Choosing a name – for your firm, for a new product, for a book – is tough. It feels like such a big deal.
If it’s your business name, you know you’re going to be seeing this logo everywhere – on websites, on the wall in your office, on letterhead or business cards. It will be connected with everything you do for years to come. If it’s a product, you’ll be telling clients about it. They and the team will be referring to it, and turning it into an acronym. A book title will be repeated on social posts, on podcasts, during presentations.
I imagine parents choosing a baby name feel similar. This is a big deal – their child is possibly going to be saddled with this the rest of their lives. (Unless they choose to change it, which of course they can do whenever the name has begun to have a meaning they don’t associate with anymore.)
So you get overwhelmed, and you feel the pressure, and there is no name in the world which seems right. You’re looking at a list of names thinking, “No, that one’s not perfect. This one sounds a little odd. I couldn’t possibly use that name for the next ten years.”
Choosing a name for your accounting firm means considering it as an asset
For a new name for your accounting firm, this is complicated by the commercial trademarking situation. If you’re building an asset, one you hope to sell or transition out of one day, it’s important to choose a name that won’t get you into legal trouble at any point in the future – which restricts your possibilities in a big way.
We’ve had several accounting clients go through the naming process recently, and every accounting firm owner or leader experiences these challenges differently.
Some have a connection with their new name immediately. This is the one! It fits, it sounds right, they can see the visual potential of how the logo and colours and imagery and messaging are all going to come together. Others aren’t thrilled with any of the names, but after mulling it over and saying them aloud and trying them out, one rises to the top and it ends up being a strong favourite.
I remember working with the owner of an accounting firm who considered the shortlist of names our agency provided, and said “I don’t like any of those. There’s no way I could use any of them. We’re going to have to start again.” We said that’s no problem, and we can do that – but in the meantime, just think about these over the weekend. Go for a walk. Say them out loud. Imagine you’re typing out an email or answering the phone. Think about saying it as you step up on a stage for a presentation.
She came back the next week and said, “I’ve really come round to this new name. I didn’t think I’d like it but I can ‘see’ it now – and I’m excited to build what I want it to mean.
Another accounting firm reviewed the shortlist of names and we all – both they and our team – were utterly obsessed with the first of the three. It was perfect. It gave all the right impressions, and had deeper meanings. We could see the potential. We were excited. And then the trademark lawyer came back and said absolutely not, you’re going to face serious lawsuits if you use this name in the financial industry, and we really wouldn’t recommend it. So they sadly went back to the drawing board, and got an okay on the second shortlisted name, which they were…happy enough with. As we build the whole brand around this new name – thought about the meaning, told stories, created logos and colours and a new website – they got excited. They started sharing it, telling clients about it. Clients would ask what it meant, and they’d give the whole story. Now they love it.
Names can have any meaning you – or others – attach to them.
Your accounting firm name can have any meaning you or clients attach to it
“Hogwarts”, on its own, is a really ugly word. Hogs aren’t considered beautiful animals. They snort and smell and their skin is rough and sometimes they have sharp tusks. And warts are something you don’t want, something you remove.
And yet, over the years, this name for me has been associated with magic and sparkle and other-worldiness. I remember being chronically unwell for months, and one day picking up a children’s book at 11pm and literally not putting it down until 4am – and for the first time in months, walking to my local library the next day to get the second book. I remember standing in front of the Hogwarts castle at New Year’s Eve with my nephews, watching fireworks. Standing at the edge of Loch Shiel in Scotland, where they filmed many of the castle/lake scenes for the films, watching the water ripple and the vast expanse of sky.
I don’t hear the two ‘ugly’ words: I see beauty and feel nostalgia.
Eventually names can change. Brand names begin to belong to your audience rather than to you, and the more your clients – and fans – connect with it, the more they take ownership of it. They nickname it, turn it into an acronym. It grows beyond you.
There are many people who hate the word Hogwarts, and anything associated with Harry Potter, for reasons associated with the author (who, let’s be honest, has not done herself any favours). I’m still able to associate the castle name with magic and creativity, but not everyone does anymore.
Think about business names we all say and are used to. Google was meant to be “googol”, but they decided to spell it more simply. “Coca Cola” just gets called Coke. We all know it’s called Kentucky Fried Chicken, but everyone just calls it KFC. When I set up my agency we spent about five minutes coming up with The Profitable Firm, which it’s still called today – although everyone kept calling it PF so we rebranded to reflect that.
Your name – no matter how perfect – will probably grow beyond you. It will be understood by clients and team, and even yourself, in ways which are hard to see at the beginning. It will take on associations you didn’t think of.
And that’s because a name is only one small part of your brand.
Your business name is only one small part of your whole firm’s brand
If you separate out your brand colours, on their own, they don’t mean a great deal. If you take photographs of your team and look at them solo, they only get across a certain part of your message. The same with the way you speak, the way you write. I know clients who hate the sound of their own voice – and I’m one of those people, too. I wouldn’t say I’ve come to love my voice, but I definitely appreciate that people can associate positive things with my voice if they feel that way about me.
You could spend years picking the world’s most perfect name – and then it will change, somehow. Associations, emotions, acronyms… eventually the name of your book or podcast or firm will grow beyond you. It will begin to be owned by your clients more than yourself.
And that is a good thing.
Your brand is inviting others in. It’s not something they watch from afar: they will engage with it. Say it aloud. Refer to it. Have emotional connections with the people who represent it. Are affected by it. It will change their life in small ways. So they begin to feel ownership of it, too.
If you’re considering a name for anything, you’re definitely going to overthink it. I always spend far more time on something like this than even I want to…and once I find the perfect name, it often ends up changing anyway.
“Hogwarts” can mean something magical. “Apple” can refer to technology. “Uber” has become a verb.
You don’t know what your name is going to become: but you get to have control over who you are, associated with it. Do good work. Be the kind of person who lives your values. Help people. All of that will become associated with your new name – and what it becomes may surprise you.
