When launching a new business or product, one of the things that can take a lot of thought and time is the brand name.

Christopher Johnson, a.k.a The Name Inspector, has compiled a great report analysing ten types of brand names he found in use by internet startups.

He found the ten types were:

  1. Real words, but used in a different context, such as Amazon
  2. 'Compound' names formed by putting two other real, but normally unrelated, words together, such as YouTube
  3. Phrases, following normal patterns of putting words together, such as Second Life.
  4. Blends that put together parts of different words, like Wikipedia
  5. 'Tweaks', where words have been very slightly modified by the addition of an extra letter or the replacement of a letter, eg iTunes
  6. 'Affixes' in which a normal word has a new ending added - such as Napster
  7. Made Up words, like 'Meebo'
  8. Puns, in which a normal word has been modified slightly to suggest another meaning - like Writely
  9. Names, the names of real or fictitious people can be used or adapted.
  10. Initials or acronyms, such as AOL

The article is an excellent place to start when you need to think of a brand name, with analysis of the pros and cons of each approach.