More on Naming your Business.

This five-star standard of business naming comes from Naseem Javad at the Wisconsin Technology Network (via David Young at the Branding Blog):

A five-star standard of business naming: To qualify, a name must pass each of the five following criteria to get a star. If it fails at any point, then your name is in serious naming trouble. Anything less than five stars is really a liability wasting valuable branding. Is your name: 1) Very distinct and very unique? 2) Short, simple with attractive alpha-structure? 3) Highly related to the business? 4) Globally trademarked and protected? 5) With an identical URL?

My new firm name, The Silver Lake Group, gets at least four of the five stars. "Silver Lake Law" seemed a bit hard to say, though it did a better job of identifying what the firm actually did. I hope to take care of that with a tagline that will accompany our name and logo. I'm meeting with a graphic designer tomorrow to narrow down the field of logos, and I've already reserved www.silverlakelaw.com as a domain name. Trademark applications are next on the agenda. The name, logo, and tagline will all be unveiled here first on May 1, 2004.