Guest Post by Stephen Bateman
Seth Godin wrote a blog post on successfully naming a business. His rules are:
- Pick a name that doesn’t directly tie-in to your market category (*not* “Southern Watch Company”)
- Use real English words
- Make sure it will be easy to spell and pronounce
In his book, Tony Hsieh tells a story about how he almost named his business “Zapos,” since it is derived from the Spanish word Zapatos (which means “shoes”). But wise investors thought it would be too easily confused and convinced him to switch it to “Zappos.”
Godin ends with this piece of advice: Everyone will hate it. If your friends like it, run.
Naming your Church
To me, it seems like churches tend to use a pretty short list of words:
- grace
- fellowship
- community
- revolution
- first
- *insert denomination*
In fact, naming conventions for churches were downright formulaic until recently. Which is fine, since the Great Commission has little to do with church names
.
Have you ever been involved in naming a church or business? What did you come up with?
