Before you can even think of the actual brand names to toy around with, you have to do your homework first. Here are the steps for building a good brand, as espoused by branding guru David Aaker:

Develop the brand strategy. Identify who your target market is and what you product is all about. After all, your brand should appeal to your target market. Next, think of what your product’s unique selling point is. This will make the nature of the product all the more clearer. The clearer the point comes across in your brand strategy, the easier your job will be of convincing your targget market to buy.

Develop the creative theme. The creative theme refers to just how you want you message to come across to your target market. Do you have a happy product? A serious product? A mature product? A young product? Products have personalities, and developing that personality is part of your job (you are, after all, raising a baby here). Think of all the possible inferences and connotations that you want your brand to bring into the minds of your market. What colors would you focus on? What materials would you work with for your collaterals?

Create the name. You’ve done your homework. Now it’s time to actually think up the name. Keep it short. In fact, the rule of thumb is that a brand should have no more than three syllables in it. Think of the most popular brands in history, and you’ll notice this to be the case. Even Coca Cola had to shorten their name to Coke in order to build up brand value! It also helps if your selected brand actually helps connote the unique selling point that you had in mind for your product.

Test the name. Sometimes, you may think that you already have a winner of a brand�??and then it turns out that you had bad taste all along and your market absolutely hates it. So go and pretest your brand. Ask people who belong to your target market. And then ask them if the brand succeeds in manifesting what you want it to project in the first place.

Screen for trademark availability. Let’s face it. If you’re unlucky, you may end up with the perfect, perfect brand name … only to realize that it has already been taken. Ouch. You’ll want to come up with at least three possible brands that you can be happy with. Particularly since all the good names are going fast.