How to find a good name for your architecture firm

Shakespeare famously asked, "what's in a name?" and yet we can't shake the belief that it matters a great deal for a brand.

The good news: it does.

A name is chosen in a few ways, each carrying its own mix of assumptions, perceptions, and ideas.

Three ways a name is chosen:

Using your own name

This happens for two reasons. The maker is so focused on making a good product they don't need a fancy name; their name is good enough. Or people see successful brands that used personal names and wrongly believe that's the first step to building a good brand.

Architects have done this for over a century. McKim, Mead & White. Burnham & Root. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The goal was to look established, like a law firm. It worked because clients trusted names that sounded serious. Eventually these became initials. SOM. HOK. Today most of us don't know what those letters stand for. The initials became the brand and the people behind them disappeared.

Chasing different

When everyone's running after different, different becomes the pattern. We become more same than different. There's a fine line between being different for its own sake and being different because you actually have something unique to offer.

Most of us search for a name that's "uncommon" or made-up because we believe it will become a worthy brand. But our idea of different is probably more common than we realise. Take the word "atelier." In France, people use it because it's clear; it means workshop. Everyone else uses it believing it's uncommon in their country, which would make them different. But that's exactly how a hundred other firms are thinking.

Architects did the same thing starting in the 1970s. Younger firms wanted names that sounded arty and cutting-edge. Morphosis. Asymptote. Archigram. Names that made them sound revolutionary. The approach signalled they are not traditional.

But when dozens of firms pick avant-garde names, none of them stand out.

Building from philosophy and values

The juiciest approach. You first place all the pieces on the board and clarify which puzzle you want to solve. Once you've identified that, you decide how you'll solve it, what values will guide you, then choose a name that fits. The name can either translate what you stand for, or be something unheard of but backed by a story strong enough to give it meaning.

One of the best examples is Balkrishna Doshi's firm, Vastu Shilpa. An image below will explain how he chose it.

Two brand stories on naming

Here's an uncommon one. A chemist in San Diego was trying to create a formula to prevent missiles from rusting. He kept creating and testing. No luck. This went on 39 times. None of them worked. On the 40th attempt, he got it. WD-40. How did he name it? He took it straight from his notebook: Water Displacement, 40th formula.

The punch line is a lot of us believe the name does the work. But the work does the work. The name just holds it.

Now a common one. Starbucks. The name has nothing to do with coffee. It's a character from Moby Dick that most people don't remember. The name meant nothing to us. But they gave it meaning by doing the work they do.

So how do you actually choose a name for your firm?

Before you open a notebook or start brainstorming clever words, try answering these questions.

1. What problem are you trying to solve with your work?
2. What approach or principle guides every project you take on?
3. Does this name describe the work you're already doing, or work you hope to do someday?
4. How do you want clients to feel when they hear this name? Playful? Serious? Grounded? Inspired? Rooted in tradition?

Once you have clear answers, the name becomes easier. Not because naming suddenly gets simple, but because you know what weight the name needs to carry.

Trends fade. "Atelier" feels overused now. Made-up words age poorly. But "Vastu Shilpa" meant something in 1955 and still means the same thing today because it's rooted in a real philosophy, not a trend. Doshi even named his own studio "Sangath," which means "moving together" in Sanskrit. Both names work decades later because they came from what he believed, not from what sounded clever at the time.

The best names either translate your philosophy directly, like Vastu Shilpa, or become containers for the meaning you create through your work, like Starbucks. Both paths work. But both require you to do the work first.

Figure out what you stand for, build work that proves it, then choose a name that honours it.

Happy naming!