Brand names can be created through any of the following sources ;
1. Dictionary words : Many brand names consists of familiar dictionary words most people use in an arbitrary, innovative or factual manner. Many of the most successful products via dictionary names for example ; ivory soap, dial soap, glad plastic bags. This type of brand name must be used in a merely descriptive sense to describe the name, use or virtue of the product. The advantage of taking our brand name from the dictionary are so that we have so many words from which to choose and the public will recognise them. The task is to get people to associate the word with the product.
2. Coined words : Most brand names or trademarks are words made up of a new combination of consonants and vowels. For example, we have kodak, xerox, and exxon. These are all kind words. The advantages of a kind word are that it is new, it can be made phonetically pleasing, pronounceable and short and it has a strong chance of being legally protectable. Creating a coined word that is distinctive is the big challenge. One company tried using a computer to coin words for its new products. The disadvantage of using coined word is that when the word is coined from a root word associated with a product comma there is a danger that's the basic world will be so obvious that others in the field will use it. Results his confusion of similar names. For example we have fifteen trademarks beginning with flavour or flava.
3. Personal names : Some people prefer to use their names in branding products. For example we have Nons custard where Nons stands for the first name "Nonso". Sometimes a person's surname can be used. However the surname alone is not valuable as a new brand name or trademark since others of that name may use it. Brand names such as ford automobiles, lipton tea,Heinz foods, and campbell's soup have been used for so long. However, they have acquired what the law calls a secondary meaning. That is true usage, the public has recognised them as representing the product of one company today. However, a new trade mark has no such secondary meanings.
4. Geographical names : A geographical name is really a place name. For example, Pittsburgh paints, often the word brand is offered after the geographical name. The law does not look with favour on giving one person or company the exclusive right to use a geographical name in connection with a new product, excluding others making similar goods in that area. However, if the name was chosen because of a fanciful connotation of a geographical setting, rather than to suggest that it was made there, you may be eligible for protection as trademark.
5. Initials and Numbers : Fortunes and years have been spent in establishing trademark such as IBM, rca TV, AC spark plugs. In general, initials and numbers are the hardest form of trademark or brand name to remember and the easiest to confuse and to imitate.
6. Pictorial : To reinforce their brand name, many firms use some artistic device such as distinctive lettering or a design, insignia or picture. The combination is called logotype.
