If you’re launching a flagship product, operating in a regulated industry, or building a brand meant to last, naming isn’t a casual exercise. It’s a high-stakes decision with long-term consequences. In cases like these, a dedicated naming agency earns its role. Depth of strategy, research, and experience isn’t just helpful – it’s essential.
But not every naming project requires this level of engagement.
Good May Be Good Enough
For founders expecting acquisition before scale, or in-house teams developing names for experimental or intentionally short-lived offerings, AI naming tools – when guided by well-crafted prompts – can be surprisingly effective. They’re fast, inexpensive, and capable of generating a dizzying number of options almost instantly. There may not be a Mona Lisa in the mix, but in these situations, “good enough” may truly be good enough.
Generation versus Discernment
But here’s the rub: generating names is easy – knowing which ones will play well in the real world is much more difficult. AI excels at production, but it lacks discernment. It can discover patterns, and mash concepts together, but it can’t reliably assess whether a name will survive real world pressures.
Enter the Brand Name Curator
To address this gap, it may be smart to hire a brand name curator. Like their counterparts in the art world, brand name curators do not create the work – they determine what deserves attention. Tasks might range from reviewing lists of AI-generated names – separating the merely acceptable from the genuinely viable – to tweaking options for pronunciation, clarity, and tone.
Additionally, brand name curators could identify tired tropes – a common pitfall of AI-naming – and flag linguistic, trademark, and cultural risks; areas where automation still falls short.
The New Necessity
As AI becomes an increasingly popular choice for those seeking names at cost and scale, this kind of expertise could become less of a luxury and more of a necessity. Used thoughtfully on the right kinds of projects, a brand name curator could effectively bridge the gap between a full-service naming agency and a purely AI-driven process.
AI tools can generate name candidates endlessly, and even handle basic risk checks – but seasoned human judgment will remain the final filter, separating names that are merely options from those that can stand up in the marketplace.
