Funny enough, "United Islands" is the name that almost never was.
One of the first things I did in starting my brand was to go through quite a rigorous naming exercise, which, thankfully, was quite exhaustive without being too exhausting. There's a process to it, which actually turned out to be quite fun. If you Google "brand naming exercises" many useful results come up, so I won't bother listing out all of the steps here. However, one particular thing I did I wanted to share with you in case it's useful to any aspiring entrepreneurs out there. It helped me direct my brainstorming along certain paths rather than being totally scattershot in my thinking.
What did I do? First, I wrote down 20 or so apparel-related brands whose names I liked. The companies, themselves, didn't need to be similar to my brand (although some of them were); they just needed to be names that I thought were evocative in some way. Ones like Band of Outsiders (RIP), The Elder Statesman, Engineered Garments. They stirred something in me when I saw or heard them.
With the list in hand, I asked myself the question: why? Were there reasons and, ultimately, patterns to why these brands were the ones that came to mind? For example, three of the brands I wrote down were "Turnbull & Asser," "Ovadia & Sons," and "Brooks Brothers." The common link was that all had a "heritage" feel to them. Examining my list, I tried to find if there were other common links I could spot, then I tried to think of new brand names using these categories or themes as jumping off points for brainstorming.
Out of this process, I came up with the brand name "Asato & Sons," which gave a heritage feel to my mom's maiden name, Asato. Not only did it have a nice ring to it with the shared "s" sound, it carried with it a special meaning since it would allow the Asato family name to live on in Hawaiʻi although my mom's three brothers all passed on without having any children.
So I was all set to go with Asato & Sons, but to my surprise my mom actually vetoed it! Or at least strongly discouraged it. She told me that several different family members in Japan had tried incorporating Asato in their businesses' names...and all of the businesses had failed! Use of the name was "inauspicious."
Photo credit: Kazuyuki N, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Well, back to the drawing board. I went to my list to ponder new names and one I had jotted down caught my eye: United Arrows. I've always been a fan of Japanese retail in general (e.g., BEAMS, Isetan, Takashimaya) and the name of this legendary store had always stuck with me. The name conjures images of the elegant yet simple weapon whistling through the air midflight or perhaps a quiver of arrows slung across an archer's back "united" as they await being drawn against the bow.
From there, I I thought about Hawaiʻi. I'd always found it interesting that the eight main Islands each had their own identity and vibe (even with their own official flowers and nicknames) yet were all proudly part of the greater Hawaiʻi. Individuality but commonality. Separation but unity.
My interest piqued, I thought: what about the name "United Islands?" A quick Google search showed the name wasn't already taken by another company. (Note to aspiring entrepreneurs: save yourself the trouble down the line and spend a few minutes to make sure you're not naming your company something too similar to another company's name. It may cause confusion for your customers, or worse yet, a lawsuit from the other company!)
The more I sat with the name, the more I liked it. I thought of Kamehameha the Great, who was the first chief to successfully bring all of the Islands under one ruler, thereby becoming the uniter of the Islands in a literal sense. Importantly, I liked the balance the name struck by referencing Hawaiian history, but only in an implied sense. In so doing, my goal was to give the brand a sense of place while also paying homage to the culture and people of Hawai'i in a respectful way. Itʻs a balancing act, but hopefully "United Islands" gets it right.