How much does it cost to name a company, and what does the price include?

How much does it cost to name a company?

Brand naming cost depends on who does the work and what “naming” covers. A list of ideas from a generator is free. A project that ends in a short list checked for pronunciation, meaning in other languages, domains and trademarks is research work and is priced that way. The figures below are asking prices from companies that sell or list naming: read them as price lists, not market averages.

A spread from a few hundred dollars to $50,000 does not mean someone is overcharging. A contest sells ideas; at the mid-market tier, naming agency cost buys a name with positioning, trademark research, a domain and a logo, according to Tungsten. Compare what sits inside the price before you compare the price.

Why is one naming quote many times higher than another?

• Scope: a name alone, a name with a tagline, or a name with positioning and a logo. Tungsten’s mid-market tier bundles all of them.
• Markets and languages: every extra country adds a language to screen and a register to search.
• Trademark research: none, one country or the whole world. Tungsten names it as a main driver of price.
• The domain: insisting on an exact-match .com narrows the names you may use, so Tungsten counts it as a cost driver.
• Options and reviewers: Upwork says cost follows the number of naming options you ask for and the review cycles stakeholders add.
• Seniority and depth: Upwork prices an ideation sprint at $500–$2,000 and a rebrand or naming system at $8,000–$20,000 or more.

What do you actually get for the money?

Ask for the deliverables in writing before you pay. A list of ideas is the cheap part.

• A written brief: audience, category, countries, tone and the brands you must not resemble.
• A short list rather than a hundred names, each with a written reason it fits.
• Pronunciation and spelling notes: how people say the name and write it after hearing it.
• A meaning check in the languages of your markets, including slang.
• Domain and social handle checks for the finalists.
• A preliminary trademark screen: a register search for identical and similar marks in your goods and services.
• A list of questions for your trademark attorney.

What does legal clearance cost on top of the naming fee?

Naming fees seldom include legal work, and the work splits in two. First comes a clearance search, ideally by a trademark attorney, who sets the fee; the registers publish no price for it. Second come the official filing fees of the office where you register. The US trademark office says a comprehensive search covers its own database, the trademark gazette, state and business registries, domain registries, international databases and the internet for common-law use, and suggests an experienced attorney for a deeper one.

How do you judge a brand name before you commit?

Run every finalist through the same six checks and write the result down. A name that fails one check is not dead, but you should know which check it fails.

1. Say it and spell itSay the name to three people who have not seen it and ask them to write it down. If the spellings differ, you will lose people who try to find you after hearing about you.
2. Check what it meansAsk a native speaker in each language of your markets about slang and associations, not only the dictionary meaning.
3. Look for sound-alikesThe US trademark office treats marks as confusingly similar if they look alike, sound alike, have similar meanings or give a similar commercial impression. Search spellings that sound the same.
4. Search the registers in your classesGoods and services need not share a class to be related, says the USPTO, so read each result for what the other owner sells.
5. Check the domain and the handlesA free domain says nothing about trademark rights. Check the .com, your local domain and the main social handles together.
6. Search it as a customer wouldType the name into a search engine and an app store. If the first page belongs to another business, you start with a handicap.

How much would a name and the brand around it cost at VITON¹³?

Brand naming is selected. Add positioning, a logo or a full identity if the name has to arrive with a look. Totals add the live starting prices of VITON¹³ services in both production modes. Legal clearance, filing fees and domain purchases are not included.

Brand naming takes 3–5 working days. It ends with a shortlist and a screening report, which is the point where your attorney starts.

Which red flags show up in naming offers?

• A hundred names in an hour with no stated screening. That is a generator, and you can run one yourself.
• “Trademark checked” without a list of registers, classes and countries. One database is a first filter, not clearance; Atom’s own tiers show the difference between a check in one database and in four.
• A claim that the name will register. Only the trademark office decides that, and an owner of an earlier mark can still object.
• A price with no scope: no number of rounds, names, markets or languages, and nothing on who owns the final files.
• No written reason for any name. If nobody can say why a name suits your market, it was picked for how it sounds.
• A name that echoes a known brand in your field. “Inspired by” is a legal risk, not a style.

Can you name a company yourself with a generator?

Sometimes. A generator and a free evening are enough when the stakes are low. When a wrong name would be expensive they are not: a generator gives you a longer list, not the filter.

• Doing it yourself is reasonable when you sell locally, in one language, in an uncrowded category, and you will run the register searches yourself.
• Paying for help is reasonable when several markets or languages are involved, the category is crowded, or advertising money or investors will sit behind the name.
• Either way, run the checks above and ask an attorney before you spend on signage, packaging or advertising.