What's In A Name?

Why is a name so important?  

Names are important to distinguish one person from another. As we can do this by face, it would be hard to address someone or speak of them, without a name.  

It's already confusing enough to have so many Charlies, Janes, Bobs or, even Jims.  When I went to work for Silver Dollar City and was checking out my company costumes etc, the costume folks asked me my name (for my name tag) and I told them Jim. "No, you can't use that name, someone in your department already has that name."  OK, "Wayne" (my middle name),  "No, that one's taken also."  "How about Jimmie?", "Nope." "How about my last name, Wilks"?  "Nope, gotta use first names."  "Alright then, how about James?"  "Sorry, taken."  Fastly becoming frustrated, I asked "Can I use my initials, JW?"  "Sure", so that's how I became know as JW.  Too many people, not enough names.

And so it is with a business.  If all businesses were named (for instance, ABC xxxx) we wouldn't be able to tell them apart.  Name brand recognition is a mainstay of business.  The name is very important.  If you can try to get the name to sound something like what your company offers (e.g. FaceBook, SKYPE, Apple) then you just hit the jackpot.

A company name defines your business and some company names are so recognizable that you immediately know what they are, even before seeing their logo which, by the way also defines them even further.  When you look at these two logos, you immediately know who they are and even what business they are in.

So, way back in 1995, when we were deciding what to call our business and have it incorporated, we came up with some pretty cool names (including, Muddy Creek, 10-1 Enterprise,  & SBRCO), and as a last resort included the name "The Branch."  We applied for our LLC only to be told that all the "cool" names we had thought of were taken, but we could certainly have "The Branch."  so the name stuck.  As a side note, just how did we come up with the name, The Branch??  One of our favorite scriptures is John 15:5,  I am the vine, you are the branches.  The one who abides in me while I abide in him produces much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.  Good words to live by.

Now, fast forward to 2014 (19 years later) and we finally get around to having a logo designed.  I knew what I wanted but trying to convey that idea to the graphics designer was a long process with many many text messages back and forth.  But, he came through with exactly what I wanted.

My second cousin, Ross Redburn of Arnold, Missouri was my goto Graphics guru.  He is a very good graphics guy and can do a logo for whatever you want.  Here's a link to his website:  http://maddrooster.wix.com/maddroosterproductions

Thanks Ross, ya done good my man.

Later  .  .  .