Naming

There are lots of ways to categorise possible names. Adapting the work of others, this is the best I've come up with so far.

Types of name:

1) Descriptive/functional names:

1.1 Functional (what the company does), e.g. Microsoft

1.2 Experiential (benefit you get from it), e.g. Vue Cinemas

1.3 Provenance (people or place related), e.g. Oprah Magazine, Evian, John Lewis

1.4 Customer promise: Taste the Difference, Pret a Manger

2) Associative names

2.1 Emotional/personality, e.g. Yahoo!

2.2 Visual, e.g. Red Bull

3) Abstract, e.g. Orange, Blueotooth, Apple

Within these categories you can have:

- Existing words or coined/invented ones

- Full names or abbreviates

- Literal names or metaphorical ones (e.g. Oracle, O2, Internet Explorer)