In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Juliet asks “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet”. In fact, she concludes that it is not a name which gives a thing its essential qualities. A name is perhaps arbitrary; a rose would still smell sweet even if it were not called a rose. And Romeo would still remain her true love even if he was not called Romeo. However, all these happened during pre-digital days when domain names did not exist, nor did the Montague family acquire any brand name.But in today’s Internet dominated world, brand names and domain names matter a lot. While the AMA (American Marketing Association) defines brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of these intended to identify the goods and services of a seller or a group of sellers, the domain name bears your unique identity on the Internet. Over and above, it becomes the address of your cyberspace.

However, when it comes to choosing an appropriate brand name, there are several issues that need careful consideration. For instance, a brand name needs to be protected as long as its owner/owners are in business and so whether it can be featured as a Trademark™ proves to be a crucial issue.As for selecting the right domain name for your website, these issues multiply. To be more practical, you may try to associate some common factors that can cover both your brand name and domain name. Here are a few guidelines on this topic that may help you select your brand name which can easily integrate with most potential branding of your product or services.

Follow the KISS Principle

When selecting both your brand trademark along with catchphrase and domain name, you would do well if you try to follow the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid). World’s most radiant domain names are very simple and are also pretty easy to remember. This helps people to recollect the correct domain name and visit the website whenever searching for something.   According to Brandon Doyle, CEO of Wallaroo Media, “For our digital marketing agency we wanted a name that was memorable, brandable, fun, and unique. We chose Wallaroo Media – everyone loves it and nobody forgets us.”

Trademark Search is Important

Before finally selecting a brand name, it is essential that you conduct a trademark search to determine if any other business is already using that name. “People within industries tend to gravitate towards similar brand name choices,” says intellectual property attorney Perry Clegg, founder of Trademark Access, “so it is important to always do a Clearing Search even if you believe your chosen trademark is unique”. Although trademark clearing searches are mostly conducted by attorneys, you can, nevertheless, do it yourself by way of using a service called Corsearch.

Brief Yet Lyrical is The Name of The Game

That the domain name should be as short as possible has already been emphasized in this blog post; however, a new factor has now been added to it. If you try to make it sound lyrical, people will tend to remember it more. As for selecting longer domain name, you would be paving the way for people either to mis-remember the name or commit a typo, both resulting in missing your website by the skin of the teeth.

Needless to say, most iconic business brands the world over follow this principle, such as Apple, Dell, eBay and many more. Seth Bailey, CEO of tech support company iTOK.net said this about their short brand and domain: “We could have chosen a longer name to try and differentiate ourselves, but the best brand names are short and memorable. iTOK is simple, unique, and it follows familiar naming conventions in the digital landscape. It’s been a perfect fit for us, and easy for customers to remember.”

Do Not Give Rise to Confusion

Since people get confused when seeing homonyms, hyphenated words and numerical in domains, the best thing will be to avoid these. This will result in better communication on one hand while more traffic on the other. Also, try to refrain from using complex phrases that are difficult to comprehend and still more difficult to remember. Use simple phrases if you insist.

Dot Com Whenever Possible

“Despite the fact that there are other top level domains which do get a decent amount of traction, most commercial enterprises will want to stay with a dot com domain name when at all possible,” says Andrew Rosener, CEO of premium domain brokerage Media-options.com. “It simply provides organizations the most strategic flexibility, and the lowest chance of losing traffic, making it a smart choice in nearly every situation.”

Bottom Line

Keeping these simple yet strategic procedures in mind while brainstorming your domain name will surely yield short, lyrical, snappy and memorable results. What’s more, domains with such qualities would easily fit into all forms of marketing, advertising and branding campaigns as well.