Investment Company Names

Are you thinking about starting a fund or investment company? You have one of the most challenging but rewarding tasks ahead of you; naming it.

A name conveys a firm’s values and identity, often creating a feeling for what the firm stands for. This article takes an engineering approach to systematically naming your firm. We’ll explore patterns, trends, and themes from thousands of investment company data points to provide the ultimate naming guide.

Pattern analysis of investment firm names

For this analysis, we examined the names of the world’s 3,000 largest investment companies. The Assets under Management (AuM) cutoff was around $300 million. In other words, we’ve only included firms with more than $300 million in the naming analysis. Below is an overview of the sample data:

AuM ranges of analysed investment companies

As you can see, the average is substantial, driven by the fact that the world’s largest investment group names—such as BlackRock and Vanguard—are included. To avoid having our analysis skewed by the names of just a few of the largest asset managers, we’ll mostly use the median AuM when analysing name patterns by AuM in this guide.

The dataset was sorted by size, allowing us to assess the naming conventions used by companies of varying sizes. We categorised the business names of the investment companies based on common patterns and themes to identify trends and draw insights from the results.

Legal notice: We gathered the data for this analysis from a mix of publicly available online sources only - it might be incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate.

Founder name

58 (1.9%) capital investment company names are based on their founder’s name. Examples include:

Legacy names leverage reputation and history, conveying stability and trust.

Abstract names

437 (14.6%) companies use abstract words in their names. These names often use evocative or metaphorical language to convey a specific feeling, such as:

Invesco
Amundi

Abstract names allow for creative branding that can make a firm stand out. If you seek a unique market position, abstract or metaphorical names allow for creative branding. They might, however, be difficult to remember since they’re not actual words.

Asset classes

An asset class is not often used, such as a specific stock investment company name. We can only speculate as to why, but an obvious reason is that it limits expansion possibility over time into new asset classes. An example includes: BondBloxx ETF.

Geographic references

217 (7.2%) company names for investment companies use a geographical reference. The geographical reference most often comes from the company’s original birth region or the region the company invests in. Examples include:

These names highlight local expertise and often appeal to clients seeking regional investment strategies. The downside is that a regional name might repel prospective investors from other regions.

Acronyms and initials

494 (16.5%) financial investment company names contain acronyms or initials. A few examples are:

Descriptive names

The analysis shows that 1,374 companies (45.8%) use descriptive names. These names typically include words that describe the services offered, such as “Wealth,” “Asset,” “Capital,” “Management,” “Investment,” and “Advisors.” Examples include:

These names clarify the firm’s focus and services, helping clients find the firm (online, for example) if the name without the descriptive part isn’t unique.

Takeaways: the best investment company names

A good investment company name to maximise AuM is naming the firm after yourself. You might already have a legacy, but even if you don’t, the data shows that the largest (based on median and average) asset managers today are named after their founders. This is also an excellent way to ensure your company has a unique name, especially if your name is uncommon.

Geographical references or asset classes look like an average idea despite apparent downsides, such as limiting the addressable investor base.

Abstract names account for almost one-quarter of all investment firm names and are the second-best names after naming the firm after yourself.

If your goal is a unique investment company name, you have a few options:

Use your own name, especially if it’s uncommon
Use an abstract word that no existing firm uses

Average Number of Words per Name

The average name contains 2.27 words. The distribution is centred around that average, with 1 and 3 words being the most common after 2.

name length commonality for investment companies

Most common words used

When looking at what words are most common, we were not surprised to find company-type words to be the most common (e.g. “investment(s) and “Asset”). Here are the top 20 words used to name investment companies:

most common words in investment firm names

Great names for investment companies seem to contain the words “Advisors”, “Investment(s)”, and “Financial”. Some that might be good, but where median and average differ a lot are “Mutual”, “Company”, and “Funds”. It also seems wise to stay away from “De”, “Partners” and “Asset”.

Name Length Distribution

optimal name length for investment companies

As we can see from the analysis of the number of words in the name, the best investment firm names contain 4-5 words. This conclusion is the same regardless of whether we look at average AuM or median AuM. Of course, 1-2 of those 4-5 words are often “Investment management”, “capital”, “asset management” etc.

Consider that the average number of words in a name is 2.27 – there is an excellent opportunity for differentiation by choosing a longer name.

Examples of good names of investment firms (high AuM) using varying numbers of words:

1-word names: iShares (also known as “iShares ETFs by BlackRock”) and VanEck
2-word names: Hargreaves Lansdown (also known as “Hargreaves Lansdown Asset Management”) and Fidelity Investments
3-word names: Dimensional Fund Advisors and American Century Investments
4-word names: Royal London Asset Management (also known as “RLAM”) and Momentum Global Investment Management (also known as just “momentum”).

Acronyms or Initials

AM: Appears 28 times.
CM: Appears 20 times.
IM: Appears 8 times.
WM: Appears 6 times.

Company-type acronyms (descriptive name acronyms) such as these are uncommon; they appear in less than 1% of total names. Acronyms, in general, are used by 525 companies (17,5%).

acronyms vs no acronyms in investment company names

How to name an investment company

Below is a 5-step naming framework that incorporates the takeaways and recommendations. Use it to generate investment firm name ideas and then decide which name is best for you, considering trademarks, web domain availability, etc.

1. Decide type of name

Your first task is to decide the type of name, choosing between:

Abstract or metaphorical name
Most popular choice
Your personal name
The best choice for maximising AuM
Regional reference
The second best choice for maximising AuM
Using acronyms or numbers
Good choice for a modern vibe

You can use the guidelines provided above when deciding between the four categories. We also recommend looking at which investors you want to attract. Once you know your ideal investor, look at which investment management companies they’ve invested in. List those firms and categorise each into its name category (A-D). This exercise gives you an idea of where you can differentiate. If most have abstract names, you might be best off choosing your founder’s name, for example.

We’ve divided the following section into four sections. Select the section that matches the type of name chosen in the previous step.

A. Abstract or metaphorical name

An abstract or metaphorical word (or words) is a word that doesn’t already exist. An obvious benefit is that you’ll likely find an available web domain.

Try to aim for 1-3 words. When choosing the word(s) to use, think about what feeling you want the name to convey and create a list of ideas that come to mind. You can use modern tools like ChatGPT to brainstorm ideas. Guide the chatbot on the feeling you want to convey, and then iterate by asking for additional name ideas with more and more specificity each time.

Examples of abstract words: “Medalist”, “Zephyron”, and “Nexium”.

B. Your personal name

Use your name, either just one of them or the full. The web domain might be available if your name is uncommon.

To get all possible alternatives, write down your first name, last name and any potential middle names. Then, list the three possible combinations, including just the first letter as an alternative.

Examples: “Carl Johan Andreas Fürst”, “CJA Fürst”, “C. Fürst”

C. Regional reference

The regional reference can be either:

The region you’re based in
The region you want to attract investors from
The region you plan to invest in

All might not apply; you might target investors from anywhere and plan to invest globally. Figure out which of the three applies to you, and then list the possible regions under each. Remember that regions can be small (a street, a neighbourhood, a city, a lake, etc.) or large (a state, a country, a sub-continent or a continent).

Once you have a list of possible regional references you’re considering, list the different variations of it. For example: “Europe”, “Europa”, and “European”. A downside with this kind of name is that web domains can prove challenging to find.

Lastly, consider potentially combining a regional reference with section A (an abstract name). For example: Europa Nexium.

D. Acronyms or numbers

Using acronyms, initials, or numbers can create a modern and innovative image. Since the name will likely be short (few characters), there is a slim chance web domains will be vacant. Don’t worry, tough, there are ways to solve this problem which we’ll cover.

We recommend starting with the feeling you want the name to convey, then listing potential names that come to mind or using ChatGPT to help you brainstorm. When using an AI chatbot, the more specific you can be, the better the results will be. For this use case, a good strategy is to tell it what you want to do (come up with a list of names) and what feeling you want those names to have. Any additional guidance on the length of the names will be helpful. Don’t be discouraged if the initial results aren’t great - try, iterate and try again.

Examples: 9op and TER.

2. Follow with a Descriptive Phrase

Regardless of the type of word(s) you used, you might want to consider adding a phrase (or acronym) that explains that the firm is an investment company. Why:

Makes it easier for potential clients to understand what the firm offers
Makes it more likely that web domains will be available
Doesn’t have a material impact on the AuM (based on the existing firm names we analysed)

Consider the following descriptive names and their correlation with AuM:

High median: Mutual, Advisors, Group, Investment(s) (>$7bn)
High average: Group, Funds, Advisors, Wealth, Trust (>$60bn)
Low median: De, Am, Funds, Capital (<$2bn)
Low average: Asset, Partners, Am, De, Mutual (<$30bn)

Pick your favourites and list them. Examples: “Investments” and “Fund Advisors”.

Then - Add all variations to each name word(s) you created in step one. For example, if you had 3 names (“Medalist”, “Zephyron”, and “Nexium”) and the 2 descriptive phrases above, you now have 6 alternatives:

Medalist Investments
Medalist Fund Advisors
Zephyron Investments
Zephyron Fund Advisors
Nexium Investments
Nexium Fund Advisors

3. Check domain availability

As a last step, take all your names and check which (if any) have the .com domain available. You want to prioritise the .com to ensure anyone who types your investment company name in the URL bar (without using a search engine) lands on your site. It also signals trust when the domain matches the company name.

If you can’t find any of the domains available, they might be possible to acquire. If you go to each domain in your web browser, you might be met with a message saying the site is for sale. That means someone has bought it in anticipation of someone wanting it in the future and wants to earn money by holding on to it and eventually selling it. If you buy a domain, use a well-renowned escrow service to ensure you don’t get scammed.

A final note on domains: regardless of whether the domain is available, someone else might have owned it in the past. You want to go to https://web.archive.org/ to check historical snapshots of the site. Check at least one per year and see that it looks like a normal website. If the domain has been used for spammy purposes in the past, it might be penalised by search engines and not show up in search results – even if you start using it for legitimate use cases going forward!

4. Check for trademarks

If you have come up with a new investment company name, no one should be using it already. So, the next step is to check that the name you’re considering isn’t trademarked. This check is tedious but straightforward; just search the trademark database of each country you’d like to check (the EU has one for all countries).

There are different trademark rules in various countries. Some have “first come, first served”, meaning the first one to register a trademark will own it forever (assuming they keep renewing it). Some other countries have more complex rules where if a phrase’s everyday use changes in the public, the originator of that phrase might have the right to the trademark.

You probably don’t need to worry too much about it as long as no one currently uses the name you’re interested in. It’s usually also fine if someone uses it for a product that isn’t closely related to – or could be confused with – investing.

5. Check the name in other languages

The final step is to check that the name doesn’t mean anything you don’t want it to in another language. It can be fine if the word exists, but you might not want it to mean certain types of things. There are numerous examples of famous brands making mistakes when naming products. I won’t list them here because search engines don’t appreciate the words – as they’re usually associated with industries in their own special corner of the Internet.

Thankfully, there is an easy way to check: just take your names (without descriptive phrases if you’ve added those) and put them one by one into Google Translate. Select “detect language” and see if Google recognises the word. Also, try putting spaces into the word in places that make sense (“Zephyron”, “Ze Phyron”, and “Zephy Ron”). Even if the word is slang, Google Translate can usually recognise it. If you get nothing, then you’re probably good.

Importance of a good investment firm name

Brand Identity

A company’s name is crucial to its brand. Regardless of whether the name is descriptive, an acronym, or abstract, it will invoke a feeling. That feeling will be projected on the company, or a name that feels warm can project the feeling of good customer service. Another example is a name that sounds cold, which might project feelings of perfection (possibly positive for this type of company).

Market Differentiation

A unique name can distinguish a company from competitors. If the firms competing for the same investors you want to target have similar types of names, you’re less likely to stand out. This is why it’s not enough to look at the correlation between different names and AuM; you also need to look at the names of the investment firms from which you’re looking to steal investors.

Trust and Credibility

Trust and credibility are vital in the financial industry. Investors trust you with their money, whether their own or clients’ money.

Since the feeling a name invokes is projected onto the company, choosing a solid and safe name is generally a good idea. Think about the name “careless fund advisors” or “beach house investments” as examples of the opposite. You’re likely not keen to invest with these firms without knowing anything about their business.

We find almost no catchy investment company names, indicating that playful and witty names aren’t a good idea in this industry.

An investment company named after its founder will convey trust, even if the founder is unknown. This is because a person has put her personal name and reputation behind the company and, therefore, has more to lose. To trust people more than companies is a basic human instinct.

SEO and Digital Presence

A well-chosen investment business name is crucial for online searchability. A name that is easy to spell and remember enhances visibility on search engines and other digital platforms, aiding brand discovery.

Ideally, the web domain you get shall be the same as the company name and be a “.com” domain. For example, zephyroninvestments.com or zephyron-investments.com (assuming someone else already owns zephyron.com). You might even want to buy similar domains to capture people who might misspell the name. Examples: zephyroninvestment.com (without the “s” at the end) and sephyroninvestments.com (with an “s” and the beginning instead of “z”).

1. Overcomplicating the Name

A complex or difficult-to-pronounce name can hinder brand recognition and make it challenging for clients to remember or refer to your firm. Also, a hard-to-spell or pronounce name can make it difficult for potential clients to search for your company online.

An abstract or metaphorical name is the most common, but it’s not the best choice for maximising AuM, based on existing investment management firm names and their AuM.

Tip to overcome: Strive for simplicity and clarity to enhance memorability and searchability.

2. Choosing Names Similar to Existing Companies

Selecting a name that closely resembles an existing company can confuse and dilute your brand’s identity. Conduct thorough research to ensure a unique investment company name. There might be firms with a presence elsewhere on the globe that use a name identical or similar to the name you’re considering.

There are no worldwide, accessible investment company name databases online (to our knowledge, please contact us if you know of any). You might be able to find subsets of investment firms, e.g. fund companies on Morningstar, but even that source is regional, or you need to pay for access.

A cheap way to see if someone uses your intended name already is to search for it on Google using the following steps:

Take each name without the descriptive phrase
For each major language, translate the word if applicable and add the descriptive phrase “investments” in each language
Install a VPN (just Google, and you’ll find one)
For each name and language, select 1-2 relevant countries (e.g. US and UK for English) and change the VPN location to browse the Internet from that country. Go to Google and put the search phrase in (name + local language descriptive phrase)

You need to do steps 3 and 4 because Google will show you results that are relevant to where you are. For example, if you search in Portuguese while in the United Kingdom, you’re unlikely to see investment firms in South America.

3. Ignoring Cultural Sensitivities and Potential Negative Connotations

Failing to consider cultural and linguistic differences can result in names with unintended negative meanings in other languages or cultures. For instance, a name that sounds appealing in one language might have an unfortunate or inappropriate connotation in another. A famous example is when a car model named “Nova” did not sell well in Spanish-speaking countries because “no va” means “doesn’t go” in Spanish.

Head to Google Translate, select “detect language”, and put the name you’re considering in the “translate from” box. Make sure you don’t include any descriptive phrases like “investment management” because that is likely to cause the translator to select from English even if the first word (e.g. “Nova”) might mean something in Spanish.

4. Trademark Issues

Before finalising a name, conduct a trademark search to ensure another company hasn’t already registered it. This step helps avoid legal disputes and ensures your brand is protected. Refer to step 4 in the guide to naming a company and how to go about this search.

You don’t need to register a trademark to use a phrase or name, but we’d recommend doing it for the countries in which you initially plan to market your investment company.

5. Not checking Domain Availability and Social Media Handles

In today’s digital age, having an online presence is crucial. Check the availability of domain names (ideally “.com”) before you decide on a name and register your company. Ideally, acquire all domain names that are spelling variations of the name you want.

It’s unlikely that the name will be available without a descriptive phrase. For example, zephyron.com might already be taken, but zephyroninvestments.com might be available. Even if this is the case, check that the owner of zephyron.com doesn’t use it for anything unethical you don’t want to be associated with and that it’s completely different from investment management. This is a precautionary step to ensure if someone accidentally lands on that page instead - they’re not presented with something that disgusts them, and it’s also clear that they’ve landed on the incorrect website.

Finally, check that reasonable social media handles are available. You don’t need to have the exact name on the social media handle, but some handle that includes the name and is as short as possible while still easy to spell is recommended. It should ideally be the same for all social media platforms. This is the case even if you don’t plan to use social media because a placeholder with your company, logo and link to your website still gives credibility and trust online.

6. Choosing a catchy or cool investment company name

From our analysis, very few pick catchy or cool investment company names. This is probably good because a catchy or cool name is unlikely to convey trust – which is essential in the investment management industry.

A boring name might be just what you need.

Ultimate Guide to Investment Company Names