Brand naming is the hardest small thing in branding. A name is short, permanent, and carries enormous weight — so we treat it as a process, not a flash of inspiration.
Brand naming: from brief to shortlist
Good names come from constraints, not from staring at a thesaurus.
- Write a tight brief: meaning, tone, what to avoid.
- Generate widely across territories — descriptive, abstract, coined.
- Filter hard on sound, bilingual readability, and availability.
A name worth keeping survives three tests: say it, spell it, and search it.
The unglamorous part
Legal and linguistic checks kill more names than taste does — especially across Arabic and English. We screen early so we don't fall for a name we can't actually use.
The result isn't the cleverest word. It's the right one — and one the client can stand behind for years.
What a good naming brief covers
Before a single name is written, agree on:
- What the name must signal, and what it must never suggest.
- The tone — serious, warm, playful, premium.
- How it should sound and read in both Arabic and English.
- Where it has to work: domain, social handles, packaging, signage.
- Names that are already off the table, including close competitors.
A one-page brief like this saves weeks of debating favourites.
Work with us: explore LtsThink's branding & identity services in Saudi Arabia, or read Building a bilingual brand for Saudi Arabia next.