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May 8, 2020

I interview my dad, A Hundred Monkeys founder Danny Altman, on the early days of the company and the evolution of naming. We try not to dwell on the the past too much around here but every once in a while it’s nice to take a look around and ask, “how did we get here?”

August 27, 2019

This weekend I had the pleasure of visiting the Island Pacific Supermarket in Vallejo, California. For the uninitiated, the Island Pacific Supermarket in Vallejo is a supermarket featuring foods from the Philippines. I entered the store looking for snacks as I had spent most of the day performing manual labor and was wanting to snack

March 26, 2019

It’s fun to talk about bad names. We do so often. Our Creative Director Eli started an instagram hash tag for just that purpose: #dontcallitthat. Eli also documents all the names he comes across in the wild and discusses them on Medium. Round one. Round Two. As a group, all of us at A Hundred

March 11, 2019

People at Google are Googlers. People at Twitter are Tweeps. People at Amazon are Amazonians. These names feel like they are coming from a place of camaraderie and pride. There’s an element of shared experience. After all, you’re spending 40 (who are we kidding 50+) hours a week with these people. That’s more time than

December 11, 2018

Good names do not fly out of the aether. Most are found, which requires careful looking. Books are one of the best places to look, so if you’re looking to find great names the more you read the more you’ll be successful at finding hidden gems. I’m always reading one or more works of both

May 12, 2013

If there’s one question we love to answer at A Hundred Monkeys, it’s “what should I name my company?” Company naming is a creative challenge made all the more difficult by the fact that there are millions of other companies out there. The first few things you come up with are probably going to be

May 2, 2013

Outside the confines of a company naming process, people aren’t used to seeing names all alone. In the real world, names are surrounded by subtle and not-so-subtle cues that channel our perception. Logos, imagery, packaging, environment – they all play a role in defining the context in which we understand names. Looking at a potential

April 9, 2013

Deciding to rename your business is a pretty big decision. Do you have too much brand equity? Too many stakeholders? Does your name connect with your audience? Can it? So we created this flow chart to help you sort through the key issues in renaming a business. If you run into any snags, we’re here

April 28, 2012

Businesses are like poems; the person who creates them often saves the naming process until the end. Like inspiring language, great business ideas come when they will, and most people decide to go with the creative flow before addressing the matter of what a company should be called. Even so, from a marketing perspective, the

March 31, 2010

You don’t have to be a high tech guru to understand the importance of building something right the first time. The same thing applies to finding a name for your company. If you’re running a startup, chances are you have a lot on your mind. You need to hire smart people. You need investors to