How To Best Name Your Clothing Brand

You have decided to start your clothing brand. You have looked into the information that you needed to get it started, such as your market and niche’ and what legal paperwork you need. Now it is time to name your brand!

To best name your clothing brand determine the products you want to sell, find your fashion target audience, brainstorm name ideas and make a list, make sure your name isn’t already being used, and use the S.M.I.L.E and S.C.R.A.T.C.H. methods.

When you start thinking of a name for your clothing brand name, you want to make sure that you pick a name that you will keep for years. Make sure you have the right name before you start doing the paperwork. You don’t want to have to change it and as a industry practice, once you have selected a name, you can’t change it for several years. Here are a few steps to help you choose.

Table of Contents

Determine The Products You Want to Sell

Determining what you want to sell causes a chain reaction. Once you decide what products or designs you want to see, that will narrow down your target audience that we will discuss a little more next.

If you are thinking of starting your line with a specific item, for example designer heels, but later you are wanting to add other items like dresses, you don’t want the name of your brand to have anything in it that has the word ‘shoes’ or ‘heels’ in it. Instead come up with a name that is somewhat of an umbrella that you can sell multiple items under.

Remember, you can also name the brand after yourself. For example, Michael Kors. This brand is not specific to clothes or shoes. The brand has purses, luggage, clothes, shoes, etc. You can also do that. Still make sure it is catchy and simple.

Find Your Fashion Target Audience

The target audience keeps coming up in a lot of articles about starting your clothing line. You are probably wondering how it has any baring on what you name your brand. Trust me, it does.

Determining your target audience is a huge in helping you to determine the name for your clothing brand. What trends are you going to do? What age group are you goin to focus on? Are you focusing on casual clothes, business attire, beach gear, motorcycle gear, or formal wear to name a few ideas.

You want to come up with a name that will attract those customers to your brand. You will gear your advertising towards that in order to drive the right customers your way.

Brainstorm Name Ideas and Make a List

Now that you know that you have to consider your target market and products you sell, you can start brainstorming. Start making a list of every name you think of. Clothing line brand names tend to represent the personality of the designer, so think about that when coming up with your name.

Do your best to make sure you pick names that you don’t anticipate having to change within the first couple of years. It is important to get your brand well established before even considering a name change.

Start by just writing down the first names you think of. Read through them and highlight the ones your like best.

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Short, Simple, and Catchy

Remember as you are jotting down names to come up with short simple names. Think of some that can be catchy too. Look at other brands to see how they’re brand names are short, simple, and catchy.

Use your word tools! It’s okay to use a dictionary or thesaurus. Use Google to find synonyms for words you would normally use.

Catchy means that your name is original, fresh, and that people will remember it. Here are a few things to think about when you are looking for a catchy name for your clothing line.

Acronyms
Rhyming

Abbreviate

A few catchy word examples for you!

Trend

Fresh
Scene
Rebel

Use Name Generator

Don’t feel like you can’t get ideas from other sources. There are name generators tools online that you can use to generate some more ideas to add to your list.

Here is a list of a few generator tools for you:

Pun Generator

Oberlo
Shopify
Namelix

Name shack

I would suggest that your list has twenty-five names. Once you highlight the ten you like the most. Narrow those down to five. Now take those five and ask a few people, friends and family to pick out there top two.

Take those top two and go to the next step below.

Things to Consider

When discusses above about making sure you pick a name for your brand that will not have to be changed with in the first couple of years, there are a few things that you should consider or think about to make sure this happens and to pick the best name for your brand.

It’s not a Tongue Twister

This can be a big deal! Is it a name that people can easily remember? Can the average person pronounce it or even spell it? You don’t want to give your brand a name that is so complicated that people can’t remember it or better yet, they don’t want to remember it!

It’s Self-Explanatory

We discussed earlier about not wanting to pick a brand name that is a description to a specific item you are selling, for instance you don’t want ‘shoes’ in the brand name if your 5 year goals are to incorporate dresses into your products. At the same time, you don’t want your clothing line name to say something about traveling because that has nothing to do with a clothing line brand.

Take a look at the list of clothing line name brands below to give you some ideas.

Is it No City Names?

You really don’t want to use the name of the city your business is located in inside of your brand name. What happens if you move the location? Or better yet, what if you expand into other areas?

Naming after a city, should be major big NO NO in your book. Erase all thoughts of that from your mind if you are considering it!

Not Taken Already

Now here where the brainstorming has stopped and you have chosen a name or two that you want to use. I would recommend having your favorite and at least two backup names. It’s time to do your research on those names and if your favorite is already in use, you have at least two more options to check.

You can always start with a Google search on the name. Then go to IRS.gov and search there. You can also search on your states government page. And depending on your website host, they will tell you if that domain name is taken for a business too.

You can also use Namechk and Trademarkia to look as well.

Make Sure Your Name Isn’t Already Being Used

You are thinking this question to yourself or maybe even out loud, but it really is answered above. What are you selling, what is your target audience, is your name authentic? Is your name easy to remember, or easy to spell and/or pronounce? Don’t put a specific product in your name. Here’s one thing we didn’t discuss yet. Is your name universal? Universal in meaning does it make since in other languages other than just your own?

Use the SMILE and SCRATCH Tests

Here is a simple test created to help come up with a business name. You can use this in any type of business. Today it will help with naming your clothing line brand.

Smile stands for:

Simple – easy to understand.

Meaningful – one which your customers easily relate.

Imagery – creates a strong visual association.

Legs – it should have the ability to stay relevant for a long time.

Emotional – builds a bond, entertains, evoke a strong feeling.

SCRATCH stands for:

Spelling – it should not be complicated to write or remember.

Copycat – should not sound like or remind one of a similar brand.

Random – one which has no association with the product.

Annoying – evoking negativity.

Tame – has very feeble associations.

Curse of Knowledge – is understood only by insiders.

Hard to Pronounce – If they can’t say it, they can’t remember it.

LinkedIn Source

A Few Name Ideas to Get You Thinking

Here are five name ideas to get your brain moving!

Cloud 9 Clothing Co.
Flawless Galore
Express Yourself Clothing

Fashion Sense
The Outfit

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