A company name is two decisions in one line. Lumen Bureau is lumen (Latin, light) + bureau (French, the cloth on a writing desk, then the desk, then the office). Verizon is veritas (truth) + horizon. Here are 42 business names with their parts on the table, sixteen of them real companies with documented derivations, and every naming tool and trade list on the site below.
A word that means something, plus a word for the kind of operation.That is the population of the first twenty-six rows: a documented Latin or Greek root, or a plain English trade word, joined to a business-form word with its own history. The last sixteen rows are receipts, real companies whose derivations are on the record, and they show the same grammar under the logo. Documented words say documented; combinations say ours; nothing smooths over the difference.
One limit belongs here rather than in a section: this page composes and explains names, and it cannot tell you whether a name is free to use, so search a shortlisted name at the USPTO search before you commit to it.
Business names with their builds, meanings and traditions
Name
Built from
Meaning
Tradition
Lumen Bureau
lumen + bureau
the light office
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Latin lumen, light
Nova Forge
nova + forge
the new forge
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Latin nova, new
Arbor Depot
arbor + depot
the tree store
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Latin arbor, tree
Aqua Yard
aqua + yard
the water yard
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Latin aqua, water
Terra Guild
terra + guild
the company of the land
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Latin terra, earth
Cura Collective
cura + collective
the care collective
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Latin cura, care
Velox Standard
velox + standard
the swift standard
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Latin velox, swift
Ferro Foundry
ferro + foundry
the iron casting house
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Latin ferrum, iron
Silva Mill
silva + mill
the woodland mill
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Latin silva, woodland
Vera Press
vera + press
the true press
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Latin vera, true
Orbis Union
orbis + union
the world union
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Latin orbis, circle or world
Solis Studio
solis + studio
the studio of the sun
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Latin solis, of the sun
Chroma Studio
chroma + studio
the colour workroom
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Greek khroma, colour
Helio Craft
helio + craft
the sun trade
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Greek helios, sun
Petra Yard
petra + yard
the rock yard
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Greek petra, rock
Aster Atelier
aster + atelier
the star workshop
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Greek aster, star
Chrono Bureau
chrono + bureau
the office of time
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Greek khronos, time
Hydro Depot
hydro + depot
the water store
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Greek hydor, water
Anvil Works
anvil + works
the plant at the anvil
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); anvil, the smith’s iron block
Kiln Collective
kiln + collective
the firing-oven collective
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); kiln, the oven that fires clay
Loom Guild
loom + guild
the weavers’ association
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); loom, the weaver’s frame
Quarry Depot
quarry + depot
the stone-pit store
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); quarry, the pit stone is cut from
Keystone Standard
keystone + standard
the locking-stone standard
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); keystone, the wedge stone of an arch
Plumbline Supply
plumb + line + supply
the true-vertical supply house
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Latin plumbum, lead
Cedarwright Craft
cedar + wright + craft
the cedar-maker’s trade
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Old English wyrhta, a maker
Copperbank Company
copper + bank + company
the company at the copper bank
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Latin cuprum, copper, from Cyprus
Microsoft
microcomputer + software
software for microcomputers
Attested: coined by Bill Gates as Micro-Soft, 1975
Intel
integrated + electronics
integrated electronics
Attested: Noyce and Moore, 1968
Verizon
veritas + horizon
truth plus horizon
Attested: the company’s own stated derivation, 2000
Groupon
group + coupon
the group coupon
Attested: the product described in one word, 2008
Adobe
the toponym pattern
named for Adobe Creek, in Los Altos, California
Attested: the creek behind co-founder John Warnock’s house
Amazon
the toponym pattern
named for the largest river
Attested: Jeff Bezos wanted a name beginning with A, 1995
Nokia
the toponym pattern
named for the town of Nokia on the Nokianvirta river
Attested: Finland, the mill site of 1868
Volvo
Latin volvo
“I roll”, from Latin volvere, to roll
Attested: a bearing maker naming its own motion, 1915
Audi
Latin audi
“listen”, the imperative of audire
Attested: a Latin translation of founder August Horch’s surname, German horch, listen
Acura
Latin acu
from Latin acu, done with precision
Attested: Honda’s stated derivation, 1986
FedEx
Federal + Express
the clipped form of Federal Express
Attested: adopted as the formal name in 1994
Nabisco
National + Biscuit + Company
the clipped form of the full corporate name
Attested: the National Biscuit Company
Sysco
Systems + and + Services + Company
the clipped form of Systems and Services Company
Attested: the food distributor, 1969
Ford Motor Company
founder surname + trade
Henry Ford’s motor company
Attested: the surname pattern, 1903
Bausch & Lomb
two founder surnames
John Jacob Bausch and Henry Lomb
Attested: the partnership pattern, Rochester, 1853
Shell
the metaphor pattern
the seashell, from the family’s original shell-decorated import trade
Attested: the Shell Transport and Trading Company, 1897
Every business naming tool and list, grouped
Four tools, five trade lists, three style lists and one guide. The tools generate and show their parts. The lists are curated tables with the same receipts. The guide is the decision itself, from shortlist to the name you say out loud to a customer.
How to name a businessthe decision, step by step, with the tests that catch a bad name early
What do business names mean?
Exactly what their parts say, once you know the parts. Twelve spotlights, receipts attached:
Business name meanings spotlight
Name
Built from
Meaning
Tradition
Lumen Bureau
lumen + bureau
the light office
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Latin lumen, light
Cura Collective
cura + collective
the care collective
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Latin cura, care
Ferro Foundry
ferro + foundry
the iron casting house
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Latin ferrum, iron
Petra Yard
petra + yard
the rock yard
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Greek petra, rock
Loom Guild
loom + guild
the weavers’ association
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); loom, the weaver’s frame
Cedarwright Craft
cedar + wright + craft
the cedar-maker’s trade
Root or trade word + business-form word (words documented; build ours); Old English wyrhta, a maker
Microsoft
microcomputer + software
software for microcomputers
Attested: coined by Bill Gates as Micro-Soft, 1975
Verizon
veritas + horizon
truth plus horizon
Attested: the company’s own stated derivation, 2000
Volvo
Latin volvo
“I roll”, from Latin volvere, to roll
Attested: a bearing maker naming its own motion, 1915
Audi
Latin audi
“listen”, the imperative of audire
Attested: a Latin translation of founder August Horch’s surname, German horch, listen
FedEx
Federal + Express
the clipped form of Federal Express
Attested: adopted as the formal name in 1994
Shell
the metaphor pattern
the seashell, from the family’s original shell-decorated import trade
Attested: the Shell Transport and Trading Company, 1897
The six documented naming systems
Company naming has systems, and they are on the record.Founder surname plus trade: Ford Motor Company, Boeing, Bausch & Lomb.Portmanteau: Microsoft from microcomputer and software, Intel from integrated electronics, Groupon from group and coupon. Toponym: Adobe for a creek in Los Altos, Amazon for a river, Nokia for a Finnish town. Latin coinage: Volvo, “I roll”; Audi, “listen”, a translation of founder August Horch’s surname.Metaphor: Apple, Oracle, Shell, Puma. Clipped compound: FedEx, Nabisco, Sysco. The business name generator runs the first four of those directly and labels which half is documented.
A business name is not a brand name
The split is real, and most small operations do not need it. The business name is the entity on the invoice; the brand name is the word a customer repeats. Bausch & Lomb the company sold Ray-Ban the brand. Descriptive works for the first job and usually fails the second, because a descriptive brand name is hard to own and easy to confuse. If you are naming the label rather than the ledger, the brand name generator and clothing brand name generator hold that register, and the incorporated forms live on the company name generator.
The business-form words, and what they promise
The second half of the name tells a customer what kind of shop this is.A works is a manufacturing plant, as in ironworks and waterworks. Aforge is the hearth where metal is worked. A mill grinds, from Late Latin molina. A yard is an enclosure that stores and builds, the shipyard and the timber yard. An atelier is a workshop, French, from Old French astelle, a wood chip. A guild is a trade banded together, from Old English gield, a contribution. Choosing this word badly is the commonest quiet error in naming: a two-person cleaning round calling itself a Foundry has told the customer something untrue before the first job.
The trade lists, and how they differ
Same grammar, different first slot and different form word. The cleaning lists lean on Works, Standard and Supply, because a cleaning round sells reliability and those words carry it. Photography leans on Studio, Atelier and Press, and on the light roots, lumen, solis, helio. Construction takes Yard, Forge and Foundry. Lash and beauty rooms take Studio and Collective. Travel takes the toponym system that gave Amazon and Nokia their names, plus the compass words. The style lists, cute, funny and creative, change the register rather than the grammar, and the funny list is honest about the cost: a pun that lands once can still be the thing a customer will not repeat on the phone.
One note that belongs to the whole lane. The names in the first twenty-six rows are builds, not registrations, and common patterns are common for a reason, so the shorter and plainer a build is, the more likely somebody is already trading under it. That is an argument for the second stem, not against the pattern: Cedarwright Craft is far lonelier than Cedar Craft, and it still decomposes into words a customer understands. The full walk-through is the how to name a business guide, and the wider selection craft is on how to pick a name.
Business name questions, answered
What is a good business name?
One that means something, says itself the first time, and needs no spelling explanation. Volvo means “I roll” in Latin, which is a bearing maker describing itself in five letters. Groupon is group plus coupon, the product in one word. Both pass the phone test: a listener hears it once and writes it down correctly. A name that fails that test costs you a little on every repeat, forever.
Are these business names real?
Sixteen rows are real companies with documented derivations, and they say so. Microsoft, Intel, Verizon, Groupon, Adobe, Amazon, Nokia, Volvo, Audi, Acura, FedEx, Nabisco, Sysco, Ford Motor Company, Bausch & Lomb and Shell each carry the receipt for how the name was made. The other twenty-six rows are builds from the same grammar: real Latin, Greek and English words, combinations ours, labeled as such.
How do I make up a business name?
Two decisions, in order. First a word that carries the meaning you want: lumen for light, cura for care, petra for rock, or a plain trade word like anvil, kiln or loom. Second a word for the kind of operation: Works, Forge, Supply, Studio, Collective, Yard, Mill, Atelier, Guild. Join them and read the result out loud. Build your own in the business name generator, which shows both parts and what they mean.
What is the difference between a business name and a brand name?
The business name runs the paperwork; the brand name goes on the label. Large companies split them deliberately: Bausch & Lomb the company sold Ray-Ban the brand. Small operations rarely need the split, and one name doing both jobs is cheaper and clearer. Descriptive is fine for a business name and usually weak for a brand name, which is why the brand lane runs on its own brand name generator.
Where the meanings come from.Latin and Greek glosses follow standard dictionaries; English trade words carry their ordinary trade senses. Every company row states a documented derivation (Microsoft, Intel, Verizon, Groupon, Adobe, Amazon, Nokia, Volvo, Audi, Acura, FedEx, Nabisco, Sysco, Ford, Bausch & Lomb, Shell) rather than a guess, and generated rows say theirs is a build. Where every name's receipt comes from →