What’s in a Name? Art of Insurtech Naming

What is it with insurtech brand names? Among the insurtechs that SMA is tracking (well over 1,000) are a wide range of names ranging from the clever to the practical to the bizarre. Having personal experience with naming, I can understand the challenges of finding something memorable, not already used, and lacking any negative connotations. There is always the option of functional naming; for example, Insuresoft clearly creates software solutions for the insurance industry. When I was recently in a whimsical mood, I decided to do an exercise to categorize insurtech brand names by a number of topics or areas, including food, animals and human names. This is a sampling of what I found: Food One could make a whole meal out of insurtech names. The main course could be Oyster, focused on workers’ comp. Fruit sides might be Pear Insurance or Pineapple. There are plenty of drink options with H2O, Lemonade and Soda Insurance. And dessert – everyone’s favorite – is not lacking in options, with Cake or Pie, or maybe even Marshmallow. See also: 3 Insurtech Firms Take a Star Turn   Animals Comic George Carlin used to wonder who took all the blue food. (Blueberries are not blue; they are purple!) But there are plenty of blue animals in insurtech, including Blue Owl, Blue Leopard and Blue Zebra. Then we have animals with descriptors like Bold Penguin, Pandadoc and PrecisionHawk. The insurtech menagerie also includes Hippo, Dolphin, Canary, Rhino and even a hybrid in CatDogFish. There is even a regular Zebra to go along with Blue Zebra. Human Names Why not anthropomorphize insurtechs? We do it with everything else. There is Bob – and if he gets lost there is FindBob. Abe, Albert, Frankie, Gabi and many others are named after people. Then there is Hi Marley, which does a nice job of creating something unique that also relates to the company's solution – leveraging texting and messaging platforms to communicate with policyholders and claimants. There is no question that many of these names are becoming known in the insurance industry, but there are pros and cons for using these types of names. One caution for those selecting names – think about search engine optimization (SEO) and how individuals will discover your site. With enough money, brand visibility can be built for any name. But in many cases funding is limited in the beginning stages, and the focus is more on building the solution and getting successful partnerships and projects underway. I have personally had great difficulty finding any information on some of these insurtechs – even just navigating to their websites – due to names that are so common that SEO is difficult. See also: Insurtech’s Act 2: About to Start   Another piece of advice (although I don’t claim to be a branding expert): Two-word names (separate or conjoined) offer more options for uniqueness than one-word names – Cake Insure, Young Alfred and TechCanary would be examples. Of course, brands are built, and companies succeed, based on the strength or their offerings, their innovation, their customer relationships/experience and many other factors. But I, for one, am glad that insurtechs are choosing names that are fun and interesting. So, what’s in a name? I guess it’s what you make of it.