I Wasted Months on the “Perfect” Name
How a tiny decision blocked my business, and what wacky businesses fixed it.
The invoice I couldn’t send
I had done the work and had an invoice ready, but something big was holding me back from sending it: the name in the top-left corner.
I kept opening the doc, changing the letters, then closing it like a fridge I wasn’t ready to clean. Oh, the perils of indecision.
When I opened my café a decade ago, I outsourced this decision. It was money well spent. Someone else handed me language, and I returned to sourcing coffee beans and building systems.
Oxygen.
How a law-firm name blocked the money
This time, with my law firm, I took it on myself.
What? Like it’s hard?
Apparently, it is.
Really hard.
In typical Sonya-style, the name had to meet my high standards:
I didn’t want to use my last name (hard to read, hard to spell, hard to remember)—“Szabo Legal” was out.
I didn’t want to borrow anyone else’s last name either.
I didn’t want to lock myself into a narrow service while I was still iterating my offerings (goodbye to names like “The Business Lawyer”).
I wanted a clever name that stands out in a sea of law firms.
Since it’s a law firm, I needed the name to signal integrity and professionalism.
But I also craved a little play, a wink away from dusty big-law energy.
Also, I wanted to love it.
In other words, my law firm name had to be perfect.
Cue the naming spiral: a million naming chats with my husband, a million try-outs with friends and family, and, of course, a million ChatGPT prompts. This added up to literally months of delaying the official rollout of my business.
Meanwhile, I couldn’t properly incorporate my professional corporation, which meant I couldn’t set up a business bank account or a Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) account to collect HST, which meant I couldn’t tell the client where to send the money, which meant no cash flow. Which meant the non-name was a major bottleneck in my business.
Pep talk to myself: name it, ship it
I finally had a blunt chat with myself.
“SONYA! You tell your clients this all the time: the business name doesn’t matter! Get over your need for the perfect name. Name the darn thing and 👏 get 👏 to 👏 work. The work is what matters!”
Your business name doesn’t matter
This is why I say the name doesn’t matter the way we think it does: plenty of awkward business names are attached to great businesses. While I was spiraling, I kept thinking about real-world examples—names that shouldn’t work, but do, because the promise is kept.
Google / Alphabet: “Google” stuck after a misspelling of googol.
3M: Born “Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing,” later simplified as the business moved far beyond mining into practical science that solves consumer problems.
Etsy: The founder chose a deliberate nonsense word from an Italian film.
Starbucks: The founders almost named it “Pequod,” then detoured through “Starbo” and landed on Moby-Dick’s first mate, Starbuck—odd for a coffee shop.
Knix: Would you name your business a short form of “knickers”? Underwear? Too many consonants, I’d say.
Names are wrappers
Your business name is just the wrapper for your brand promise. Think protein bars: do you ever skip a midday energy boost because of the company name? No. You’re after the chocolate-peanut-butter inside. That’s the business promise. The first time you tear open the bar, you’re not grading the name—you’re checking the bite. If it’s good, you’ll buy another and tell your friends.
Keep delivering, and the market will learn what your name means.
Picture a customer in a hurry. She grabs a protein bar she doesn’t recognize, tears the edge, and takes a bite. If the texture’s right and the flavour lands, she keeps the wrapper only long enough to remember the colour. Next time, she reaches for it on purpose. That’s naming. The promise does the teaching.
This is what “bad” names teach me:
Google is a weird name—but who cares? What people remember is the promise to organize the world’s information and keep shipping tools that do.
3M. Who would purposely name a business with a single letter and a single number? It’s brave, but my stack of colorful Post-its proves it works because usefulness wins.
Etsy is a wackadoodle word that became a household name because the marketplace taught the world what “Etsy” means by serving makers and buyers.
Starbucks is now shorthand for “let’s grab a coffee.”
Knix is beloved because Joanna Griffiths built leakproof, comfort-first intimates by listening to customers, then delivering the brand promise.
Promises are engines
I finally listened to my own advice and named my law firm.
I picked a simple, serviceable name. Not perfect. Not precious. I incorporated. I got the bank account. I sent the invoice. I got paid. Now I’m in business.
The months of worrying about the perfect name? I wasn’t doing the things that mattered. I was a scared non-business person getting in the way of a great business idea.
If you’re struggling to name your business, your website, or your podcast, remember: sorry to say, you’re focusing on the wrong thing.
Let me sit you down at my kitchen table and give you some real talk:
Pull the proverbial trigger. Name it something simple, something bad, something bold. Then do not hesitate. Get to work on fulfilling your business’s promise.
That’s something worth spiralling about.
Sonya
P.S. This is Part 1 of a three-part series on business names. Next week, I’ll share my trademark expertise to walk you through how to choose a name. The week after, I’ll bring Parts 1 and 2 together and reveal my firm’s name.
P.P.S. Want to have some fun naming something? Try this GPT prompt:
Act as a playful brand namer (the name is the wrapper; the promise is the filling): I’m naming [business/product/podcast/newsletter] for [audience], my one-sentence promise is [promise].
Generate 15 wacky, memorable options across misspellings, mashups, onomatopoeia, odd pairings/metaphors, and pronounceable acronyms; for each, add a 6–8-word promise tag. Don’t reject weird if the promise is strong.