Naming
Our naming process applies to any new or existing offering in our product portfolio. Teams can follow the process on their own or request help from the Brand team. Either way, we recommend incorporating AI into the process thoughtfully. Once you have a preferred name, submit a Naming Review Request to the Brand team.
1. Build a strategic foundation
Before starting the naming process, develop a strategic and specific perspective on the offering being named or renamed. This acts as your brief and should clearly address:
What is being named
What it contributes to the brand or product portfolio
Who is the client or user
What is the commercial context
If renaming, what other considerations exist
To guide this work, use the Strategic Foundation Worksheet (.pdf). You may find it helpful to use an AI tool (such as Microsoft Copilot) to add to your thinking and/or to do some light research. If you use an external AI tool (such as ChatGPT or Claude AI), make sure that you are not revealing any proprietary or sensitive information. Please refer to Morningstar’s Generative AI Policy for guidance.
2. Confirm naming need and clarify portfolio placement
Many offerings don’t need names. Wherever possible, use existing names, messaging, or descriptive language instead. For example, product variants, components, use cases, and benefits often don’t require naming. Events, programs, and other supporting elements may need names, but these should be highly descriptive and follow our naming strategy.
Use the decision tree below to evaluate whether an offering needs to be named or renamed. As a reminder, the Morningstar prefix should only be used with family brands and existing products that meet specific Brand team criteria.
Naming Decision Tree
Question | If Yes | If No |
|---|---|---|
Is there an existing product or feature name that’s appropriate to use? | Use current name. | Go to next question. |
Is it a distinctive feature of a product that plays a disproportionate role in differentiation (like if it brings a unique functionality or addresses a novel need) and cannot have the desired market impact without being named? | Designate as a feature and create a descriptive name. | Go to next question. |
Is it a product that is sold or used and will be endorsed by a family brand? | Designate as a product and create a descriptive name. | Go to next question. |
Does it otherwise contribute to our ability to convey the value of our offerings? For example, is it a component or characteristic? | Create descriptive language or messaging that conveys its value. | The product does not need a name or specific messaging. |
Once you’ve confirmed the need for a name, use the brief you’ve created to clarify the offering’s place within our brand architecture. Identify which family brand—or in special cases, the master brand—will serve as the endorser. Then consider how the offering relates to other products in the portfolio. For example, is it standalone experience or a tool accessed through multiple products. It may help to visualize this as a tree structure to understand the levels and relationships more clearly.
3. Establish decision criteria
Before generating potential names, define four to six clear criteria to guide your decision-making. This helps reduce subjectivity and builds a strong case for the name you recommend. Your criteria should address things like your commercial objectives, proposition, relationship to other Morningstar offerings, and competitive offerings. Examples of decision criteria include:
Supports commercial model and intent, such as a product tiering strategy
Conveys clear proposition, such as capturing product breadth, depth, and value to user
Distinguishes product from other offerings in the Morningstar portfolio
Avoids duplication of names used by competitive offerings
4. Generate a list
When you’re ready to begin naming, bring together relevant people who can be creative and constructive. Start by brainstorming themes to give your creativity some structure. Helpful themes might include:
Outcomes—what results the offering enables
Communities—which types or groups of users
Experience—what happens when you use the offering
Actions—what the offering helps users do
Moments—when the offering is most relevant
Once you’ve defined a few starter themes, create a long list of potential names. These should align with our brand architecture strategy and naming strategy. Don’t filter yet; just capture every idea under its most fitting theme. Then step back and review the list. Move names around and add any new ones that come to mind. An AI tool may be helpful in generating names to add to your long list, but you will need to prompt it for names that are descriptive and real. Again, be careful that you are not revealing proprietary or sensitive information externally. You should also sense-check any AI suggestions against your Strategic Foundation document.
Next, use your decision criteria to filter down to a short list. Now is not the time to get attached to a single name. Be ruthless, and edit your list to no more than five solid options. If you use an AI tool to evaluate the long list against your decision criteria, be sure to critically review the output and not immediately take it at face value.
5. Align on preferred names
Share your short list with your stakeholders. Be clear about who’s making the decision and who’s providing input.
Use your decision criteria to build a clear, strategic rationale for each name; an AI tool can support you in this process, but it can’t fully replace your knowledge and experience. Consider the advantages and disadvantages, and have alternatives ready. Test names to make sure they sound right grammatically and work in both copy and conversation. Put yourself in the shoes of the people who will use the name most often. Remember that the Morningstar prefix cannot be a part of the name. If a name doesn’t work without it, it isn’t the right fit.
Once you align internally, consider sharing the top candidates with a few trusted clients to gather candid feedback. Come prepared with your rationale—while initial reactions are helpful, they’re subjective. A name shouldn’t require explanation, but people should understand the intent behind it. Contact your business unit's design leader for help with getting customer feedback.
For more significant naming needs, you may want to use an AI research tool to validate your short list with synthetic personas. If your team has access to an AI tool designed for this purpose, you can conduct this yourself. The Brand Team can help you determine the right audiences, design prompts, and/or analyze the results, bringing in the Market Research Team where needed.
Alternatively, please contact the Brand Team if your team would like this validation exercise conducted on your behalf. While this is less expensive and time-consuming than standard market research, there are costs and resources to consider, and it can take a couple of weeks to execute properly.
Finally, you may need to consult Legal about your preferred names. While we don’t register names in most jurisdictions (see Trademarks for more information), there may be reasons to get input from Legal before going further.
6. Get the preferred name approved
Submit a Naming Review Request to the Brand team. Don’t use the name externally until it’s approved.
The Brand team will review it as soon as possible, typically within three business days. If more time is needed, you’ll be notified. The team will evaluate the names submitted against our brand scorecard and contact you with any questions. After the review, we’ll advise you on next steps.
