For some people, choosing a name for their new company is easy. They may have had a name in mind right since they first thought of a business, or they just use their own name. For others it’s an arduous task that involves short lists, long lists, sleepless nights and Post It notes. Lots of Post It notes.

At The Design Mechanics we work with lots of new start businesses and have come up with the following tips for choosing a name for your new company:

1. Practicalities

Remember that you are going to have to work with your company name; it is going to be a tool you use every day. As such it should be easy for you and your staff to pronounce when answering the phone and easy for people to write down. If you choose an obscure, difficult or over-long name that you always have to spell out to people it will become the bane of your working life.

2. Pick a name with an available web address

Your website should be the focal point for your marketing and one of the first things when choosing a company name is to see what domain names are available. Unfortunately, getting good domain names gets harder every day, and even though new domain extensions (like .biz .mob) keep getting released, they don’t have the same authority as a .com or .co.uk address.

Short and simple domains (such as www.eagle.com) are in very short supply these days, but getting a little creative (such as adding what you do to the domain www.eagleclogrepairs.com) will mean you can usually find a usable web address. If you can’t find a simple web address around your company name, or if you find someone that does exactly what you do with a similar website address then consider picking a different company name.

3. Search for people with the same name

Another important check when choosing your company name is to see if anyone else is using it. If you are setting up a limited company start at the Companies House website and use their “Web Check” service to see if anyone else has the same name.

Next, do a web search on your potential company name and see what comes up. It’s acceptable for you to have the same trading name as someone else as long as you are in a different industry and location – however don’t choose a name similar to a competitor else you may fall foul of the “passing off” law.

It’s also wise to avoid choosing the same name as a national brand as they will have the legal clout to make life very hard for you if they decide you are too close to a service they are offering or you become too high profile yourself… even if your surname is McDonald.

4. Keeping legal

In Britain there are a number of rules about company names. For instance you can’t use words such as Royal, National, Authority or British unless you have special permission to do so. You also can’t use anything that would be deemed to be offence – but would you really want to anyway?

You can only use status terms such as Limited, Charity or Trust if your company is legally registered as such.