I'm Andrew Chaikin. I've named, or helped name, everything from gadgets to grape juice, cookies to cleaning products, pacemakers to coffee makers, corn chips to computer chips, software to housewares, fast food to furniture.

I've named whole companies too: from banks to biotech, fine wine to finance, startup ventures to sit-down restaurants.

Need a $6-Million name on a 4-figure budget?
I can help.

Jamba Juice's customers sent them a clear message: Give us a smaller-sized smoothie!

And so, the Original and Power sizes got a 16-ounce little sister. But what to name it?

At Idiom's request, I iterated dozens of fresh new schemas for the entire line, from sporty to tropical to alpha-slangy to bongo-bonzo. (Grab the document in the Download area.)

What did Jamba pick? The very simplest one: introducing the sixteen.

Taylor's Automatic Refresher, the award-winning upscale burger joint, had expanded from its Napa roots into SF and St. Helena. It was time to refresh the brand.

With Idiom and owners Joel & Duncan Gott, I drew from 50's car-culture Americana: an era of tailfins, hand-painted highway signs, and greasy-spoon roadstands whose names proudly overflowed with syllables.

And so: Gott's Roadside – "Tray Gourmet."

Equipois was just 3 weeks from unveiling a revolutionary new product: A device that makes your arm weightless. Giving surgeons, dentists, jewelers – anyone who uses their arms all day – superhuman endurance.

But they had no name – for the device, or for the product category it was about to create.

The task: Futuristic. Sleek. Exciting. Definitive. Introducing: The X·AR exoskeletal arm.

Watch the video and see your bionic future.

Concentric Medical had created a product to revolutionize the treatment of strokes.

Other methods of removing blood clots were slow, cumbersome and unreliable; this streamlined new device would cut a 3-hour operation down to 30 minutes, retrieving the clot on the first try 90% of the time.

For Idiom, I crafted a name that perfectly captured this sleek, futuristic, revolutionary retrieval system: TREVO.

What happens when a fearsome brand powerhouse wants to rename its own brand? My phone rings, that's what.

DCODE, a full-service agency pumping out ads for ESPN, the NFL, Coors, Pizza Hut and Nintendo, needed to rebrand quickly.

I crafted an exciting package of names fusing the two brand propositions: nimble execution, rock-solid delivery. Leading to a name that means both "a stronghold" and "to leap vigorously" – VAULT.

I begin by racking your brain. What points must the name hit? What personality must it evoke? What rivals must it emulate, surpass, or differ from? What's the right mix of function and emotion? What's the CEO fighting with Marketing over? Do we need a real word? A catchy domain name? An uncrowded trademark landscape?

What's the tactile nature of the product, the experientiality of working with the company? What stories could the name open up? What creation myth does it hold the key to?

Then I let my mind fly. Fill pads and screens with lists of ideas. Play games with myself. Paint with letters and phonemes. Hit it from the right brain and the left. Collect verbiage from musty volumes, the latest databases, and serendipitous excursions.

Now I start to filter, sift, and sort. I get out of my head and into the audience. How does it sound to a Midwesterner? How does it look on a product package? Does it sing? Soar? Shout? Fly? And will it fly with the CEO?

It all goes into a Naming Results Document, a crisp, engaging tour through hundreds of idea spaces. First, my Top 10, or 12 or 20 – with my commentary on each.

Then, a list of interesting runners-up. What domain names are available, or parked and buyable. Real words vs. abstract coinages. Maybe some quick logo treatments. What names are already spoken for, alas. Finally, the full list, alphabetized for your comfort.

It's a brisk, exhilarating read.

I can run a full naming workshop – half-day or full-day, your office or offsite. Product, Marketing, Legal, and Management all in one room. We'll play games, tell stories, pore through books, fill whiteboards – and generate hundreds and hundreds of names. A dozen of them will actually be great!

If you don't need me to run the meeting, I can happily take part in yours – pouring my naming skills into the task at hand as a freelance creative mind-for-hire.

Download a sampler pack of my famed Naming Results Documents!

Some of my clients have graciously allowed me to show you work I've done for them.

They're on a password-protected page, for limited access. Email me for a password.

Go to Download Area