Personal branding: how to come up with a name for your business

Thinking of a name for my translation and copywriting business took me quite a long time – probably about two years. I’ve put together a few things I’ve learnt on the way …

Do avoid using someone else’s … When I Google “Claire King”, I'm confronted by info on and images of the Emmerdale actress Claire King. For those of you not familiar, Emmerdale is a British soap opera set in the fictional Yorkshire village of Emmerdale.

So I wondered what to do. Create something totally different? Maybe. 'Claire' and 'King' are probably two of the most commonly heard names in English (it feels like that sometimes anyway). Claire seems to be a very strong 70s name: I'm 43 and I know A LOT of other Claires and Clares in this age bracket!

Do advertise your specialisms

I toyed with my daughter's name, Poppy — Pop Translations? No, it sounds like I specialise in pop culture. Not that I don't love pop culture, it's just not what I do. King Translations? The King's English? NOOOO! What about Yaaaaaaaas Kweeeeeeen Translations? Still might set that one up actually. On my site, I have a page dedicated to the areas I specialise in – jewellery, cosmetics, perfume and agri-food. I do other stuff too btw.

Be clear about what you offer I wondered about Clear Translations. After all, "clair or claire" in French (my source language) means "clear". This nearly happened, but then I worried that it might give the impression that my texts were clearly translations … Plus I offer other services as well as translation.

Do include all the services you offer I also offer SEO translation, transcreation, proofreading and copywriting. I didn't want to leave them out in the cold. So, I thought well, 'languages' covers everything. I initially tried Claire King Language Services, but someone had snaffled that on some social media platforms. Then I considered Claire King Language Solutions. I used that for a while, then moved onto Claire King Translate Create, because that portrayed what I do more fully. Language Solutions felt too generic. But it still wasn’t clicking, wasn’t sticking, wasn’t gelling.

Do sleep on it - have a break

I woke up one morning with a fledgling idea. CKING WORDS. I love a pun. It had only taken about 17 different domain name purchases on GoDaddy and two website domain name changes.

So if you are seeking some words, whether they might be translated from French into English, written directly in English, or edited in English, don't hesitate to get in touch at claire@ckingwords.com

It'll be a personal service for your personal brand.