How to use Enwau’s Business Name Generator to find a great name for your business.
In this article we focus on the search for a great name for Welsh based businesses and organisations. Here at ENWAU, we advise business startups to search for a good domain name for your business, first, your official business name (the one you register with Companies House), second.
Why? In a nutshell, it’s easier to adapt a business name to match a unique online name, that it is to get a good domain name from a pre-existing business name. More on that later.
There a many challenges to find a good business name that will work online, but if you remain flexible in your search for a good name, and don’t get to fixed on an idea, too early in the process, you should be able to find a great name at relatively small cost.
There are a number of pitfall in the online business name market that you need to avoid.
Shorter names are more valuable in general. As we find in the second-hand car number plate market, shorter domain names are similarly cherised, and equally attract inflated prices in the secondary market.
Domain names that can be purchased on a first-come-first-served basic for £10 can be sold for £10K’s plus. This is partly because there is a shortage of shorter domain names. There are only 17,576 combinations of three letter domain names (e.g. ABC.COM) and 456,976 combinations of four letter domains (e.g. ABCD.COM) in latin scripts. However, this rises to ~308,915,776 domain names when we search for six letters, and so on. The second reason why there is such a high premium on on domain names in the secondary market is because there are savvy domain name traders (domainers), who know about the hidden value of domain names, and seek to find good names, before you do.
The short domain names with the popular domain name endings (.COM, .UK, etc.) have pretty much sold out, and you are faced with paying premium prices for these domains.
The New Generic Top Level Domain Name (new GTLD) market has introduced 100’s of new domain name endings onto the market. Until recently, the domain name market was dominated by tradition generic domain name endings, .COM, .ORG, .NET, and national domain name endings (.CO.UK, .FR, .IE). Note, there was no domain name ending for Wales, and the new GTLD market introduced new .WALES and .CYMRU domain name endings and 100’s more.
This has given great new opportunities to find a domain name and establish an online brand, but beware of the space already taken in the traditional markets.
For example, you may have a new photography business and you manage to find that the PHOTOS.CYMRU domain name is available for purchase. However, if the PHOTOS.COM and PHOTOS.CO.UK domains have been taken you could be fighting to establish an online brand.
If you manage to sucure a great domain name for your business, don’t forget to invest in the other domain name endings to protect your brand online. For example, if you book the .WALES domain name, don’t forget to book the matching .CYMRU domain name before someone else gets to it. If you can also book the .COM and .CO.UK and .UK domains you will prevent others from registering those names, and competing with your brand.
We recommend that you maintain a portfolio of domain names to protect your brand. If you find a unique name for your business, and you get in there first, you should be able to maintain a good portfolio of domain names for your business for a few hundred pounds a year.
Next, we give some tips to help you in the hunt for a good name for your business that will work online.
It is a fact, that shorter names are good. They are memorable, easier to spell out for people, quicker to say, and easier in graphical design. Although short domains are in short supply, if you increase your hunt for 6 letters or more, then you are choosing from a pool of more than 308,915,776 domain names. Most of them junk, but nuggets amongst them nevertheless.
The best names don’t necessarily make sense.
Some of the best business names online seem to be from made up words.
For example, Google.com, Uber.com, AirBnb.com, Ebay.com, Amazon.com, Facebook.com are hugely successful internet businesses that have business names derived from made-up names, or combinations of popular words.
If you can think of a domain name that contains some keywords that people seeking your product or service may type into Google or other search engines then you will have more success in attracting customers from Search Engine Results pages (SERP traffic).
For example, quickloans.uk suggests getting a loan quickly, flowers-of-oxford.com suggests flowers for sales in the city of Oxford.
To use the ENWAU Business Name Generator simply enter a name into the search box below or from the front page of this website. The search results have two elements - first, we show domain names and availability for the exact match of your search terms. Next, we generate alternative name suggestions where your preferred names have been taken.
The process is automatic.
We suggest you search for the .WALES business name first as this is the most competitive space to find a unique domain that works for your business. Next, search for a matching .CYMRU name and then the Welsh translation of the domain name in both. For example,
For brand protection, we also advise that you register the .COM and .UK versions of your domain name if they are available (to prevent others from doing so, and hijacking your brand!).
Search for your dream business name first - the shorter, the better. You never know you might hit the jackpot. Before you proceed with registering the names, follow step 3 below and ‘Check the market’.
If in reality you are unable to secure a great domain name at the outset, get creative - play with variations, add letters and prefixes/postfixes to suit your business, e.g.
Review the auto-generated results, there may be some outlandish results, but there may be others that will help you think creatively and consider alternatives. Any auto-generated results are available to purchase today.
Once you’ve settled on a name for your business, check the market.
First, search for the name in Google. Are there other competing businesses who are also using the name. Is there another dominant topic in the results. For example, you may have a great idea for a business called ‘Lions’, but you’re not going to ever feature in Google search results.
Next, do an online trade mark search to check for other businesses that may be using the same or similar names in their brand or products.
Finally, check the name at Companies House, to check if another business is using the same name as its official business name.
<input type="text" name="domainsearch" placeholder="Find a domain name, review trade prices" >
<button type="submit" class="but butgn">
<i class="net-search"></i>
</button>
Lucien is a Founder of Netistrar - the parent company of Enwau.wales. Following a successful career as an actor, he then went on to work as a security expert, engineer and marketer in the domain name industry for over 20 years.
Published: , 1294 Words.
Share