How do you pick a name

[Screwloose]

You thinking of pirates not vikings.

Vikings would be something like

Always rise to an early meal,
but eat your fill before a feast.
If you're hungry you have no time to talk at the table.

Not sure how to get a computer slogan out of that. lol.

Because Vikings were raiders .... here is some Viking history for you:

The earliest documented raids by the Vikings began in 793 at Lindisfarne, England. Historians distinguish three phases to the raids. The first phase of attacks was from 790-840. The Vikings used shallow draught longships which were ideally suited for surprise raids on coastal locations that struck terror into their victims. The fleets were small, making a "hit-and-run" tactic of the attacks that could enable the raiders to row away as swiftly as they had come. The attacks were usually seasonal and isolated in small bands. These attacks began along the coastal cities in England and France and continued down along the river communities. The Carolingian Empire was deeply affected by the raids at this time. Frisia and Aquitaine in modern day France were two of the first provinces attacked by the Vikings, Aquitane being attacked by Norwegian raiders returning from Ireland. The most notable attack was on the monastery at Noirmountier. This island monastery was attacked every summer. The monks tried many defenses, but they eventually left the island for safer lands. The trading centers in Frisia, particularly Dorestad, were a favorite targets of the Vikings in 834-839.

During the second phase of Scandinavian activity from 841-875, the raids increased in number, size, intensity and speed. By 851, the fleet ships had increased from 3 ships to 350 ships per raiding party. The Vikings arrived, unexpectedly, by plundering, burning, killing or enslaving the inhabitants and then leaving the conquered lands. This war tactic accounted for the Vikings' great success in this period.

 

[inspektabrain]

Unless your name is Jim Smith or John Doe, maybe something equally "popular", I'd be looking for something that is easy to remember. As good as you could be, if you name your business "Disestablishmentarianism PC Repair", No One is going to remember this. If your name is "Mom's Turkey Dinner PC Repair" then It's a little easier. On and on like that.

Of course your name should reflect something personable as well IMO. An easy name to remember is quite often something that affects you personally. Best Buy, Staples, Burger King, and TONS more. You want that Best Buy. You're hungry you want a Burger King, not a "Jester Burgers. Motto - This crap will make you laugh". I finally decided on a name the other day and found a suitable domain name that wasn't already taken.

So far that's been a major decider in what I've picked. Availability! Soon I will get my .net and my .biz and maybe even .us . Very happy and I can't wait to get some marketing done.

Good luck with your search.

 

[Star6966]

Odin's Eye Computing Solutions

Opinions?

 

[MTech]

BTW, Viking / Icelandic naming = WIN in my opinion

Odin's Eye Technology?
Odin's Eye Repair?
Odin's Eye ...optical? (I don't know, just sounded right )

Odin's Restoration Repair?
Thor's Thunder repairs?
Thor's Forge Technology?
Thor's Anvil Technology?
Freya's Fabrication?


My cheat sheet: http://www.rosala-viking-centre.com/gods.htm

Just a few I'm thinking of on my break...

 

[PcTek9]

In the USA odin's eye is a D.O.D. project which allows our military to fly miniature devices to gain reconnaisance. Deployed quite frequently in Iraq, members of that group of course get the cool Odin's eye patch for their uniforms.

As Odin sent out his ravens Huginn & Munin (thought and memory) to search the world and gather intelligence and return to him and whisper it in his ear, and his wolves Geri & Freki could be sent to destroy.

I suspect you were going for the angle that the norse god "Odin" knew everything, and thus infer that you are extremely knowledgeable or know everything about computers, which is a nice approach. It also sends out the subliminal message that your customers are under your watchful eye. This might be an issue for paranoid customers. They might be afraid to be under your powerful 'allmighty' eye. It's an irrational fear but paranoid people may tend to associate it with being spied upon once you work upon their pc. People are crazy. Expect the worst in advertising, but hope for the best, but head off all the advertising mishaps you can while they are still tapdancing on the table.

With advertising you can do several things.

You can try to create a name brand like Odin's Eye computers, but that sort of sounds like you are a kid that just stepped out of a tolkein novel, or as though you are affiliated with an ominous government project.

Branding requires a lot of money. You can do it, but it will not be cheap.

A smarter way to advertise is to tell what the business is in the name.

Also to associate the location with the name, not to specific, not to general.

Ontario Pc Repair would be a bit of a broad space to traverse, for example...

I highly recommend you talk to someone in advertising that can explain this more better than me. I'm not real smart with advertising, as I'm not an advertising person, you may be able to find a fresh grad in advertising at a local college to help you with your marketing strategy, someone brilliant that is just starting out might be willing to assist if you explain your situation. You can also search the biz forums here, lots of good advertising advice.

As an example consider the dutch cookie company that moved operations to the usa and failed completely. No one wanted to eat or purchase shitte cookies from the shitte cookie company. <- true story, from advertising mishaps.

So in other words something means something to one country, might mean something entirely different in another language in another country.
But the same is true of people in general. 30% of your country's population might get a different message from that same name than the other 70% do, and it might spill over into a 30% loss of customers, that you could have had.

Look at lazarus computer repair on here, i never remember him as lazarus pc repair, but as skyhooker, b/c that name has some shock value to it that sort of slaps me in the face everytime i think about it. When I thought about the name lazarus, it was like he was saying he could bring your pc back to life, but then I got offended b/c he was saying that he was the Jesus of pc repair. See what i mean?

 

[rjm2520]

I have been struggling with naming my business also. I am thinking with an exit strategy in mind. I feel that if I make it too personal it will make it difficult for whoever buys the business to take over (Bob's computer repair etc...)

 

[CleerSolutions]

Happy computer

GOOD PC WOK 4 U