Naming is a craft: a delightful, maddening mix of insights, strategic thinking, creativity, and just the right amount of persuasion in stakeholder meetings. As someone who’s spent years helping brands find their perfect name, I’ve seen trends come and go. But let’s face it: nothing will shake up the naming world quite like artificial intelligence (AI). It’s fast, and sometimes it even spits out something that doesn’t sound like a rejected password. But while AI can play a part, the human touch will remain the secret sauce behind a truly great name.
An Expanding Contribution, Yet Not Matching Human Creativity.
AI is brilliant at some things. Give it a mountain of data, and it’ll analyze it, slice it, and churn out options incredibly fast. It’s particularly handy for desktop research (provided you filter out the hallucinations), idea inspiration and even some name generation. But the latter is not yet of the quality that a serious branding agency can solely rely upon. No matter the prompts, the creative work remains too one-dimensional, lacking true originality and deep connection to the proposition in play. AI has never heard its own baby cry or experienced the scent of spring blossom. It will use personal descriptions of humans with which it is trained as a source. Moreover, it doesn’t fully grasp the full emotional subtleties of language with its misspellings, irregularities, pronunciations and meanings. AI is a decent sidekick, specifically in the early stages of naming.
Beyond Generation: Naming Strategy and the Human Touch
But here’s the thing: Naming isn’t just about throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. It’s about finding the name. The one that feels like it was always meant to be. That’s where we humans come in even more. Here’s some of the things we bring to the table:
- Strategic Framework: Naming isn’t just about sounding good. It’s creating a company’s most long-term marketing tool that aligns with business objectives, target group needs, and market realities. AI can crunch data, but will not determine the focus, strategic objectives, and related naming framework.
- Creative Direction: AI can generate ideas, but it doesn’t know how to assess these, when to follow convention and when to disrupt, unless it is told to. Those magical “aha” moments? Still a human specialty, for now.
- Facilitation and Collaboration: Naming projects are a team sport. They involve emotions, opinions, and the occasional power struggle. One needs to read the room. A good strategist navigates these dynamics with grace and a dash of humor, while keeping the momentum alive.
- Legal and Linguistic Guidance: Is the name available as a trademark? Does it mean something rude in another language? The unsexy questions need to be taken into account. AI can and will conduct some of the searches, but the strategies and final interpretation will be determined based on the nuances of the case.
- Final Decision-Making: Choosing a name isn’t about ticking boxes; it’s about finding the one that is supported by the right reasoning and feels right and to all stakeholders. Yes, feelings matter, also in business.
The Future of AI and Naming
AI will only get better. Someday, it might even understand the nuance of a tense boardroom or the beauty of a perfectly timed self-depreciating joke. Could it analyze not just words, but voices, body language, and stakeholder dynamics?
Potentially that can become reality, but for now, naming remains a deeply human endeavor. It’s about blending strategy, creativity, and a touch of chaos into something attractive and meaningful. It’s about making sure everyone, from the C-suite to the skeptical junior, feels invested in the outcome.
So, here’s what’s next: a collaboration between humans and AI, where the creativity may come more from both sides, but the complexities and emotions will still be powered by humans for the foreseeable future.
Let’s Start a Conversation
What do you think about the role of AI in naming? Have you used AI tools in your creative process, or do you have thoughts about how it could evolve? I’d love to hear your experiences, ideas, and even your AI-generated names! Let’s discuss how we can shape the future of naming together.
