Naming
Naming: Develop names against audience and constraints. Review audience, positioning, competitors, voice, channels, and existing equity and produce a name shortlist with rationale.
--- name: branding-naming description: Use for naming when asked to develop names against audience and constraints; produce a name shortlist with rationale. license: MIT metadata: author: Thrive category: branding --- # Naming ## When to use Use this skill for naming when you need to develop names against audience and constraints. The expected result is a name shortlist with rationale. ## Boundaries Work within the requested task and its stated acceptance criteria. Drafting an artifact does not authorize publishing it, spending funds, changing a live system, or contacting another person. Identify any such action separately before taking it. ## Inputs Inspect audience, positioning, competitors, voice, channels, and existing equity. Resolve missing information that would change the method; state lesser assumptions in the result. ## Method 1. **Diagnose.** Collect positioning evidence, target audience, competitors, existing equity, channels, and identity constraints. 2. **Decide.** Derive a coherent identity from a defensible promise. 3. **Produce.** Build a name shortlist with rationale from the inspected material; keep assumptions distinguishable from observed facts. ## Decision rules - Translate the promise into repeatable voice and visual rules; test distinctness and consistency on real touchpoints. - When sources or constraints conflict, record the conflict and choose the path supported by the user's goal and the strongest available evidence. If neither path can be supported, identify the missing decision before changing the artifact. ## Domain rules - Avoid unsupported uniqueness or trademark claims. - Specify usage rules and what must remain consistent. ## Verification Flag trademark and domain checks. Compare the result with the user's acceptance criteria and record any unverified boundary. Provide a brand system with examples, usage boundaries, asset rights, and items requiring trademark review. ## Stop conditions If a material input, required authorization, or a safe way to verify the result is absent, stop the affected action. Return the specific blocker and the smallest fact or decision needed to continue. Do not report an unrun check as passed. ## Output Provide a name shortlist with rationale. Include the decisive evidence and actual verification result. Name any artifact location and unresolved issue that affects its use. <!-- MIT License Copyright (c) 2026 Thrive Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. -->