Creating A Brand Name

Idea Generation

When it came to creating a name for my bank brand I wanted to make sure the name checked some main criteria I had in mind, I wanted my company name to be relatable to the industry which in this case is finance, I wanted the name to be modern to represent our modern values, I wanted the name to be catchy and memorable as well as original and unique, I also wanted my bank name to be short and sweet as this will assist with it being memorable. I chose to look into some popular modern banks and financial applications that are regularly used today to see if there was any similarities between them that would help me to name my bank brand. I have included a list of some modern banks below.

• Monzo
• Revolut
• Starling
• PayPal
• CashApp
• Coinbase (Crypto)
• Exodus (Crypto)
• Binance (Crypto)

A common theme I noticed between these brand names is that they are all really short, one-word names that are extremely catchy and memorable, while some of these brand names have no relation to finance or money others use words that are related to this theme like “cash”, “pay” and “coin”, this is something I’m going to look into when I start to decide on a name for my modern bank brand.

I decided to create a mind map of ideas that would relate to online banking, modern banking, cryptocurrency and money in general to give me an idea into what sort of names would suit my brand the best – I have included an image below to illustrate some of my ideas.

 

 

Idea Refinement

After looking into some popular modern bank brands and seeing if there were any similarities in addition to creating a mind map of some words and themes that could relate to banking, finance and money in general. I know I want my bank brand to be short, sweet and simple as well as fitting into our brand values and what we stand for. I wanted to explore the theme of bank vaults, bank safes and wallets/purses as a modern bank is a very similar concept as you have all your money stored on a digital application as opposed to in a physical bank branch.

I have included a list of my refined brand name ideas below to give you an idea on what direction I want to take my brand.

• Vault
• Volt Digital
• Wallet
• Block
• Neue Bank
• Heads & Tails
• Chip

 

Final Brand Name – Volt

For my modern bank brand I decided to choose the name Volt, my reasons behind choosing this name is that I personally thought I was catchy and memorable as well as having a modern ring to it. The name has relevance to the banking and financial industry as a vault is somewhere you store your money which is what my brand is offering, I also kept in mind that I will need to be designing a logo for this brand and the mechanics of a vault came to mind when I thought of the name. This is going to be something I will explore when it comes to creating the logo for my modern bank brand.