Craft a name worthy of your ambitions

Name development that bridges strategy + creative

A name declares the impact you intend to have in as few characters as possible.

It’s tough to find a name you like, let alone one that your teammates and leadership likes too. That is legally viable if you plan on registering a trademark (or sidestepping the toes of another brand who got there first). A name that meshes well with the rest of your portfolio. That differentiates you from the competition. That delivers on your brand and business strategy.

That’s a lot of pressure on one word, maybe two.

Ultimately, a name is a strategic tool to achieve your business objectives, but our expectations for that process are out of whack. We expect a name to be love at first sight. To see a word and know it’s the one. Take it from me, a person who has participated in hundreds of naming projects — the names that are “love at first sight” are probably in use.

Trademark filing activity rose globally by 5.5% in 2021, with 18.1 million trademark class counts worldwide, marking the twelveth year of consecutive growth. This doesn’t have to be a problem depending on the type of company you run, product you offer or geographic footprint you want to maintain. If you’re a homegrown restaurant, say, you might not care about any of those things. But it might be a significant hurdle for organizations looking to enter international markets or operating in hyper competitive industries with a lot of IP activity, like tech or financial services.

Naming represents a midpoint between many practice areas — where leadership, product, marketing and legal teams need to reach consensus. To have a meaningful discussion, you need vet names that reflect all stakeholders’ criteria. To get there, your strategic criteria must move in tandem with your creative exploration.

That’s where I come in.

As a namer + identity strategist, I’ve led naming initiatives for giants + startups alike.

Whether working with clients directly or in partnership with agencies, I help clients find names for their companies, products + initiatives that achieve their brand + business objectives.

With hundreds of naming projects under my belt, witnessing a company grow into their name is one of the best parts of my work.

Names I’ve helped develop + launch

  • Myseum in an infinite circle

    Myseum of Toronto

    This arts non-profit wanted to highlight the personal, particular stories of Torontonians across the GTA. In all my years of naming, this is the only client to gasp mid-presentation, turn to me, and ask if I’d bought the URL yet.

    Learn more about my work with Myseum >

  • Stacked stylistic letters reading Deli

    The Deli

    Production company or creative agency? Try both. This production-led agency makes how the sausage gets made into the main course, to elevate business, brand, and creative goals.

  • Stacked boxy letters reading FIGR

    FIGR Cannabis

    Blending homegrown wisdom with scientific rigour, Figr Cannabis suggests the relaxed language of farmers and the formal abbreviations found in textbooks.

  • Bold name Lumino over the word health

    Lumino Health

    This digital platform from Sun Life Financial enlightens Canadians making informed decisions about their healthcare.

  • A mandala circle next to the name Sagen with an angled N

    Sagen

    As Canada’s largest private mortgage insurer, Sagen makes first-time homeownership more accessible for Canadians. Formerly known as Genworth Canada, their new name captures how they build trust through expertise and wisdom.

  • A magenta circle with a gradient that says Joule in white type, with a small offside connection reading "A CMA Company / Société de l'AMC"

    Joule

    Joule is an evidence-based education platform from the Canadian Medical Association. This simple, peppy name’s got the energy to transfer knowledge fast.

  • Bold logo reading Dagger Stories with a slash through the middle

    Dagger Stories

    This growing independent production team needed a name that reflects their pointed take on the topics shaping our lives through non-fiction storytelling and sharp wit.

  • The words Thinking Capital in violet and grey overlapping a violet box outline

    Thinking Capital

    As this Fintech leader in small business financing expanded their portfolio, they needed a new name to reflect their insightful and growth-oriented outlook.

Helping organizations bring their brightest ambitions to life 🌟

I’ve helped craft names + verbal identity for clients of all sizes, including heavy-hitters like:
Google | CVS Health | Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan | Sun Life Financial | Borden Ladner Gervais (BLG) | Fairmont Hotels & Resorts | UL | Medtronic

🏷 Name your product or your company

Build a home for your ambitions, your roadmap and your future success, while taking the guesswork out of the creative leap.

I’ll help you go wide and source names that fit both your business and brand strategy, backed by strategic thinking and rigorous research at every step. 

Most naming projects include:

  • Kickoff session to understand your goals, your first hunches and what success will look like

  • Competitive & market insights to understand the naming landscape

  • Brand positioning statement to define how your name positions you for intentional success

  • Creative name exploration, led by a naming expert grounding the process in creative and strategic rationale

  • Due diligence review* to make sure you’re considering name candidates you can likely own

  • Strategic support oriented towards decision-making, including socialization with different teams within your business

  • Weekly touchpoints so you can be hands-on at every step.

This might be a good fit for you if:

  • You’ve already done some name exploration internally or with an agency and haven’t found the right name yet

  • You have a hard time getting internal stakeholders to agree on what the right name might look like, including folks from marketing, product, leadership and legal

  • You are adding a second product to your offerings, and now you’re not sure what to call products in your portfolio and/or your company

  • You work in an industry that’s ultra-competitive for trademark registration, like tech or financial services

  • You’re expanding into a new market or audience base, such as a Canadian company expanding into the US.

What the heck should I call this thing?

Book a half hour on my calendar or
send me an email to get started.

✋ Wait! ✋

“That sounds so cool but way too big for me!
I’m just one person starting out!”

I got you, friend, I’m a small business owner too.
Let’s chat about it over no-pressure call and we’ll see how I might be able to help.

 FAQs

  • I’m not a lawyer or a trademark agent, so I am not equipped to do a legal deep dive and tell you whether or not you can file a registration for the name.

    However, I’ve been around the block a few times, and I’ve seen the way trademark law works when it comes to naming, and how risk may be assessed. This is an important step for vetting creative so you can make sure you’re not investing time, energy and socialization in a name that is unavailable. The ultimate decision on the final name will rest on your leadership’s risk tolerance and the advice of your legal counsel.

    For the due diligence review, I use publicly available data to search country trademark databases, search engine findings against your market + your competitors, and top-level domain and social media handle availability. I am not responsible for registering any assets on behalf of your company.

  • I spent five+ years in verbal identity at Interbrand, the world’s largest brand consultancy (which, fun fact, was first founded as a naming company!) Developing names, brand strategy + verbal identity for Fortune 500s was what I did, day in day out.

    Before that, I was a copywriter at a few ad agencies and honestly, I saw firsthand what a mess naming can be without process. Creatives know how to take the leap and see the potential in a name, but don’t always know how to bring their clients and their clients’ leaders along for the ride, especially in more technical disciplines and risk-averse industries like finance or law.

    I’ve been self-employed for more than five years now, and naming has become my big part of my practice. I love that people bring me their nearly-formed ideas and say, “I don’t know how to talk about my big beautiful baby!” Feeling into that unknown space, finding its edges and giving it more definition, that’s where the magic lies, for me 🪄

  • Yes! I partner with agencies of all shapes and sizes to lead their naming projects, or support their process with creative name generation.

    My agency partners include AUTHENTICA, Prophet, Interbrand, Huge, Wunderman, lg2, Art & Science and AndSo. Drop me a line if you’re interested in partnering.

  • Something tells me if you’d made it this far into the FAQs, you’ve already tried that and it didn’t work.

    Naming is much more than simply coming up with one or a couple words. A big part of the legwork lies in defining what the right name needs to do and when we’ll know it when we see it.

    As a naming expert who has led 100+ naming projects over the last decade, and developed thousands of name options for others, I’ve learned how to stickhandle around a few pitfalls and shortcut a few processes. I can help you see around corners you didn’t even know were there and find your ideal name, faster.

    I am also not particularly fussy about your name having come from my brain. My goal is to help you land a name you feel confident about, period. If you, your mom or your accountant ends up suggesting the name that becomes The One, and you feel positive that it’s The One, I consider that a job well done.