Naming 'your' Brand

How is it that you came about the name you use for your brand? Your clothing, hair, accessories, etc? Was it a random phrase/name that just stuck, or did you spend endless hours tracking down that perfect catch phrase? Do you go simple and just use your name or part of it, perhaps a nickname someone gave you awhile ago? Or maybe you came up with a word totally unique.

In any case - How DID you get that name?

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For me, I currently use Sakura "Cherry Blossom" in tribute to the SIM I work in. Looking for something else, though, as that doesn't quite fit everything I will design. Having a rather tough time on deciding a new name, though.

Our brand name, AviMagic came about because we had a shop that was based on the "Magic Box" store in Sunnydale in the Buffy The Vampire Slayer series. We sold items themed for vampires, magic, etc. When my wife got good at making Jewelry we decided to close the Magic Box and open a new shop. We knew we would miss the old place bad, so we incorporated the Magic part of the name with Avi (for avatar) and made AviMagic. Things to magically enhance your beauty in Second Life was the thought.

I'm just really starting to learn how to build with a few things offered for sale at the moment. Since my offerings are a bit eclectic at the moment I was thinking of something that could naturally encompass that.

Prior to putting any of my builds up for sale, I held some yard sales of quality resale items (an actual yard sale of my own things) and used "Czari's Attic" to denote both the location (in the sky) and the idea of "clearing out my closet". I am naturally drawn to Victorian and classic type of items, so when I began offering my own builds and rented my first shop, I continued with the "Czari's Attic" theme to give the idea of coming and looking through the type of attics children (and adults) loved to look through, never knowing what treasure might be found.

That is how I envision my shop-to-be-built. Ever-changing items that may or may not be connected in theme, but all items one might "discover" in an attic.

When I first started, I was working with another resi named Ginge Reymont, and I suggested the name "Yumejin" for the brand (which means "dreamers" or "dream people", but also conveniently sounds like "Yumi and Ginge" which stuck for a while.

However, I then started experimenting myself with how animations worked when several were put together, and I got the idea of uploading a huge number of animations and making something that let you sort-of freely pose an avatar's arms and legs (although you could only hold them out straight). However, I had no idea for a practical application of this (you couldn't make poses natural enough to use it for modelling or anything like that). When I showed it to a friend, they commented that it looked like something that belonged in a BDSM toy. Well, I wasn't quite sure about going into that market, but I went ahead and sold it there anyway as a "Marionette Wheel". Because I didn't know if Ginge wanted to have the brand used in that context, I made up a new name, which was just "Bijo" (Japanese for "beautiful girl" - which I thought might be "sexy" enough for their market)

A few weeks later the scripted camera update was released and I started working on scripting that. Since I couldn't think of a better name for the scripted system and I didn't want to have _three_ brands going, I named that the BijoCam when I posted it on SL. When that actually started selling like crazy just after release, of course, the name was established.

I considered working my SL name into my brand, but I really wanted something short and descriptive. I talked over several possiblities with a good SL friend, who owns a well established buisness, and threw out the name I eventually settled on as a possibility. He really liked it, even without knowing the colloquial phrase referring to someone as a penny pincher.

I've been really happy with this name, though I sometimes envy people with names that sound more chic. Still, for the line of products I carry in the store - low prim furniture - I think it's pretty good and I wouldn't change it now.

There's a goth-rave girl in a comic I read online that has been described by the artist as "darkly cute". My RP has been compared to her, Emily Strange, and Lydia Deets. 50% of the time, I'm being complimented for how cute I am. The rest, how morbidly dark I am. So, it's just as much of a title as a shop name. (^_^)y

I have a liking for the abstract and the functional. Thus:

'Domicile' because I make houses and items for the home. And 'Primflints' comes from 'skinflint' which means someone who is miserly, so that's the brand of my lower-prim creations.

I took the lazy way out . Fortunately my SL last name seems to work ok for the kind of image I wanted to project - a small, respectable (perhaps even "classy" place for folks to shop when they want to get their cuddle on

my furniture place was named after the location. i made a dock on the water, and i placed the furniture for sale, and just sort of called it that, Furniture Dock. it's been fun to make it "dock-ish" with the challenge of not using too many prims for the build.

my clothing line is named after my bad-girl, mischievous side. it also rhymes with Vogue, which is very 'fashion', obviously. so although i'm not really dark enough for the name (neither are my creations), i went with the name Rogue for the clothing line.

the mall is a no brainer. simply named after my avatar.

all are operated by my business owning alt.

well for about a few months when I first started, mine was actually RRD which was short for RhaRha Designs (as most folks tended to call me RhaRha)

one day while talking to a friend about how RRD just did not click... I started thinking and then it just hit me, why not call it Rha

so I typed it out to him as Rha! because I was excited and he was like Rha! I like that...

so I said ok.. I will use Rha
he said I thought you said Rha! not Rha

and thus... Rha! was born

the logo recently (few months ago) went through a change, so in the store you will see 2 different versions of the logo

one has the cat and eye of Ra, the other has the silhouette of a female sitting

so... I am slowly switching it to the sitting one, as people were thinking that it somehow was connected to Egyptian with the phonetic sound of the name, and the cat and eye of Ra

heh

so.. now I stick with Rha! I like it and it is definately better than RRD LOL

Our store name came about by my frequent over use of a word to describe things or people i like..."Fab"...or as it became known after we launched our 1 prim animated bed...F.A.B (Freakin Awesome Beds) lol

Fai xx

I chose the name 'Hydro Homes' for my prefab business for 2 reasons. 1) I wanted the word 'Homes' in the name and the word Hydro seemed to fit with that and I felt the word Hydro was quite dynamic and modern which I felt reflected my products.
2) I wanted 2 words that were approximately the same size to give me more options when creating graphics for the brand. It also appealed to me to have both words starting with the same letter to offer even more options when creating my logo's.

In hinesight I made a mistake focusing on the word 'Homes' as half of my prefabs are now commercial.

I now sell other product lines and services not related to prefabs so I am currently rebranding my whole business which will ultimately just be known as HYDRO and then split into different product lines.

The story behind my brand name, is pretty simple.

When I joined SL, and learned I could build things, I started making a jetpack. In those simple heady days, I was super impressed with the freebie jetpacks, and so I decided it would be cool to have a custom one. A couple of weeks later, as I started working on my actual goal of being an exotic dancer... I was offered a gig at a "Shemale Sex Club". Well I looked around for the neccessary ... uhm.. equipment. Most of the items were either WAY too noobish, or way over expensive for something I was only going to use as a stage prop. (1000L for a fully functional x-cite one..) so I decided that I should just build my own.

About a month later, a friend of mine, kep pushing me to sell the aformentioned "unit". and I remarked to her that I couldn't think of a name for a "store". She asked why.. and I said.

If I'm going to have a store, I'd have to call it something like "Eclectic Randomness".. because I don't think that "Winter Ventura's Jetpack and Penis Emporium" is going to work.

I dunno so much. Sounds like the kind of name that would have n00b males flocking there

Yeah anything with the words 'penis emporium' has gotta be a winner.

Might be a good store to set up. You could give away all the horrible freebies and let all the naughty bits creators sell their wares there. Make it like a One Stop Cock Shop.

OK, I really do think I've had too much caffeine already today. I'll just go and lay down now...

You should TM that name asap otherwise we'll start to see lots of One Stop Cock Shops being errected all over the Grid.

Oh come now; you're just trying to get a rise out of me.

I'm going! I'm going!

/me legs it from the thread.

Yes, no more talk of penises. Business would probably have just been a big flop anyway!

I don't know ... I might spend some time massaging and expanding the concept.

As for mine, Aurora "New Dawn". The sun has set on that project I'm afraid.

Fox and Ground Construction Company:

Well, let's see. I'm an anthro fox more often than any other form while in SL. A three-tailed Kitsune, to be precise, but a female fox in general. I had started a business building and terraforming sims, and the client that I was doing the work for said that I could post a referral sign on the site, to send more business my way.

There's a very traditional British pub name, "The Fox and Hound", which I played off of, calling my terraforming business "Fox and Ground", and illustrating that with a picture of me, a pile of dirt, and a shovel.

As far as I could tell at the time, there were no business names in SL remotely like that.

Soon after that, I modified an International "Highway Construction / Men at work" sign to make my "Vixen at work" logo:



An amusing side note: I had to register "Fox and Ground Construction Company" and "Ceera Murakami" as legal business names in the real world, so I could open a bank account and cash checks from one of my larger clients, made out to my SL company's name, or to my avatar's name. Since then, I occasionally get unsolicited business offers from real-world companies and individuals trying to sell my virtual business real-world supplies for a construction or landscaping firm! The last two offers were for a wholesale rate on Aluminum window assemblies, and a wholesale catalog for landscaping and garden supplies. Oh! And Ceera also gets offers for corporate credit cards for my employees, including from American Express!

I decided that since there is ------animations in assorted name formats, I should have to be Ll-animations.

uh huh huh, he said erected