Come up with a really long list of options. Try all the variations as described below. Then pick one.

Explanatory Names

These are names that describe what the company literally offers:

• Exactly: Bank of America, GIIFT, British Airways, Pinterest (Pin+interest), ShaadiGrapher, Coca Cola
• Broadly: General Motors (doesn’t sell motors but motorcars), Goair, Spicejet (jet is quite literal), BharatAgri (agricultural product), Story99
• Implied: Freshdesk (help-desk that’s fresh)

Metaphorical Names

• Nature metaphor:
  • Meteorological - Thryve.Earth, MamaEarth
  • Creatures - Sleepy Owl Coffee, Dove, Twitter
• Colour metaphor - Greenpeace, Indigo airlines
• Mineralogical metaphor - Samsonite
• Cosmological metaphor - Sun Microsystems
• Body part metaphor - B2Brain (brain)
• Nautical metaphor - Anchor dairy
• Mythological metaphor - Nike - Goddess of victory, Hercules
• Object metaphor - Apple, Bolt, Sugar, Pillow

Metonymical Names

A name that is closely associated with the product / company

• Causal
  • Ford motor company (named after Ford), Adani, Tata
• Spatial
  • Texas instruments, Deutsche Bank, State Bank of India
• Temporal
  • Quaker Oats - the guy dressed in a Quaker grab - a religious sub-sect that the company was associated with early on

Idea Based Names

This is when the name refers to an idea, but it’s not really obvious.