How to Choose a Business Name in Nigeria

The first and most important thing after you conceive the idea of starting a business is to get a proper and befitting business name for the business. 

Whether you have decided to incorporate a company or register a business name, you must first get a name that the business entity would be recognized with.

However, getting a name for the business entity is not the problem, but getting a befitting and suitable name for the entity could be a great challenge for any business owner. Note that whatever name you are giving your business entity must fit the type of business you are offering.

This is considered a challenge in Nigeria, especially for business owners, as they are confused about how to choose a business name in Nigeria that would be suitable for their businesses.

According to the regulation from the Corporate Affairs Commission, the name you want to give your company or business must not be identical to a similar existing name, misleading and against public policy. 

And with that in mind, here’s how to choose a business name in Nigeria before you even start the business. You can also apply this if you decide to incorporate a company instead of registering a business name.

10 Tips for Choosing a Business Name in Nigeria

The following are 10 tips on how to choose a business name in Nigeria. 

1. Ensure the name resonates with the nature of the business

This is one of the essential factors to consider when deciding on how to choose a business name in Nigeria. 

You must take into cognizance the nature of the business. For instance, if the nature of your business is the sale of shoes, you cannot call the business a name like “ola’s fashion accessories” or “ola’s clothings. 

If you pick such a name when registering with the Corporate Affairs Commission, it might be rejected or queried during the application, and you would have to change it to suit the nature of the business. Apart from the issue with CAC, it would also confuse your clients and customers.

Read also: How to register your business name on CAC.

2. Pick a name that is easy to pronounce

This is very important when contemplating how to choose a business name in Nigeria.  This is because of your clients and potential clients. You do not want to make it difficult for your clients to describe your business to their friends while referring your business.

 Also, it would not be in your favor when you find it challenging to pronounce your business name when pitching your business idea to investors. So when you want to choose a business name for your business, make sure it is one that can be easily pronounced.

3. Make sure the domain name is available

Choosing a name that cannot be used for your business website is not a smart way when planning how to choose a business name in Nigeria. This is because getting a website for your business remains one of the most important things you must do to make sales for the company.

It is always perfect for your website’s domain name to be the same as the business name. This will make it easy for your clients or potential clients to access your products online. It would be awkward for your website name to be different from your business name. You don’t want to start confusing your clients. 

Read also: Free tools for building an E-commerce website.

4. Avoid similar names with existing businesses

Pick a name different from any similar names of any business. When deciding how to choose a business name in Nigeria, make sure the name is very different from other names around.

This is to avoid losing your customers to a similar brand name. Also, you might face registration issues because if the name has been registered before, CAC will reject the name for registration. So do a survey around to confirm that there is no similar name with the name.

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5. You can use your name

This is what most business owners miss when deciding how to choose a business name in Nigeria. They all want to select “posh” names. They often forget that their personal names are the best to choose as business names.

You can modify the name to sound friendlier and better. You can even use your name and add the nature of your business to it. For instance, Ajoke foods, Tee’s Collections, Enny’s Feet, etc.

6. Check a name generator online 

When you are contemplating how to choose a business name in Nigeria, you can check different online name generators. When you get on these platforms, you would be asked to drop some information and a name would be generated from that.

Some of these online name generators have ready-made names, and all you have to do is to pick anyone that resonates with your idea or interest.

7. Make sure the name can be easily abbreviated

It is important that when you are deciding on how to choose a business name in Nigeria, you should make sure that the name can be easily abbreviated. It makes the name soothing to the ears of potential customers and even investors.

An example is UBA, GTB, FCMB, etc. You can take a cue from these business entities to pick a name for your business.

Read also: Top 10 Digital marketing tools to grow your business.

8. Deliberate with your partners and co-founders

 If you have co-founders or partners, then you can sit down and deliberate with them on the name to be given to the business. This is another tip on choosing a business name in Nigeria for your business.

You could decide with your partner to join the first letters of your name together to make the business name. You could even choose to use a combination of your name and your partner’s name with the addition of a phrase to make the business name.

9. Abbreviate your name

To choose a suitable business name, you could also abbreviate all your names to make your business name.

10. Consider the demographics of your audience

 This is a very important factor to consider when contemplating how to choose a business name in Nigeria for your business. This means that you should consider the type of audience you are selling to when you want to choose a name.

For instance, if you are selling Men’s shoes, it would be ridiculous to use a name like Pinky shoes or pink heaven. You could use a name like For Gents, Gents feet, etc.

Conclusion

Choosing a name in Nigeria has always been a stressful job for most business owners. However, if all the above tips are taken into consideration, then you will experience no difficulty getting a very befitting name for your business.

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