Renaming your baby

As most parents can attest, deciding on a name for your child can feel like a monumental and highly important task. The name is a significant component of the child’s identity, and in classic parental fashion we consider every possible implication: from their pecking order in primary school lunch lines, to their ability to make friends, to their chances at future employment. Conversations with friends and family run wild in the months leading up to the birth in an attempt to come up with the most meaningful and futureproof name possible.

It’s not until after the kid is born that the parents realise that no one really cares. Friends aren’t asking whether they regret their choice, grandparents aren’t commenting on how their name doesn’t feel in sync with the child’s personality, and strangers aren’t saying anything other than “Oh, that’s cute!” when introduced. Shortly after that first impression dissipates (“Earl? Really?”) the kid just becomes Earl: a person whose image in people’s minds is defined almost entirely by forces other than their name, like their interests, actions, character and achievements.

If Earl decides to change his name later in life, the cycle repeats itself. Those of us who have had a friend, family member or sports team change their name knows how quickly one can get used to the new reality.

Conversations regarding brand naming often fall into the same predictable pattern. Without removing a company’s commercial success and the mere-exposure effect from their analysis, people will promote the importance of finding the perfect brand name by pointing to iconic brands like Nike and Google. What they’re less likely to bring attention to is the entirely weird names brandished on their feet (Hush Puppies), their baseball cap (Boston Red Sox), and the beer in their hand (Dogfish Head). That’s because no one’s sitting around thinking about how weird it is that their shoes are named after fried dough, their local baseball team after a pair of socks, and their favourite brewery after, well, who knows.

Companies considering a name change as part of a more comprehensive rebrand would be wise to remember this. We’ve seen too many teams spiral for months over whether or not to change their name along with the rest of their identity, or having trouble deciding between a handful of viable options. Assuming they’re not famous enough to have accrued a significant amount of equity in the name, our advice is to have a bias for change – under the right conditions and creative consultation.

There will never be a better time than today to change your name. The more time goes on, the more equity will be built into the name and the more investment will be lost if/when you change it later. The company will win more customers, more awards, more recognition, so on and so forth. So you might as well pull the trigger.

Chances are, it doesn’t matter as much as you think it does.

If you'd like to chat about a new project or changing your name get in touch