Generates twenty-plus brand or product name candidates across five naming archetypes, scores them against weighted criteria without averaging, and runs linguistic and memorability safety checks.
Generates twenty-plus brand or product name candidates across five naming archetypes, scores them against weighted criteria without averaging, and runs linguistic and memorability safety checks. Use when someone asks "help me name my startup", "is this a good product name", "generate name ideas for this feature", or is auditing an existing name for distinctiveness, strategic fit, and risk. Not a substitute for professional trademark clearance. Do NOT use for crafting the positioning the name must express - use positioning-statement instead; for briefing the visual identity around a chosen name, use logo-brief-writer.This is the skill's description: the text your AI reads to decide when the skill applies.
brand-naming/SKILL.md
---
name: Brand Naming
description: Generates twenty-plus brand or product name candidates across five naming archetypes, scores them against weighted criteria without averaging, and runs linguistic and memorability safety checks. Use when someone asks "help me name my startup", "is this a good product name", "generate name ideas for this feature", or is auditing an existing name for distinctiveness, strategic fit, and risk. Not a substitute for professional trademark clearance. Do NOT use for crafting the positioning the name must express - use positioning-statement instead; for briefing the visual identity around a chosen name, use logo-brief-writer.
---
# Brand Naming
Naming is a strategic decision with long-term consequences: a name shapes perception, affects trademark viability, influences SEO, and is one of the hardest things to change once established. The costly failure is falling in love with the first clever candidate, then discovering after the logo, domain, and launch that it is unavailable, unpronounceable in a key market, or means something unfortunate in Portuguese.
## Operating procedure
The order is deliberate: criteria before generation prevents post-hoc rationalization, and volume before evaluation prevents premature convergence.
### Step 1: Gather inputs
- What is being named: company, product, or feature. The stakes and criteria weights differ.
- Category and the competitors' names - distinctiveness is only measurable against the actual field.
- Primary target language plus the top 3 secondary language markets.
- Constraints: domain budget, must it work as a verb, must it fit an existing naming system.
- Criteria weights (next step). Label any assumed weight as an assumption.
### Step 2: Establish naming criteria first
Define the criteria every candidate will be scored against before generating a single name. Standard set: Distinctive (stands out in the category), Memorable (recalled after one exposure), Pronounceable (works in the primary language without coaching), Meaningful (suggests something relevant without over-explaining), Available (trademark and domain likely obtainable), Scalable (survives the company or product evolving). Weight by project priority - a startup weights availability highest; an established brand extension usually weights distinctiveness first.
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