Naming can be a bit of a dark art. What makes for a great brand name? Is there a science to it? A basic criteria for coming up with a new name might include things like:

• Is it memorable?
• Is it speakable?
• Is it spellable?
• Is it on strategy?
• Is it distinctive?
• Is it ownable?

But that thinking doesn’t create brand names like ChatGPT (engineer speak?) or SMEG (an acronym for Smalterie Metallurgiche Emiliane Guastalla) or Lacoste (the French tennis star René Lacoste). Whether you like them or not they work. They are global, distinctive and iconic.  Sometimes what’s needed is a bit of strangeness – the non-linear, unexpected and random.

Take a brand name like Pink Floyd. It’s totally unique and way ahead of its time. The band had quite a few monikers in the early days. Originally a sextet, their first name was Sigma 6 followed by several stranger incarnations including The Meggadeaths, The Abdabs, Leonard’s Lodgers and the Spectrum Five, before settling on The Tea Set.

In 1964, Syd Barrett joined the band, soon becoming lead guitarist and front man after a few early members left. It was Barrett who came up with the name Pink Floyd on the spur of the moment after discovering that another band called The Tea Set was going to perform at one of their gigs. He created the name by combining the names of two of his favourite blues musicians – Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. The unmistakably original and other worldly Pink Floyd was born.

So next time you’re searching for a new brand name, channel a bit of the Syd Barrett randomness and see how you get on, you never know what might get born.