Naming apartments is a tricky game—and creating it to be one-of-a-kind is the NAME of the game, pun completely intended.
What Can an Apartment Name Do?
The purpose of a name? It’s shorthand for who your brand is. It gives a snippet of an idea. A name is the first thing that can grab attention (if it’s a good one), keep attention, and if it’s interesting enough, it can allow the prospect to ponder its meaning a little bit.
Your apartment name can tell a story, evoke a feeling, and emphasize your branding—when you follow our guidance.
TELL A STORY
Names that make for the most fun in the process are the ones with a story. If there isn’t one, we create it within the brand guidelines. Have you ever met someone with such a unique name that you wanted to say, “Wow, that’s cool! Can you tell me more about your name?” There’s typically something even more interesting than the name—and it’s the story behind it.
EVOKE A FEELING
The vibe of your community—whether for retirees or for young professionals—will be bolstered by a solid name. There are certain sounds, colors, words that create ideas and stir up emotions within us. The emotions that come to the surface should be positive. Positive and fun. Positive and elegant. Positive and avant-garde. Positive and peaceful. How you name it helps bring your reader/prospect/resident to that frame of mind.
EMPHASIZE BRANDING
The vibe of your community again can be paired up with your branding through your apartment name. The name is the starting point, and then the brand is built up around that. It’s likely that you’ve already had the ideas of the design, style, audience and more, but the name is the first piece of the verbal branding. This aspect is foundational, setting off the rest of the branding: your logo, your style, your voice, so it can be seen and appreciated in its ideal form.
Why One-of-a-Kind Names for Apartments?
Naming your apartment buildings is not a decision you can make easily and forget about. It will impact your brand perception, how prospects find you online (or don’t) and whether your brand will stand out among your competition. Be careful in your approach to naming apartments for both SEO and intrigue.
SEO
If you want to be found through search engines, consider how many other things, even beyond apartment communities, may be named the same. How much competition will you have? A lot? This is the time to get inventive, because it won’t always go the way it did in Field of Dreams (“If you build it, they will come.”)
Now, does it have to be a completely new word? Not necessarily. But for higher ranking in Google, it must be more creative and outside of the norm.
Please don’t call it Oakview or Oakhill or Oakridge or Oak Grove Apartments. It’s been done.
INTEREST
Look for something more interesting about the property to inspire its name. Perhaps the history of the area, the street names, important figures in the city’s community, or a particular vibe that you want to create with these apartments.
MEMORABILITY
If it’s top-of-mind status you want, you’ll have to go a little off the beaten path. Not too strange, and not too un-spell-able or un-pronounce-able, but something that’s creative. So instead of Oakhill Apartments, you could go for CenturyWood Place, for example.
Apartment Name Examples
Now that we gave you one example, you’re probably hoping for a few more. We got you. (Keep in mind that these are all made up and we aren’t picking on anyone with these examples, good or bad.)
BORING
That Oak Anything Apartments example falls into this boring category. Not imaginative. Sounds peaceful and completely…forgettable. Here are a few more apartment names that you can forget about completely after reading them:
31st St Apartments
Oak Glen
Shady Lane
Laurel Estates
We get it: There’s shade. You’re on a street. There’s trees. For the love, get more interesting!
UNIQUE
Take inspiration from the management’s founder. The history of the area. Or the style of the building. Don’t be too on the nose, like Brickhouse Lofts, but consider using a red color in the name, like Vermillion Views.
THE STRANGELY FAMILIAR
Today, there are plenty of made-up words that have become household names—even regular, daily verbs. Why? Because they’re memorable. Just Google it!
Google was a re-spelling (which was more phonetically appealing) of googol, which just means the highest number in existence. This works great for the vast number of search results you can receive with a few keystrokes.
Etsy was a made up spelling after the founder closely watched (and listened to) a Fellini film. Having heard “et si” multiple times, he decided this combo of words that means “oh, yes” was the perfect term for his new website.
Zillow is a little more out there. This massive house listing giant has combined the idea of comfort and vast amounts of options (“zillions” and “pillows”—where you lay your head) would be the ideal name for a space to find your next property.
What to Consider When Naming Apartments
As we’ve seen above, some brand names are more thought out than others. It’s okay if it’s stumbled upon, but it’s stronger and more relatable if there’s a good story to go with it.
MEANING
Why is it called that name? If it’s chosen at random, that’s not going to initiate very good conversations. If you can come up with history, inspiration, or reasoning, that will go a lot farther in your branding guidelines than “it sounded cool”. However, we know that sometimes, that does lead to success. But it might be easier to have a goal to create a name based on some deeper meaning—it’s at least an easier starting place.
BRAINSTORMING PROCESS
At Zipcode Creative, when we’re thinking through naming apartments, we go for broke. We write down anything and everything that comes to mind, and then have a thesaurus handy. (You never know when you’ll come up with something that will spark interest and be super-original.)
While we’re going about the naming process, we consider things like:
- Your ideal resident profile (IRP): what are they looking for?
- The type of apartment community it will be
- The vibe of the surrounding area
- The history of the town/city/area you’re in
- The history of the building
- The architecture style of the building
- The names of the surrounding streets
- The local flora and fauna
Take all of these into account, and we’re sure to find something that will strike a chord that will please the SEO gods and the future residents of your homes. We’ll also try out different sizes, lengths, and formats of the winsome ones to land on something worthy of your community. Most of all, we’ll aim for meaning and originality.
RESEARCH
However, before you get too deep into the weeds of apartment naming, make sure it’s actually viable. Look at your competitors. Consider your audience. Google the name and see what comes up. At Zipcode Creative, we have a few considerations (or tests, if you will) to find out whether the name could possibly work:
- Business Name Search
- Trademark Registry Search
- Available URLs and social media handles
- General Google search
Again, this is where due diligence and uniqueness will help you out. The hard work of building your apartment brand will be undercut by other brands if it’s not a standalone idea (or has too much competition).
Need help with your apartment naming? Reach out today.
