A lot by the look of it! That's what we found when we went about asking the rationale behind entrepreneur's naming thier businesses.

The ever so classical quote from William shkespeare's Romeo & juliet may sound to the ears, but naming businesses is a completely diffrent ball game.

For many entrepreneurs, choosing the 'perfect name' seems to be more difficult tha the thought of rolling out their business. While some stick to the obvious, others prefer bringing in philosophy. or just simply playing with words. Then, there are some interesting names such as Apple, Orange, Virgin, Sun etc that made it really big. Apparently,there is no thumb rule in ariving upon a perfect name. This piece walks you through different lines of thoughts. and might just help you when you set out to name your company.

Ask Rana Kapoor, founder of YES Bank, about the thought process behind naming his bank and he says, "For a greenfield venture, significant strategic thought-process and investment are required to create and establish the brand name as a financial trust mark. This is crucial, particularlyin the context of financialservices". The name YES Bank was apparently conceived after many rounds of brainstorming and was put through rigorous market research. Kapoor explains the chosen name, "YES is an affirmative word that has a huge positive attached to it. It implies action and dynamism and in summary creates a philosophy within the bank that is customer-centric. apart from all of this it gives an international feel and is yet very simply understood in all parts of the country and globe". Talking abount bank names, the reason behind naming Dena Bank (give) is more obvious.

The name Spicejet came into being with a simple thought. "The inspiration for the name and the logo was the traditional spice-box that is found in Indian kitchens. The colors represent brunt chili, saffron and turmeric, "says Deepa Dey, GM, Communications and Organizational Culture, Spicejet. "The word spice is an intrinsic part of indian culture, while jet defines the industry in which we are and also brings with it a sense of movement, speed and abundance of energy. "says Dey.

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DARE/ basic checklist
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.Simple to remember and recall
.Flexible for growth into other areas
.Speaks about your target niche philosophy etc
.Clarifies what your business does
.can be trademarked
.Does not have a negative connotation in any other language
.Should not sound like any other name
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If you think the name Vishal Retail has something to do with the owne. you are mistaken. Vishal, in Hindi, means huge, and stands for the dream and plans of Ram Chandra Agarwal, Founder, Vishal Group. On the other hand, Emmay HR, A recruitment company, did derive its name from the initials of its entrepreneur, Monisha Advani The reason, mentions Advani, is a promise she had made to herself as a child to start a company and name it after herself to act as a legancy to leave behind.

Coming to online networks. Orkut was simply named after the Google engineer who developed it. Orkut Buyukkokten. " Orkut is esier to spell and pronounce than Buyukkokten, " they say on their site.

The online photo sharing website Flickr has a much different tale. Founder of Flickr, Stewart Butterfield mentioned the following in an intervieew with CBSNews: In an age of curious-sounding website names. flickr came largely by accident. The domain owner of flicker.com wouldn't sell. so Caterina, Butterfield's wife and cofounder, suggested Flickr, which Butterfield says Made the service stand out. " We always had to spell it out for People, which helped make it stick," says Butterfield.

Indian online community networking website ibibo was named byabbreviating their baseline "I Build, I bond". Informs Vivek Bahi. General Manager. Community Markating at ibibo. The name also suggests the paradigm of the next wave of internet and a shift of power in the hands of consumer.

Some examples of intresting names in the Indian travel and transport industry are those of Meru and Forshe call-taxi services.

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DARE/ names gone generic
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A few brands that have become synonymous with the product they represent

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According to ancient Hindu texts, It is believed that a mountain called Meru is the epicenter of the entire universe and is the abode of Lord Brahma as well as several othergoods and goddesses. When the sagar manthan (the churning of the oceans) took place. It was Meru that withstood all the turbulence, Thus, Meru, the brand for V-Link Taxi Services,symbolizes the company's promise of unshakeable reliability to its customers.

On how and why Forshe became the name of her company. Revathi Roy says, "Our brand was earlier called forsche, which was a play on the German car Porsche. We Pronounced it as for she. Later, we changed it to For She. The services is for women, hence the name".

Like Meru, there are many companies whose names originate from mythology and ancient languaages. like Sanskrit.EKA Software is a provider of commodity trade and risk management software. The name Eka is actually derived from the word Ekam, which means unified or integrated in Sanskrit. It Signifies the organizational intent to provide a single-paltform solution to provide a single-platform solution for managing trade and risk across commodities, industry verticalsand business segments.

Avhan Technologies, which is a technology and software provider to call in India, also gets its name from Sanskrit. Anand Awasthi, founder and CEO of "Avhan means challenge. We had no experience in business and everything was going to be a challenge for us. being first generation entrepreneurs, conducting business itself, was going to be a challenge. Also, we were attempting a business in an area (software product) that was not explored in India earlier. Avhan fit the bill perfectly!"

Fashion, Apparel and accessories entrepreneurs obviously show their creativity not only in the work they do, but also in their take on names.

Says Dilip Kapur, president o HIDE-SIGN. "When I started the company I had in mind the design aspect of leather. Hence is started as hide Design and I Liked being able to graphically combine the 'de' twice. The playful tension on whether it should be Hi Design or Hide Sign is fun and interesting".

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DARE/ names changed over time
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International Business Machines Corporation	IBM
Imperial Tobacco Comapny of India	ITC
The Associated Cement Companies	ACC
Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India	ICICI
Kentucky Fried Chicken	KFC

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Deepti Panuganti, the founder of Ask Why Not fashion store, wanted to convey a series of questions to her customers, through her store's name. She Explains, "AWN is not just another wild name. Its about questioning why things are the way they are, Why are clothes either too simple too garish? Why are they either great and unaffordable or affordable but mediocre? Why do we purchase clothes by rejecting the ones we dislike and not by selecting the ones that we love? Can it be otherwise? We said 'ask why not?' And here we are... a store with multiple oferings for women!"

For amit Ladsarla, director of Turtle, a men's apparel brand, the name was all about symbolic representation. The name was chosen because turtles symbolize longevity, strength, endurance, wisdom, patience, shielding, perseverance and slowing down to enjoy life. " No matter how tough things become or how extreme the situation.the turtle always stays calm. and, you live longer. The turtle is self reliant, cretive and plans its steps out beforehand. There's no hurry. things will get done right the first time." he says, "This is what our company and our brand stands for- endurance, strength and balance, mixed with a quiet simplicity. This is why the name Turtle stands apart from the rest".

Kryzliz is a design firm based in Gurgaon. The entrepreneur behaind it. Mahesh sharm, was looking for a name that would convey to his customers that the firm can bring beauty to any kind of conten. The name is derived from chrysalis,the process of a caterpillar growing into a beautiful butterflay. The spelling was modified with K and Zs to make the name unique and make it stand apart.

We saw some more unique thought processes of Indian entrepreneurs in choosing the name for their companies. Evoma is a hotel with business incubation facilities for startups that do not have their own office. Kameel Vohra mentioned searching the web for a inique name for this venture He came across a directory of business names that did not mean anything specific, and weren't being used anywhere else. "We wanted to have a name that is unique, because we wanted the word to mean nothing but our business name." says vohra.

Aloke Bajpai, founder of iXiGO, was looking for an abstract name too. "We wanted our name to be strikingly different from the existing cliched namesin the online travel world. We also wanted the name to reflect the Web 2.0 philosophy of our product. Havindg a name analogous to 'easy go' conveys the intuitive ease of use of our product, with the 'go' underlining the soirit that an innovative travel search engine needs to have." he said. Incidentally, the name does read like I X, I Go.

Then there is Ask Laila. An Indian local information service. The story behind their quirky name lies in theier belief that like an identity from its name. The name encapaulates the attributes and services of a company and helps in brand recall. Lalla they say resembles the girel next door neigh bor. philosopher, guide, obsession or a friend who has answers for all yout city-related queries.

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DARE/ web 2.0 abstract names
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Del.icio.us	ibibo	iXiGO
Digg	Jaxtr	Syndic8
Flickr	Orkut	Zooomr

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Raghav Kher of Seventymm Wanted the company to have a name that was very filmy, catchy, and easy to remember, and also wanted it to convey the largeness of the concept. "We looked at quite a few options-Seventymm, Funush,Chilldil and Chilldom." he recalls. "We took the internally Shortlisted names to a crooss section of potential consumers across multiple cities and got their opinion on each one of them in light of the product concept. The name that Stood out was Seventymm it is!"

These are only a few gazillon business names that exist out there and each one has its own underlying story. philosophy, dream, or logic. If you are looking to name your startup and struggling with the idea. just remember that there is no set criterion. All you have to do is let your thoughts loose and think out of the box.

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