What’s in a Name?

137,000 businesses start up every day. Is one starting in your classroom?

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Thomas Suarez was eleven when he named his company Carrot Corp. He used alliteration to grab people’s attention, just as Coca Cola did in 1885. Inspired by Apple’s Steve Jobs, this app making, 3D printer inventing wunderkind, named his company after produce. This is a ‘disrupt’ naming technique.

Ashley Qualls started WhateverLife.com at 14. Her site is famous for online teen content. She’s making millions. Her business name? Ashley used the ‘declare’ technique. Her name uses what people, teens in particular, say: ‘whatever…life’. Yahoo! would approve.

Young Kiwi Sam Lucas lived rough in a hut in Madagascar for a year. He was teaching young Africans the English language as well as coding to help lift them out of poverty. His business name? Onja. It means waves in the Malagasy language. Sam used the ‘dialogue’ technique. He used a foreign word to name his social enterprise. Uber thinks like Sam.

Behind every brand name is a story a teacher can tell. It might be about language: Wikipedia is a mix of Hawaiian ‘wiki wiki’, which means fast, and the Greek suffix ‘media’. Or, it might be about history: Coca Cola exists because of prohibition. AirBnb teaches the power of a brilliant business models. On the other hand, Uber may mean the “best of the best” but there is a place for a discussion about leadership, since CEO Travis Kalanick had to step down due to poor behavior on camera and in public. Oh the lessons you can teach!

Like many of these, you might have a budding entrepreneur in your class. Many schools are teaching entrepreneurship to students as young as 11 or 12. That’s good! Futurists say 40% of five year olds starting school this year will start a company in their lifetime.

To help your emerging businesses mavericks, it’s wise to know the 7 naming categories.

Disrupt: Stand out by being unexpected. For example, Apple is a fabulously unexpected name for a tech company.

Declare: Make a statement like Doctors without Borders or Forever 21.

Dialogue: Play with words and language such as the blended Microsoft or the often searched, but rarely cited, Wikipedia.

Design: Make up a name like Haagen Dasz and Rolex.

Designate: Reference the singular, plural or even a place such as iMac, YouTube, Google or United Nations.

Doodle: Play with letters like Coca Cola did with alliteration, IKEA did with acronyms or Swatch did by adding an ’s’ for second watch.

Delight: Name things so people smile, like Silly Putty.

Naming is fun. It also builds skills. It requires creativity and teamwork because naming is a volume game. You need hundreds of names to find the right one. To help your students name successfully, have them first generate ideas on their own. This is called brainwriting. Research at SMU’s Cox School of Business found more quality ideas were generated when people worked on their own before brainstorming in small or large groups.

Naming improves literacy. Admittedly, Tumblr is not a good example of spelling, but it does show what brands do to grab our eyeballs in an attention deficit world. This gives you an opportunity to deepen students’ critical thinking about marketing.

Naming also teaches storytelling. All brands are stories. The story of how they were founded and how they behave. For example, Google’s name comes from the mathematical term “googol,” the number Futurists say 40% of five year olds starting school this year will start a company in their lifetime. one followed by one hundred zeros. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Stanford students at the time, wanted a name that encompassed vastness.

Brands grow because of the stories people tell. The stories of how they treat their customers, staff, suppliers, their community and the planet.

This topic gives you an opportunity to talk about leadership, ethics and even the United Nations Sustainability Goals. What can we do that’s good for people, prosperity and the planet?

What’s in a name? Many ways to engage your students!

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Louise Karch


Louise Karch, M.Ed, altMBA wrote NAMEfluence: How to Name Your Business For Success. She is a recovering comic and ad agency muse with a Masters in Education. Known for her engaging style, Louise has edu-tained learners from Auckland to the Arctic.