Meet the ‘professional namer’ behind Fortune 500 model names

Anthony Shore, 56, is knowledgeable namer who has christened greater than 250 firms and merchandise—and one canine. The names whose creation he’s directed embody Accenture, Adobe Lightroom, Yum! Brands, Dreyer’s Gradual Churned ice cream, Tonal residence gymnasium, Starry web companies, Virgin Voyages, and FedEx Customized Essential.

Shore’s names have even made their technique to outer house—a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip powered a NASA helicopter that landed on Mars—and the wrists of presidents: The Fitbit Ionic is former President Obama’s watch of alternative.

Shore is skilled as a linguist, has labored as a copywriter and typesetter, and led naming tasks at branding companies Lexicon Branding and Landor Associates. Since 2009, Shore has run his personal naming and branding company, Operative Words.

“It’s the best job in the world,” Shore just lately advised Fortune. “I sit around all day and just think of ideas and words.”

Public naming

Maybe probably the most high-profile naming mission Shore directed was the renaming of Andersen Consulting to Accenture—“an accent on the future.”

In August 2000, the Worldwide Chamber of Commerce ordered Andersen Consulting to vary its identify after it spun off from the accounting agency Arthur Andersen LLP. Shore, then the director of writing and naming at Landor Associates, was introduced in to steer the mission.

The identify “Accenture” was initially submitted by an worker on the agency—and was among the many 1000’s of authentic and submitted names Shore pored over. When it got here time for the agency’s senior companions to vote for the ultimate identify, it was two-to-one in favor of Accenture over the subsequent 50 names, Shore stated.

“It was the only name on the list which began with AC, and the Andersen Consulting logo was an A with a superscript C,” Shore stated. “So there was a little bit of comfort, I think, that came with this name.”

Accenture reportedly spent $100 million on the rebranding—and it turned out to be cash nicely spent when Arthur Andersen, the tax agency, turned embroiled within the Enron scandal in 2001.

Shore declined to share how a lot he fees for his naming companies, however according to StartupNation, hiring skilled namers can value wherever between $10,000 and $100,000 relying on the dimensions of the mission and firm.

Kill your darlings

Shore’s naming tasks sometimes take about seven weeks from begin to end. He first sits down with the shopper to debate their imaginative and prescient and tastes—then develops a listing of “name objectives.”

With the aims as a guiding gentle, Shore and his crew give you a listing of over 1,000 names—aided by linguistic software program that maps the connection between phrases.

Shore then narrows it all the way down to a shortlist of 100 to 150 names, and sends them over to his trademark associate to display screen the names’ trademark availability. There are sometimes not less than 50 low-risk names left on the checklist by the point the screening is full.

Shore presents these names to the shopper and will get suggestions inside a number of days. Over the course of the subsequent three weeks, Shore creates one other, extra centered batch of about 100 names to point out the shopper.

After some deliberation, the shopper selects a brief checklist of three to 5 names, then completes additional screenings with their authorized crew. The shopper in the end chooses one last identify, and information an intent-to-use software with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Workplace.

“We develop over 1,000 names, and we slaughter every one of those darlings except for one,” Shore stated.

He’ll generally maintain the fallen names in his again pocket—however few of them dwell to see one other day.

“I’m in naming for the long haul, and I can’t really spend time or effort grieving over the names that have fallen by the wayside,” he stated.

‘I can’t flip it off’

What makes an incredible identify? Shore factors to a few key traits—that it’s inspirational, differentiable, and, in fact, legally obtainable.

“A name is only as good as it is available,” he stated.

Although Shore loves his job, he typically finds himself unable to show off the naming reflex in his on a regular basis life.

“I have feelings about names when I see them—whether I want those feelings or not,” he stated. “I can’t turn it off.”

One of many names Shore has sturdy emotions about is Kyndryl—a by-product of IBM’s infrastructure companies created in 2021. The identify is a portmanteau of “kinship” and “tendril,” according to a press launch from IBM.

“It’s meaningless; it’s unintuitive to say and spell,” Shore stated. “It’s a name I just can’t stand.”

If unhealthy names had been against the law, Elon Musk’s X could be on the prime of Shore’s responsible checklist.

“X is a branding crime,” Shore stated. “To have taken the Twitter brand and all of its equity and its whole branded ecosystem—and to debrand it with this off-the-shelf idea that’s utterly undifferentiated, is a crime.”

However working in Musk’s protection is “The Boring Company,” the identify of his tunneling startup. 

“I think that’s a super cool name,” Shore stated. “10 out of 10, no notes.”

Shore has over 250 model names beneath his belt, however he’s by no means been requested to call a baby. He did have the chance to call a buddy’s chocolate labrador as soon as—a uncommon event the place he may run wild, free from the constraints of trademark availability and shopper suggestions.

Shore named the labrador after a model of chocolate syrup he remembers fondly from his childhood: Bosco.