I've covered the various "classes" of company names in this industry-nonsense words (see June), names that begin with "Ins," and so on. I began to realize at one point that there was a subtle form of name rating going on in my head every time I heard a new company name. So I tried to add a little math and quantify how I think of the nomenclature of technology companies in this business. If you go through this list and come up with a positive number for your company, you've probably got a pretty good name. If you end up with a negative number, well…
Start with 50 points just for bothering to do this.
Does the company name consist entirely of English words, even if they're connected (e.g., Connect Systems, Cover-All)? Add 10 points for not confusing the spell-checker.
Does the company's official name still end in .com? Subtract 15 points for living in the '90s.
Does the company name begin with a lower-case 'e'? Ditto. Subtract 10 more points if it also has a hyphen.
Does the company want its name in all caps (e.g., the FREEDOM Group)? If it's not an acronym, subtract 25 points for annoying the editor.
Does the company name begin with "Ins" (regardless of capitalization)? Subtract 5 points for lack of originality. Does it begin with "Insur"? Subtract 10.
Does the company name include the name of something found in nature (e.g., BlueGill, Duck Creek)? Add 15 points for bucking the trend.
Is the company name a nonsense word that could easily be confused with a new drug? Subtract 5 points for lack of clarity. (And see this space in our June issue.)
Does the company name use a number to represent a word? Add 5 points if it's greater than three. If it's three, subtract 5 points if it's supposed to be pronounced "cubed."
Is the company named after the founder, a member of the founder's family, the place the founder grew up, or the school the founder attended? Add 5 points if I don't figure it out right away.
Does the company name include a hyphen? It obviously didn't get the domain name it wanted. Subtract 15 points if it was founded after 1994.
Finally, is the company yet another "AMS"? Subtract 20 points for adding to the confusion.
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