Of all the decisions made when starting a business, the name is probably the one most people underestimate and the most expensive to undo later. Switching suppliers, premises, even your logo, is relatively cheap and quick. Changing your name means rebuilding your domain, your social accounts (with all the history and followers that get lost or complicated in the migration), your signage, your invoices, your business registration where applicable, and explaining to every customer who already knew you why you're now called something else. That's why it's worth spending real time on it before deciding, rather than picking the first name that "sounds good" during an afternoon brainstorm.
The criteria that actually matter
There are dozens of naming checklists online, many with redundant or impractical criteria. Boiled down to the essentials, a good brand name meets these points:
- It's pronounced and spelled unambiguously on first hearing. If you have to spell it out on the phone every single time you say it, or if people consistently misspell it, you're constantly losing direct search traffic. Try saying it out loud to someone unfamiliar with it and ask them to write it down; if they get it wrong, you have a problem.
- It's available as a domain, or close to it. You don't need the .com at all costs (country-code domains or hyphenated variants work reasonably well today), but if the exact domain is already held by an active, recognisable company in your exact sector, you'll be permanently competing for traffic and brand confusion.
- It's available, or close to it, on social media under the same handle. Having to use one name on Instagram and a different one on TikTok because the first was taken creates small but constant brand friction. It's not an absolute dealbreaker, but it counts against.
- It isn't generic and doesn't literally describe what you do. Names like "Madrid Renovations" or "Central Shoe Shop" are already used by dozens of businesses in any city; they don't stand out, they aren't memorable, and they're nearly impossible to trademark exclusively.
- It scales to other products or services. If your shop is called "Juan's T-Shirts" and in two years you want to sell hoodies and accessories too, the name boxes you in. Think about whether the business can grow beyond its starting category without the name feeling awkward or ill-fitting.
Checking legal availability, not just the domain
A common mistake is checking that the domain is free, building an entire brand identity around that name, and discovering months later that an identical or very similar trademark already exists in your sector, forcing a sudden, total rebrand. Before treating a name as final, it's worth running a basic search in your national trademark office's database (in Spain, the OEPM), and if the business will also operate outside your home country, in the relevant regional trademark database (in the EU, EUIPO). You don't need to hire a specialist lawyer for a first pass; a search for identical or very similar names in your exact sector already rules out most serious problems. If the business expects serious revenue or plans to expand, that's when a professional consultation before registering the name as a trademark is worth it.
Common mistakes when choosing a name
The most frequent one is picking a name the business owner likes but that means nothing to anyone unfamiliar with the story behind it. A name inspired by a grandparent's surname, a word in another language with personal meaning, or a wordplay only the person who thought of it understands, can carry huge emotional value for the founder and zero ability to connect with a new customer seeing it for the first time in an ad. That doesn't mean the name has to be boring or literal, it means it's worth testing on someone outside the project before deciding: if you have to explain the meaning of the name for it to make sense, it probably isn't doing its job.
The second common mistake is picking a name too tied to a current trend or buzzword (terms related to sustainability, "digital," "smart," and so on, used without any real connection to the business), which in 3-4 years sounds dated or even slightly ridiculous, forcing a rebrand that could have been avoided.
When it's worth hiring professional help
For a small, local business (a neighbourhood hair salon, a bar, a corner shop), a solid DIY process (a broad list of candidates, checking domains and social handles, testing it out loud on people outside the business, a basic trademark database search) is usually enough. Hiring a specialist naming agency starts making sense when the business will operate nationally or internationally, when there are outside investors or partners who need a name that's watertight legally, or when the sector is already so saturated with similar names that a deeper market research process is needed to find real white space. The cost of a serious naming agency for a small business typically runs between 1,500 and 5,000 euros depending on scope; for a business that's going to build its entire identity and future on that name for years, it's an investment that pays for itself easily if it avoids a forced rebrand down the line.
How to test the name before committing to it
Before registering the domain, commissioning the logo, and ordering the first batch of business cards, it's worth putting your 2 or 3 finalists through a simple test with people who have no connection to the project: distant relatives, acquaintances from a completely different industry, or even a small group recruited on social media for nothing in return. Ask them, with no prior context, what they think that business sells based purely on the name, how they'd pronounce it and how they'd spell it if you read it out loud, and what feeling it gives them (serious, approachable, expensive, cheap, modern, dated). The answers almost always reveal something that whoever has spent weeks thinking about the name can no longer see, precisely because they've stopped being objective about it.
Another cheap, practical test is checking how the name behaves in the places it's actually going to live: write it out at the real font size of a sign or a business card, say it out loud answering a mock phone call, and check how it looks as an Instagram or TikTok handle next to a number or a dot if the exact name is already taken. A name that reads fine in a document but is awkward to say out loud when answering the phone is a real problem worth catching before printing anything, not after.
Frequently asked questions
Is a descriptive name better than an invented one?
It depends on the goal. A descriptive name ("Ruiz Artisan Bakery") helps local SEO and is instantly understandable, but it's hard to protect legally and hard to scale. An invented or abstract name ("Zalando," "Cabify") is more flexible long term and easier to trademark exclusively, but needs more upfront investment in getting known, because it explains nothing on its own.
What if the name I want has its .com domain taken?
First check whether whoever holds it is an active competitor or just someone who registered the domain without using it; in the second case, buying it out is sometimes negotiable. If that's not workable, a country-code domain, a hyphenated variant, or adding a short word related to your sector or city are reasonable fixes that won't hurt much if the rest of the name is solid.
Should I trademark the name even for a small business?
If the business will have an online presence and plans to grow beyond a single location, yes, it's worth registering it, even if only in the trademark class matching your specific activity. The cost (roughly 150-300 euros for a national trademark in one class) is low compared to the problem of someone else registering your name first and forcing you to change it by law.