Key Points:
- The secret to a great brand name? Be human.
Emotional connection—not logic or AI—is the key to creating names that truly resonate and stick.
- Names that work trigger an instant, gut-level reaction.
The best brand names don’t just describe—they move people and grab attention subconsciously.
- AI can help, but it can’t feel.
While AI can generate ideas, only humans can craft names that connect on an emotional level.
- Don’t ask people what they think—watch how they react.
Effective name testing focuses on instinctive reactions, not opinions, to uncover real impact.
Look, I’ve been in this naming game for 40 years now, and I’m gonna tell you something that might surprise you. There’s really just ONE thing you need to focus on to create a brand name that actually works. Not five things, not ten strategies – just one critical factor that separates the forgettable from the phenomenal.
The Human Element in Brand Naming
Here’s the deal – AI might help you brainstorm (and don’t get me wrong, it has its place), but the names that really stick? They connect on a human level. Trust me on this.
When you’re trying to name your product, your service, your company – whatever it is – remember this: being human is the key. Full stop.
I’ve seen it time and again. The names that crush it don’t just describe what you’re selling – they grab people by the emotions. This human touch? It’s something AI just can’t fake. Sure, artificial intelligence can spit out options all day long, but it has no clue what will truly resonate in the human heart because – news flash – it doesn’t have one!
Real Success Stories That Prove My Point
Let me share a couple of real stories that show exactly what I’m talking about:
The Cherubs Story
So my daughter – she was in high school at the time – wanted to help with naming this new kind of tomato we were working on. It was this incredible sweet thing, sort of between a cherry and grape tomato.
She sat there thinking about what would connect with people: small, plump, juicy, sweet, red… and she landed on “Cherubs.” Man, was that brilliant! It brought to mind those plump, rosy-cheeked little angels, and it started with “Cher” which connected to “cherry” for folks who had no clue what cherubs were (and believe me, there were plenty).
That name ended up establishing a whole new category in the market. Why did it work? Because it created this emotional connection that just fit the experience of eating the darn things! No AI would have made that leap.
Death Wish Coffee
Then there’s the Death Wish Coffee story. This guy Mike Brown was watching his coffee shop circle the drain. He had to let all his employees go, and he’s sitting in his apartment, drinking a Four Loko, feeling pretty ticked off about the whole situation.
He notices this mean dog on his beer cozy with the tagline “Death Wish” underneath. And something clicks. He thinks, “I’ve got nothing to lose, so why not call it Death Wish Coffee?”
Was it shocking? Heck yeah. Controversial? You bet. But you couldn’t ignore it. Good Morning America came calling, and suddenly orders were flooding in so fast that Brown had to recruit customers to help fill them. They got so backlogged they actually got kicked off Amazon and eBay for a while because they thought it was a scam!
This name worked because it hit that emotional nerve. It matched Brown’s actual feelings and stood out like a sore thumb in a market full of cozy, friendly coffee names. And people ate it up – they couldn’t wait to share the story.
How Great Names Actually Work in the Real World
Here’s what most people don’t get: great naming isn’t about sitting in a boardroom making logical decisions. It’s about that gut punch, that emotional hook that grabs you before your brain has time to analyze it.
The most killer names work on a subconscious level first. They trigger something inside you – boom! – and only then does your logical brain catch up. By then, you’re already hooked.
Testing Names Without Kidding Yourself
Now, if you want to test names – and most of our competitors don’t agree with this approach, but whatever, we’ve been doing it successfully for decades – don’t ask people what they think. That’s useless.
People don’t think about names. They react to them.
In our testing, we don’t care which names people say they like. We watch for which ones make them perk up immediately. Which ones get that instant, almost physical reaction? That’s gold, because that’s how names actually work in the wild.
The Bottom Line on Naming
If you’re serious about creating a name with real staying power, here’s what you do:
Turn off the AI. Shut down your computer. Put your phone away. I mean it. Close your eyes and really think about what’s going to connect with your people on a gut level. What’s going to make them feel something?
I promise you, the most powerful brands don’t just label products – they stir emotions. A truly great name is one that humans connect with instantly, that makes them curious, makes them want to try your stuff and tell their friends about it.
Listen, I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’ve seen trends come and go. But this one thing hasn’t changed: human connection is everything. Focus on being human in your naming process, and you’ll develop brand names that don’t just sit on a shelf – they come alive in people’s hearts and minds.
And that, my friend, is worth its weight in gold.
Transcript
Mike Carr (00:04):
This week we’re going to talk about the one thing, the only one thing you need to focus on to come up with a truly great name. So last week we had talked about AI and how you use AI as a coach, not as your substitute. And I sort of left you hanging with this question. What’s the one thing to really focus on for that truly great name? So lemme do a story. So our daughter was in high school and she wanted to help us with naming. We had a great project for, it was a new kind of tomato. It was like a cherry tomato, but it was grape tomato, longer and more oval than cherry tomato. Man, when you bid into this thing, it had this awesome, almost supernatural sweet taste. And so she loved them and she was super excited about coming up with a name.
(00:48):
And so she started thinking about things that were small and plump and juicy and sweet and red. And she came up with Chira bims initially and a lot of other stuff. And I think it might’ve been because she was taking a religious education class that I was teaching to high schoolers at the time. Yeah, had dad’s teaching the religious education class. What can I say? I made her go. But then she came up with sheriffs and she sort of liked sheriffs, right? And you think about cherubs as those plump sort of short rosy cheek. So they have the red apples, not apples, but angels, and not angels but tomatoes. And so this idea that this cherub could be more of a brand name for this new type of cherry like tomato. So she thought about it for a while, it really worked and the client liked it and it ended up establishing a whole new category that didn’t really exist at the time because grape tomatoes were so new.
(01:47):
Some folks thought it was a cherry tomato. They didn’t know what a cherry was. Oh my gosh, really? But there were a lot of people out there that did not know what a cherub was. But because it began with Cher and because it looked like a cherry tomato, they thought it was a new kind of cherry tomato. And so the name really took off. And so what she did, AI didn’t exist back when she named this thing, but what she did is I think what we all need to remember, you have to focus on the one thing that really matters. And that is being human. You can use chat, GPT, you can use Claude, you can use rock, you can use whatever your favorite flavor of AI is and do all the prompting. And you may come up with something like a cherub. You may not.
(02:31):
But what you need to do at some point is turn the stupid AI off, shut down your computer, turn off your smartphone, maybe even turn off the lights and just close your eyes and think about what kind of name is going to connect with my target. It’s really going to resonate emotionally. And this is where I think AI is never going to be able to do as good a job as we people, as we human beings. AI doesn’t have emotions, it just doesn’t. It can maybe mimic emotions, but it can’t learn emotions. It’s just not part of the DNA AI has. But we have that. And I think those are the types of names that really work the best for almost any product that we’ve named in 40 years of doing this or any company or any service or any nonprofit. So another story to illustrate this.
(03:24):
So there was a guy, Mike Brown, and he was in his coffee shop and it wasn’t doing real well. As a matter of fact, it was going out of business. He was the only employee he had to let everybody else go. So he is sitting in his apartment and he’s drinking a four loco and he’s got this cozy that his girlfriend gave him. And he noticed on the cozy there was this picture of this mean dog, which sort of was how he felt at the time. He was sort of angry that he put his blood, sweat and tears in his coffee shop and wasn’t doing really well and he didn’t know what to do. And he noticed underneath the logo, the picture of the mean dog was a tagline, death Wish. And that stopped him. Thought about that, right? Death Wish Poison Boy is that edgy.
(04:10):
Would that be a controversial name? A shocking name you flat just couldn’t ignore. So he said, why do I have got to lose? Right? So let’s call it Death Wish Coffee. So good Morning America found out about this and gave ’em a call and they said, we won’t come out and talk to you. So they came out that afternoon and the next morning on the Good Morning America show, they were talking about Death Wish Coffee and he’d given them mugs. And so you could see the Death Wish coffee mugs, the weatherman had one, everybody else. So his business just took off. As a matter of fact, he had so many orders come in, he had to recruit customers to help him fill the orders. And one customer was talking about how they were down in the basement and they had stacks of these orders. And normally you try to fill an order in three to four days to stay on Amazon or to stay on eBay.
(04:57):
And they were three to four weeks behind. They were so far behind that they got kicked off Amazon and off eBay for a while because they thought they were a scam. You’re got all these orders coming in and you’re not shipping out any product. Well, they stayed the course and of course made a very successful business out of it. And you go back to the brand and you go back to what it did. And it wasn’t as safe as cherubs. But both those names connected emotionally and they were names for humans. And they’re the kind of names you think about once you get the backstory right, and you can’t just do controversial or edgy or different for the sake of being just attention grabbing, that’s dangerous. But if you have the right backstory, if you have the right connection, then you can come up with something that’s truly awesome.
(05:47):
And AI may help you get there. But I don’t think AI is going to be that last final nail in the success story. What is that emotional connection? But you may also not feel comfortable or you may not have the ability to sell that kind of name internally or to your backers if it’s that way out, that different. So I talked about the last episode, but I want to mention it again. You can test for names and most of our competitors don’t agree with this, but we’ve been doing this for a long time, quite successfully. What you can’t do when you test for a name is ask the question, what do you think of the name? Because nobody thinks of a name. They react to a name. So the way we test names is we would show them pictures of death wish and other coffee names on mugs on the screen, just that they see the name in the coffee mug and maybe, hey, a new kind of coffee.
(06:37):
And we might ask them the question, which of these names would generate the most interest? Get you to try it. That’s not really what we’re interested in. What we’re interested in is which name does everyone react to almost immediately? And they pick it right? How almost all names work. It’s a subconscious hook. It’s that emotional gut connection that grabs you. And then once you’re grabbed, then you can tell the story, right? Then you can complete the sale, then you’ve got them. And if it tastes good, whether it’s a cherub grape tomato or a death wish coffee with lots of caffeine or great taste, whatever it might be, then people want to talk about it and then it spreads organically. So I want to leave that with you today. So the answer to the question is, the one thing you need to focus on is be human right, connect with other people as humans connect.
(07:32):
And often that connection is not rational, it’s more emotional. And next week we’re going to talk about trademark bullying and reverse trademark bullying. If you don’t know what that is, please stay tuned. And if you’d like to get more information about how we test for names, there’s going to be a link at the bottom of the screen or we’ll put it in the show notes. For those of you that are listening to the podcast, just click on that and I’ll take you to the page. On our website, we talk more about our system one and system two. Name testing methodology. Have a great rest of your week. See you.