How to name an engineering company: The 7 step guide with the best ideas

Deciding how to name an engineering company is one of the first things you’ll need to do when launching your new business. A good name is a crucial asset for any brand, ensuring you can differentiate yourself from your competitors, and capture audience attention. 

Unfortunately, choosing a great name is often more complex than it seems. There are countless different options to consider, from eponymous names to descriptive titles. Plus, you need to think carefully about how your engineering firm name will connect with your audience. 

To make matters worse, there are already thousands of engineering companies out there, with their own distinct monikers. This means finding a unique name can be difficult. 

Today, we’re going to take you through the step by step process of finding compelling names for engineering companies, to help you select the right title. 

What makes a good name for an engineering firm?

There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for choosing a name for an engineering firm. Look at some of the top vendors in the market today, and you’ll notice they all take their own independent approach to naming. 

The key to success is finding a name that’s both distinctive, and meaningful. 

The best engineering company names will resonate with your potential audience, help convey the values of your brand, and generate trust in your industry. 

Here’s a quick insight into some of the factors that make a good engineering company name:

1. Relevance

Engineering companies come in many different forms, from organizations invested in civil engineering, to brands committed to electrical engineering, or mechanical engineering. While your business name doesn’t have to tell your customers exactly what you do, it should be relevant. 

A clever name will provide a behind-the-scenes insight into the focus of your brand. For instance, the name “Aecom” immediately sounds high-tech and innovative. This resonates perfectly with the company’s focus on technology-led engineering. 

2. Memorability

It almost goes without saying, but every business name should be memorable. There are a few ways to accomplish this feat, but one of the best options is to play with language. Using linguistic methods like alliteration, acronyms, and even rhyming can make your name more powerful. 

Consider experimenting with rhyming dictionaries, and abbreviations to make your name more appealing and impactful. A great naming company will be able to provide direction here. 

3. Simplicity

Most of the companies we admire have short, snappy names that are easy to write and say. Although there are examples of more complex engineering firm names out there, it’s often a better idea to keep things as simple as possible. 

Try to avoid complicated titles that your customers will struggle to pronounce or spell. This will just make it harder for potential leads to find your engineering business. 

4. Versatility

While most engineering firms focus on a specific location, target audience, and type of engineering, it’s worth ensuring you’re not too specific with your name. As your organization expands and grows, overly specific names, or geographic names can lose their relevance. 

Companies like “Siemens” thrive because they don’t connect their name to a specific region. They give themselves the freedom to grow and thrive over time. 

5. Brandable

Your name is a critical part of your brand identity. It’s important to ensure you can take ownership of the title you choose. This means not just ensuring your business name ideas can convert into logos and signatures, but also trademarking and protecting your name.

Check you can access the right usernames on social media, and ensure you can buy a .com domain with the same name of your business. This will make it easier to connect with customers in the growing digital world. 

Where to find engineering company name ideas

For many firms, learning how to name an engineering company starts with finding sources of inspiration. Very few business leaders simply come up with an engineering firm name overnight, with a stroke of genius or creativity. 

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to look for inspiration. 

You can:

1. Analyze the competition

Crucially, the name of your engineering company should never be too similar to anything that already exists in your chosen market. However, you can look at the competition in your industry for inspiration on the kind of name ideas you might want to experiment with. 

Take a look at some of the best engineering company names used by organizations in your space. Ask yourself what makes these monikers stand out. Are they descriptive, evocative, or creative? 

2. Create a word map 

Choosing a name for an engineering company often involves a lot of brainstorming. Rather than trying to find the perfect name straight away, begin by giving yourself the freedom to write down as many different ideas and words relevant to your business as possible. 

Think about how your customers would describe your brand. Look at your company values, visions, and missions, and select words that make sense for your company. You can also use tools like a thesaurus to give you more synonyms to work with. 

3. Experiment with online naming tools

Name generators are rarely an effective tool for naming a brand. They typically just regurgitate ideas taken from other organizations, which means you end up with a name that’s not particularly unique. However, these tools can be helpful in the initial brainstorming process. 

They can give you a list of name ideas that you might not think of on your own, giving you more concepts to work with. 

How to name an engineering company: Step by step

Naming any company is often a comprehensive process. One of the biggest mistakes business leaders make is assuming the right engineering firm name will simply “come to them” at random. The reality is you need to be able to put in the work to find the right title. 

Rushing through the naming process could mean you need to change your title or rebrand your business before you’ve really had a chance to grow. 

Here are the key steps involved in choosing the ideal name: 

Step 1: Define your target audience

The first and most important step in choosing the perfect engineering firm name is knowing your target audience. After all, your title doesn’t just have to appeal to you, it needs to connect with the customers you want to serve on an emotional level. 

Think about the kinds of customers you’re going to serve, from consumers to other businesses. You can even create user personas to help you identify the key behavioral, psychographic, and geographic details of the customers you want to serve. 

Ask yourself what convinces customers to work with you, and consider how an appropriate name can draw attention to the key areas where your creative engineering company stands out. 

Step 2: Explore your brand essence

As mentioned above, the perfect name for an engineering company will always be representative of the core essence of your brand. It should tell your customers everything they need to know about your values, purpose, and business promise. 

Before you start creating lists of names, gather as much information as you can about your brand identity. Create a set of guidelines highlighting your unique selling points, and the most important things that set your brand apart from your competitors. 

Make sure you think carefully about your engineering field, and which words or terms are most commonly associated with companies in your specific niche. 

Step 3: Look at different naming styles

The best engineering business names can come in many different styles and formats. Some of the most popular engineering companies in the world today are named after their founders. Eponymous names can give your company a friendly appearance, and a sense of heritage. 

If you don’t want to link your creative or structural engineering company to a specific person, you can also explore other kinds of naming strategies. You might create cool names using “compound” titles, which combine various words into a new moniker. 

You could also think about experimenting with descriptive names, like the “Ford Motor Company”, or acronym names like “WSP”. Acronyms can be particularly useful if your ideal name seems too long and complex to be truly memorable. 

Step 4: Start brainstorming

Once you have an idea of your customers and your brand essence, you can begin experimenting with ideas. A good way to ensure you come up with a clever name is to get a handful of people from your engineering business involved in the process. 

Avoid inviting too many people along for the session, but think about how you can unify different perspectives with various employees. Look at your competition and use their ideas to inspire your list of words and terms. Examine Latin and Greek versions of words. 

Keep brainstorming until you have a comprehensive list of words and terms that define your business. Remember, the idea isn’t to come up with the perfect name straight away, but to give yourself the freedom to be as creative as possible. 

Step 5: Narrow down your options

With your list of relevant words to guide you, start narrowing down your options. Think about the structure of names for engineering companies, based on your competitor research. Ask yourself what you want to convey with your name, and which words resonate best. 

You can consider combining different terms to make your name more unique. Plus, it’s helpful to check which names are already taken, trademarked, or unavailable, to help reduce your choices. Speaking names out loud and creating logo mockups can be helpful too. 

In some cases, it can be helpful to ask for insights from your existing customers. They can provide advice on which names might be the right choice for your organization. Just make sure you don’t share your name with anyone who might steal it. 

Step 6: Create a naming presentation

After you’ve reduced your list of names to a handful of options, the next step is diving into each moniker a little further, with a naming presentation. A naming presentation can help you select the right name for your business, by presenting different options to shareholders. 

Your presentation might include potential domain name options for your business, mock-ups of social media assets and logos, and descriptions of what the name means or stands for. Present this document to the key members of your team, and ask for feedback on their favorite names. 

Try to gather as much in-depth feedback as possible. Ask your shareholders why they dislike or like certain names. Explore how different titles make other people feel. 

Step 7: Choose and trademark your name

Based on the feedback you receive from your employees and coworkers; you should be able to choose a good business name for your engineering company. Double check that the title hasn’t been trademarked, and make sure it’s not too similar to anything else on the market. 

Once you’re confident, file a trademark to protect your name, and purchase the .com domain title for the moniker you want to use. You can then start working on creating brand assets with the name you’ve picked, to bring your entire brand to life. 

At this point, it’s worth working with a branding professional to ensure you can create the most powerful assets for your company, from a logo to a compelling website design. 

Should I use a name generator for my engineering business?

Although the process of choosing a name for an engineering firm might seem relatively straightforward, it’s often more time-consuming than you’d think. Even brainstorming a list of relevant terms for your business can take months of work. 

When you’re looking for a creative name, and struggling to find inspiration, it can be tempting to outsource the process to the technology available on the web today. There are countless AI-driven tools that promise to deliver a good business name in a matter of seconds. 

However, while a business name generator can be useful in the initial stages of choosing an effective name, it’s rarely the best option for companies overall. If you’re going to use a name generator, it should be the first source of inspiration for your team. 

You can use these tools to transform simple “keywords” into potential name ideas, making it easier to expand on your list of potential options. However, you should also ensure you’re refining and enhancing the names your generator creates. 

Name generators can give you plenty of synonyms and terms to work through, accelerating the brainstorming process. However, they struggle to provide truly unique and creative titles. Some tools may even suggest names that already exist. 

Don’t make the mistake of trusting the name of your company to a machine. Make sure your list of names retains a human touch. 

Should I use a professional naming agency?

Business name generators aren’t the most reliable way to come up with effective titles for engineering businesses. However, if you’re struggling to come up with a compelling moniker, you don’t necessarily need to go through the process alone. 

Dedicating the right amount of time and effort to choosing a compelling name can be difficult when you have a business to run. Sometimes, the easiest way to expedite the process of choosing the right brand name is to access the support of a team of dedicated professionals. 

A naming firm or agency can be an incredible resource for companies struggling to come up with the right title. These companies already have years of experience choosing and finding effective names for companies from a wide range of industries. 

They know how to work with linguistic tools and strategies to make your name stand out. They also understand how to craft a name that makes the right first impression on your target audience. When choosing a naming form for your business, make sure you do your research.

Check out the company’s website to see what kinds of catchy names they’ve come up with in the past. Look at whether they offer logo design mockups and domain name searches to ensure your name is both compelling and unique. 

It might also be worth focusing on companies that have experience working with organizations in your industry. Agencies that already have experience working in the field of engineering are more likely to understand what types of names will resonate with your audience. 

Examples of good engineering company names

As mentioned above, one of the best ways to boost your chances of finding an effective name for your own engineering firm is to take inspiration from your competitors. While the name you choose should always be unique to your business, competitor analysis can offer a great source of insight.

Looking at other successful companies with cool engineering firm names can be an excellent way to turbocharge your creative process. 

Here are some examples to get you started:

1. Secure Systems Engineering

Secure Systems Engineering, otherwise known as “SSE” has a wonderfully evocative and descriptive title. The use of the word “secure” in the moniker instantly informs customers they’re working with a company that has their best interests at heart. 

Adding your own descriptive term to your name could be an excellent way to show your customers that you’re a first rate engineering company, that shares their key values. 

2. Rapid Global Business Solutions

Otherwise known as “RGBSI”, Rapid Global Business Solutions is an engineering consulting company, with a powerful name. Although the title is a little longer than most other engineering firm names, it packs a punch with the company’s target audience. 

The company instantly defines what types of customers it serves (businesses), its scope (global), and one of its unique selling points (rapid) all at once. 

3. Bouygues

An example of an engineering firm name with an eponymous nature, Bouygues is a well-known French engineering group, specializing in real estate development, media, and telecoms. The simple but eye-catching name draws attention to the company’s history and heritage. 

At the same time, this rather straightforward title is very easy to remember, it resonates immediately with the company’s target audience, and differentiates it from its competitors. 

4. Vinci

Another excellent example of a good engineering firm name from the French landscape, Vinci is an engineering and construction company, focusing mainly on infrastructure. The name is evocative, as it reminds us of the creator and artist, Leonardo Davinci. 

This title provides a helpful insight into the core values of the engineering brand, and the company’s approach to creative, artistic work. 

5. Boeing

The Boeing company is one of the biggest engineering and construction companies in the world. It’s responsible for creating everything from satellites to airplanes. The company is named after its founder, William E Boeing. 

However, the eponymous name doesn’t just provide a sense of heritage and humanity for the company. It’s also a fun, interesting word that automatically sticks in the minds of the brand’s target audience. 

Finding great names for engineering companies

Learning how to name an engineering company can be a daunting and time-consuming process. There are countless factors you’ll need to consider to ensure your name resonates with potential clients, and accurately conveys the unique components of your brand. 

However, failing to choose the right engineering company name can be disastrous for business leaders. If you rush through the naming process, or choose a generic title, you could end up alienating customers, and falling behind your competitors. 

An evocative, but simple name is the best way to ensure you stand out in your target market, and create the foundations for successful growth. 

If you’re struggling to come up with the right engineering names, the best thing you can do is seek extra support. Naming consulting services and agencies can give you the extra guidance you need to select the perfect title for your business. 

Reach out to Fabrik today to find out how our team can provide you with helpful tips, ideas, and guidance for choosing the ultimate engineering business name. 

Fabrik: A naming agency for our times.

We’ve made our name famous by naming other businesses.

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