: MarketFlow, FieldReach and Leasepoint, brought together under the newly named Affinity Suite. AMT-Sybex was acquired by Capita for €100m in 2014.
Frequently asked questions
How many names do you generate?
A typical longlist contains between thirty and sixty names across different naming approaches. We evaluate these against the agreed brief criteria before presenting a shortlist of five to eight for further discussion and legal screening.
How long does naming take?
A naming project typically takes four to eight weeks from brief to final recommendation. Legal clearance can add time depending on the complexity of the trademark landscape. If naming is part of a wider rebrand, it runs in parallel with the early strategy phase.
Do you handle legal clearance?
We conduct preliminary checks for trademark conflicts and domain availability as part of the process. For full, legally defensible clearance we work with specialist IP lawyers. We can recommend firms with experience in brand naming specifically.
What if the name we want is already taken?
It happens. Our job is to find you something better, a name that is not just available but genuinely stronger for being ownable without qualification.
