Longlist
See also: candidate list
A longlist is the full set of generated candidates before screening. It exists to be cut, not delivered: its purpose is to give the elimination stages enough material to be meaningful.
In practice
Being handed a longlist means the hard part was passed back to you. The value in a naming process is concentrated in the cut, and a service that returns fifty names has skipped the stage you were paying for.
The Accenture naming Fortune describes began with thousands of original and submitted names, and the same article gives the usual funnel of that namer: over 1,000 names developed, 100 to 150 taken to trademark screening. Nobody at the client was meant to read the first number. That list was working material for the cut.
In a naming project the longlist is internal and the discipline is to keep it that way. What goes wrong when it leaves the building is predictable: a reader falls for a name that has not been screened, others weigh in on taste, and a name with a conflict or a bad meaning in a market nobody checked becomes the favourite. Screening against the criteria in the naming brief comes first, and the output is a shortlist with evidence. See name generation for how the pool is built.
Where this sits in the process
The studio treats this as part of a single run rather than a separate service: the category is read, the creative direction is chosen from what the research found, candidates are generated in volume and then cut against criteria that were written down first. See how the studio works for what that produces, or the naming module for the stages themselves.
Related concepts
- Shortlist: What separates a shortlist from a longlist: not length, but the evidence attached to every survivor.
- Name generation: Why naming processes generate hundreds of candidates when only a handful survive, and what volume actually buys.
- Brand naming: What brand naming is, how the process is structured, and why writing the criteria down before generating candidates changes the outcome.
Further reading
- Business name generation is more than just a name: A business name has to clear cultural, linguistic and competitive checks before taste gets a vote. What those checks are, and what each one rules out.
Frequently asked questions
What is a longlist in naming?
A longlist is the full set of generated candidates before screening. It exists to be cut, not delivered: its purpose is to give the elimination stages enough material to be meaningful.
How long should a naming longlist be?
Long enough that elimination is real. A professional namer quoted by Fortune describes developing over 1,000 names and taking 100 to 150 into trademark screening. A list of twenty leaves only the least objectionable.
What is the difference between a longlist and a shortlist?
A longlist is the unscreened pool, a shortlist is the small set that survived every stage, each name with its evidence. The difference is the work done in between, not the length.
Why is receiving a list of names not a good result?
The value in a naming process is concentrated in the cut. A service that returns fifty names has handed the hardest stage back to you, and each name still needs linguistic, cultural and competitive checks.