It’s hard finding a name for a business or product — let alone one you can protect and make people aware it represents only you.  You can try inventing a new word like “Google” or re-purposing existing words like “Yahoo” and “Kayak.”  I’m not sure which is harder.  

Coming up with a new word to add to the lexicon either means merging existing words into interesting combinations or imagining a whole new possibility.  You can end up with things like TechCrunch or XKCD.  If you invented the word, there is a good bet you can protect it and avoid any confusion with other competing entities.

Re-purposing existing words is in some sense easier since you need to find something that relates to what you do but if it is TOO related, then you can’t trademark the name and defends its usage.  For example, the government won’t allow you to trademark “Copier” for a copy machine since it’s too obvious and would create confusion in the market if they granted it to you.  

Kayak is just the perfect example where it relates to “travel” and activities but isn’t quite directly related to a travel search engine.  If the brand was about selling kayaks, then they wouldn’t be able to trademark the name.  It’s funny in hindsight that a board member of Kayak flat out rejected the name as terrible since it’s been so successful as a brand name for travel now.

I am really impressed when I come across some good names by others that mean something related but not directly such as:

• Twitter - v. to talk lightly and rapidly, esp. of trivial matters; chatter
• Yammer - v. to make an outcry or clamor
• Facebook - n. directory listing names and headshots
• Mint - n. a place where coins, paper currency, special medals, etc., are produced under government authority

Impressive names that are clever in spelling or wholly original include:

• Groupon - as in “group” + “coupon”
• Digg - as in “I dig that!”
• Reddit - as in “have you read it”

Am I missing any good ones?