Freelancers: How'd you pick your company name?

My company name is a micro mission statement: Learning4Results, LLC.

Well said Jackie! I agree wholeheartedly. That's what I love about the Articulate community. Even those who I know are part of the Articulate corporation still present themselves as helpful and approachable human beings and not just company "representatives".

I came up with Elearning Architect because the name really struck a chord with me when I first heard of it as a Job Title, but I never had the chance to use it in the corporate world as a job title, so thought it would be the perfect way to use it in the freelance world!

Secondly, I think it describes what I do perfectly :)

This is one of the best threads! To hear everyone's stories and history of how their company name was chosen, to the mental methodology of how it came to be is extremely interesting.

When I originally stepped out on my own as an evangelist without any denominational affiliation I settled on the corporation name "Open Bible Ministries"  (thus my email address). Our ministry has always been carried out in our home. High school students would tell their parents "We're going to John and Yvonne's house." It was never "We're going to Open Bible Ministries." That was always too formal. When we moved to Virginia and began ministering to military men and women in our home they too said "We're going to John and Yvonne's."  Thus, the change from the official title to the use of our names for our ministry. As for branding and a logo. We use our picture and names on everything - social media sites, our blog, letterhead, business cards, brochures, etc. The identification factor is instantaneous. That's the most important thing to us.

I should add that I wasn't actually allowed to name my limited company Elearning Architect because I was told that the word Architect wasn't allowed - strange. But I already owned the domain name so it actually doesn't make too much difference, its only official/invoicing purposes where anyone will see my actual limited company name (I think?!)

Hi Ant - What do you mean it wasn't allowed? It wasn't allowed to be registered as a business or corporate name?

Completely agree with you, Kevin! There are some wonderful stories behind these names.

I mean "limiting" in the same way that some companies automatically get locked out of some bids if, (for example), their Annual Turnover is less than £xxx.xxx. I guess some of it comes down to the value of business and customer type/size arena that you are working in.

David in the UK certain names are protected.  Architect is one of them

http://www.companylawclub.co.uk/topics/company_names.shtml#sensitive

Thanks, Phil. Makes sense that there would be restricted words like "bank" and "police." I guess it surprised me that "architect" was on the list.

I didn't use my own name because I always wanted the company to be about more than me. I had worked with a company called Workbridge, so when I came to name my company, and was trying to come up with a name that would express how I could improve client's business, WorkBright just popped into my head. Learn more, work smarter, work bright. I have now morphed into calling it Workbright eLearning, so that people know exactly what we do.

I was surprised too!!

Architect is a protected name in the US too, at least in some states (North Carolina, where I live, is one of them). Titles like architect, engineer, and CPA require documentation to prove that you're certified and licensed to perform that work. As much as I like the job title "learning architect," I've stayed away from it personally because of those legal issues.

Uh oh, Christy! You might have opened the "should learning architects be certified and licensed to perform work" can of worms!

Yeah, I know I was taking a risk in posting that. I don't want to hijack this very interesting thread. I think it's good to know that some names are restricted though, so people can find out their specific limitations before purchasing a domain.

I went through the whole process to get NuggetHead Studioz and the avatar as a registered trademark. While a tedious process, "NuggetHead" didn't appear to be a protected word. :)

Fact: Attorney said, "This must be the most entertaining and fun registration research I've ever done for a mark."

http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4803:j5jrdv.2.1

I am kind of in the same camp as some of the others. I wanted something fun, but also didn't want it to limit offerings/services as I wanted room to grow without having to rebrand. So I chose Beyond Content Learning, LLC. It still mentions learning so I feel like potential clientele can assume that I will offer some learning-related services, but the beyond content portion might get them inquisitive enough to ask about my other offerings (i.e., voiceover/narration, technical writing, etc.) I would also add that of course, I researched the domain possibilities as which should have greatly dissuaded me since the site was already taken - at least at that point in Europe. Now the .com is not available at all! Guess .net it is!

A marketing friend of mine told me to mindmap my thoughts about my business when I launched to try to find a name and brand. Truth be told, I already had this name before then, but my map kept leading me in this direction. I do wish it was a little shorter, but I can already see myself using the initials in my branding materials.

I named my company eUniwersytet Marta Burda-Stys (which basically means eUniversity plus my name). It was a tough call but what I really want is to create an elearning service (Moodle-based) with lots of elearning courses (mainly SLA). With that in mind, I think it's not that bad. As for an elearning developer, I would have chosen something different... I guess?

I had some problems with the name registration but I'm good as long as the terms of use clearly state that my services aren't by any means connected with higher education ;)

This is an interesting thread.  Not sure how I missed it earlier.  I'll chime in here on my decision process... While I agree with many that using one's own name as a business name is a great strategy, I was worried that "Jeanne Bernui" was not well suited to be a business name.  Most people can't remember the correct spelling of my first, nor my last name... let alone the correct pronunciation:)  (I'm jealous of you Tim Slade!)  So, I decided a different name was in order.  I went with something that focused on the two key things I see as my business focus "Design" and "Learning" (eLearning is not the only thing I do).  Anyway, I chose Designs4Learning as my company name.  Not the most creative, I know.  But I think it communicates what I do pretty accurately.

In TN, I can't get a trademark because I provide a service, not a product.  So I have a registered service mark.

Good point regarding spelling, Jeanne. I can see where that could pose a challenge.

Reminds me a bit of the days when people hosted their sites with AOL or Geocities and they'd have these long, muddled domain names replete with special characters.

The best was when they advertised on the radio and the announcer would read the names.

"Tilde? What's a tilde? Backslash?? Wait, is that the one that goes left or right? "

Ahh the good 'ol days:-)

This just made my day! Every now and again I remember Geocities and Angelfire. I always wanted AOL but we never had it. I would go over to my friends and play those AOL chat room typing games. Those were the best.

This is an excellent discussion for anyone starting out. In my case, it was pretty easy only because my DBA started as a personal site and blog.  The name is StyleLearn and the rationale is that Style signifies our choice of learning and Learn the science behind it.  

Great stories Guys....thx for asking David!

Before I started my own business I worked as a teacher in vocational education. During this time I started developing my own online teaching materials.

Firstly , because I wanted to provide picture -thinking students with appropriate teaching materials and secondly , because I think any class or study must be inspiring.

The above has led to my company name EyeSpirations . A corruption of Eye catching and inSpirations.