In a recent Chief Marketer article, Jonathan Paisner of CoreBrand explains the four essential criteria in naming an organization. It isn’t easy naming or renaming a church, but if you ever find yourself with such a responsibility, consider the following four areas, which I have tweaked to apply to churches.

1. Strategic Criteria
   >> Does the name support the positioning and reflect the personality of your church?
   >> Is the name relevant to the key audiences you are called to reach?
   >> Does the name stand out from the names of other organizations in your community?
2. Functional Criteria
   >> Does the name work within the context of what is being communicated?
   >> Is it appropriately descriptive (describes something like the location or denomination) or suggestive (suggests an idea like multi-cultural or changing the world) or evocative (generates a feeling or emotion like grace or hope)? For instance, the name “8th Street Baptist Church” is not appropriately descriptive if it is located on 51st Street.
   >> Are there any available web domains that could be used with the name?
3. Linguistic Criteria
   >> Is the name easy to understand, explain, pronounce?
   >> Is it free from innappropriate connotations in another language or culture that you are trying to reach?
4. Legal Criteria
   >> Is it available for use and protectable as a trademark in all relevant classes?

Use these four essentials as guidelines to help focus your creativity during the naming process. Lastly, do not forget to prayerfully consider a name before you start printing it on everything.