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Congrats! You’re having a baby and one of the first things you start thinking about is what to name this child. Should you go traditional and keep it simple; cultural to reflect your roots or creative as an indication of what you perceive to be the child’s personality and uniqueness? What if this child grows up to be a superstar? Will plain, old Jack or Jill be good enough?

Well, it’s the same when choosing a name for your business or company. With corporate identity becoming more important, assigning the right name will essentially provide a strong brand identity for your entity. Standing out in a competitive business climate is key. After all, no one goes into business to blend in.

At the Companies Office of Jamaica, we ensure that no entity has the same name, thereby facilitating your need to start the journey to building a strong brand identity. Our encouragement when registering a business/company is to have more than one option for names. Have a name you love as your first choice, one you like and one you can live with, as your second and third choices, respectively. After all, no one likes a copy cat, except the copy cat.

Unlike babies with similar names, company and business names are different, thereafter, we endeavour to safeguard against this. Once you have registered your entity’s name, rest assured that no other business or company can bear that name. Imagine someone told you to meet them at a clothing store and there are five with the same name, albeit, one may be more popular, but you must admit there would be confusion.

While sharing the same name with someone may be cool, if it came down to the bottom line of you receiving dollars and cents it’s a guarantee that you would be having second thoughts. In business, the name of your entity does come down to dollars and cents and it make perfect sense for your entity to have a unique name to boost the monetary and brand benefits. For those encroaching on your name and brand will eventually be made to pay for your loss.

A part of your brand’s identity is ensuring that the name you choose to sell to your client is appropriate. Hence lewd and misleading names are definitely a no, no! So, no, you will not be able to register an entity with a name that is violent, misleading or derogatory.

While violent and derogatory may be clear, misleading names are another challenge. In essence, the nature of your business should be reflected in the name you choose. For example, you cannot be selling groceries and the name of your establishment you wish to register has ‘Hardware Supplies’ attached to it. That would definitely be confusing to customers.

An entity’s name on a letter head, a store front sign or an advertisement is usually the first interaction with potential customers. If it doesn’t appeal, then you may be losing clients and, therefore, money. An appropriate name backed by strong management skills may just be your ticket to establishing a strong brand identity.