**After an inspiring phone chat with my old pal (and namer, author, and writing coach) Courtney Maum, I'm switching the newsletter to Substack, and I'm gonna make it a weekly thing. Tell your friends!**
Naming seems like (and is) a super-specialized profession, but the ways and places that people go about naming are as varied as the kinds of names they might create.
Let's start with the obvious, and then work our way to some less-expected places you might start or expand your career as a namer.
Naming agencies
If you want to specialize in naming, there's no better place to develop your craft. Studios like PS212, A Hundred Monkeys, Tanj, Lexicon, Catchword, and even my own Wild Geese Studio devote most of their time and talent to naming. (Yes, many of these will offer other brand-language services too, like taglines, brand positioning, messaging, tone of voice, and copywriting, but naming's the main thing. They're freaks about naming, in a good way.)
BIG branding agencies
Many of the big, holding company–owned branding agencies have dedicated verbal-identity teams, and some of them have a naming practice within those teams, or at least a strong specialization in naming. R/GA, Lippincott, and Landor are just a few that I know to have great naming leadership, and produce really talented, disciplined namers (and, of course, beautiful naming work).
I honed my naming skills at Interbrand. This put naming in the context of much bigger brand engagements. I found this really valuable, because it gave me an understanding of how business and brand strategy work together. But it was also challenging, because naming wasn’t always prioritized or valued as much as strategic work. (Meaning I'd get short-changed on timelines and resources, and even visibility with clients—even though some of those names have now outlasted the brand strategies that accompanied them into market.)
Based on my own experience and other people who have a similar background to mine, these big agencies can be a great place to launch a naming career. Being able to do more than naming work, or at least having a comprehensive sense of how naming serves branding and business needs, will make you a stronger namer.
Boutique branding agencies
This is where I’ll place any of the agencies not owned by holding companies, even if they're pretty meaty. Think CBX and Pearlfisher or one of my absolute favorites to collaborate with, Mrs and Mr. While these agencies are less likely to have roles dedicated entirely to naming, many do a TON of naming work.
Here, it might be done by strategists and copywriters, who tackle lots of other work too, but it also might fall to designers and client management folks. (One thing I've learned about naming is being the one person who seems excited about naming means everyone's going to let you do the naming.)
Freelance/independent namers
Plenty of folks work solo and do it well. I freelance in addition to my full-service Wild Geese Studio work because I LOVE the pleasure of responding to someone else's brief with fun names.
(I always point to the GOAT of independent naming, Mark Gunnion, who’s been in the game longer than most of us and has one of the best senses of humor out there.)
Freelance namers' services will vary from person to person, but there are tons of heavy hitters out there ready to step into either lead or support the naming work done by both agencies and brands.
Internal brand-side creative teams
Way more brands than you think have their own roles and teams dedicated to naming (Google and HP are two that I know of).
Others find themselves fielding naming requests often enough that they decide to stop hiring outside agencies and start handling naming in-house, in addition to their other responsibilities. These are often teams that sit within centralized marketing or brand groups. They act as an in-house branding agency, handling requests from product teams across the business, and might do anything from writing a naming strategy to generating names to working with in-house legal teams to evaluate them for conflicts.
Namers that work on the client side develop a keen sense of what "on brand" really looks like, and their work over time shapes a brand's language across an ecosystem.
Other places you might find them
Naming happens in marketing, advertising, design, and strategy agencies, and even at management consultancies. Pretty much anywhere that a brand client has a strong level of trust in their agency might be a place where they ask, hey can you help us name this? That question has created so many organic opportunities for people to discover they’ve got a knack for naming.
Are you a namer that works in another way, or in a different kind of place? Please tell me! I wanna know!
Happy naming!
Caitlin
Want more naming resources?
Take an upcoming Naming for Everyone class
Download free booklets from the Truth in Branding series on naming and trademarks