How to choose a product name that will attract buyers

At a glance

You’ve spent months perfecting your product. You’ve done all of your research and tested your product concept. Now comes the part that trips up even experienced teams: choosing a product name that actually resonates with the people you're trying to reach.

Naming can get emotional fast, whether you're naming a product, a baby, or a boat. Everyone in the room has an opinion. Below, we'll walk through what product naming is, how to name products step by step, and how to test your options with real people before you commit.

A product name is the word or phrase that identifies your product to the market. Product naming is the process of brainstorming, researching, testing, and choosing that name.

It sounds simple. In practice, finding a name that's unique, memorable, and legally available can take real work.

Naming a product also means making a call about how you'll compete. Your name affects how people find you, how they remember you, and how they feel about you before they've even tried what you're selling.

There are a lot of moving parts to consider. Your product name will involve how you will compete in the existing marketplace, attract the attention of your target market, and support the message of how your product is part of your overall brand identity. There are several ways successful product names affect your brand:

It's best to approach naming a product with a plan. Some teams start brainstorming immediately, but that wastes precious time and tends to produce a less focused list. Instead, work through five steps to organize the process and land on the right name.

Is your product a new version of an existing product? Is it the debut of an entirely new product? Align your product name with your marketing strategy for the product by identifying and analyzing:

Once you've defined your objectives, it's time to brainstorm. Gather your team and get creative, while sticking to the objectives from step one. Write down every suggestion, then narrow the list to the most promising options.

Here are common approaches teams use when they're figuring out how to name a product:

Note: all product examples above are fictional.

Once you've narrowed your list, it's time to research. Does each name align with your brand identity and marketing goals? Would it appeal to your target audience?

Research should also confirm a few practical things:

Remove any names that don't clear this research, then reorder what's left by priority. This is also a good stage to run concept testing methods if your product idea itself, not just the name, still needs validation.

Take your final list and find out how potential customers actually feel about each one. That's a job for real audience data, not another round of internal debate. Naming gets subjective fast: everyone in the room has an opinion, and few of them have data to back it up.

The Name Testing solution from SurveyMonkey LaunchPad uses monadic testing, an industry-proven method that shows each respondent one name at a time, so their reaction stays clean and free of comparison bias. You can test up to 10 product, brand, or feature name ideas at once, then let automated scorecards, benchmarks, and Key Driver Analysis show you which one has the strongest market potential, and why.

Casey Singh, Senior Marketing Manager of Innovation and Consumer Insights at Sakura, put it this way:

Prepare your product and brand social accounts for launch. Purchase domain names as needed. Plan eye-catching packaging, and test that packaging before it goes live. Draft new website content that features the name you landed on.

Still stuck on a name? These best practices will help you get unstuck.

Keep your company mission and values in mind as guidance for brainstorming. Choose a name that ties into your brand identity, so it meshes with your broader marketing strategy.

Shorter names are easier to remember. A short, simple, easy-to-spell product name is easier for customers to recall and to share on social media.

A unique, memorable name sets you apart from the competition. Depending on your category, that competition can be fierce, and a distinctive name is more likely to stick with customers.

A name might look good on paper, but say it out loud first. Customers need to be able to ask about it, talk about it, and recommend it verbally. Take "anemone": a lovely word for a lovely flower, but pronounced "uh-nem-uh-nee." If your name has that kind of trap built in, pass on it.

Run your name candidates through a translation check. This matters even for invented words, since a made-up name can still land badly in another language. "Asquerosa" rolls off the tongue, but it means disgusting in Spanish, which isn't the association you want.

If your competitors cluster around one term, steer away from it. If you're marketing a new product for dogs and every competitor's name leans on "bark," set yours apart with a more inventive word.

Tie your brand identity to the product through an evocative name. Use suggestion and metaphor to spark a feeling. A restaurant called "The Catch of the Day" conjures water, fishing, and fresh seafood before a customer reads another word.

As we mentioned earlier, your product name should be easy for people to say and simple for them to spell. Ask family, friends, and colleagues to look at the written name and say it aloud or say the name to them and ask them to write it down. If they falter and results indicate the name is problematic, it’s time to go back and find another one.

What's your brand's vision, and what values does it embody? The answers should shape every naming decision. Some industries have strong naming conventions. Decide deliberately whether to follow that norm or break from it.

Every step above gets you to a strong shortlist. The last mile is knowing which name on that shortlist will actually land with your target market, and that's not something a conference room vote can reliably tell you.

The name testing methodology behind SurveyMonkey LaunchPad's Name Testing solution is built on monadic testing, so each respondent reacts to one name candidate at a time. That removes comparison bias and mirrors how a real shopper actually encounters a name, on a shelf, in an ad, or in a search result.

Here's what running a study looks like in practice:

This same workflow works well alongside broader market research use cases, from early concept validation through post-launch tracking, so naming doesn't have to be a one-off decision made in isolation from the rest of your research.

Dropbox is a file-hosting service offering cloud storage for personal and business use.

The name puts two plain words together and tells you exactly what it does: drop what you want to store into a box.

The company named its brand and its product the same thing, and the result sounds more straightforward than competitors like Sync.com or pCloud, and more distinct than rivals that lean on the word "drive," like Amazon Drive, OneDrive, and Google Drive.

iPhone, iPad, and iPod are all Apple products united by one distinctive move: the "i" prefix.

The first iPod paved the way for a naming convention that now instantly signals "Apple" to customers.

McDonald's does something similar with the "Mc-" prefix, as in McNuggets and McFlurry, and with "Mac" in the Big Mac.

Windows, Microsoft's operating system, describes the literal windows that appear onscreen while also evoking the idea of opening a window into the world.

Windows versions generally use numbers when they update, with a few notable exceptions like Windows NT, XP, and Vista.

Using a number makes it easy to name future updates while keeping the core, familiar product name intact.

A product name is the specific word or phrase a business uses to identify one product, separate from the company's overall brand name. It's what shows up on packaging, in search results, and in a customer's memory when they think about what to buy next.

Start by defining your objectives: your audience, your competition, your industry, and your existing brand. Brainstorm broadly against those objectives, research your shortlist for conflicts and unintended meanings, then test the surviving names with your actual target audience before you commit.

The name of a product in marketing does more work than most teams expect. It shapes first impressions, supports (or undercuts) your brand positioning, and affects how easily customers find and remember you. A weak name can quietly raise your marketing costs for years, since you're always working harder to make it memorable.

Give your product every advantage with a great product name. Follow the five steps above to land on names that align with your brand identity, check the list against best practices to stay on track, then test your top options with real people before you launch.

Ready to find out which name resonates most? Try the Name Testing solution from SurveyMonkey LaunchPad and find out what your target audience thinks of your name choices, before you spend a dollar on launch.