This will (hopefully) be the last in this series of posts regarding the naming of bands. Bands certainly have their work cut out for them if they are to follow through with all of these guidelines. Or they could pay a trademark lawyer to do it for them. Here's a quick recap...

Ideally, you want to find a band name that:
- is unique and hasn't been used before
- is available in .COM format for an official band website
- brings back few existing results from search engines
- is not a common, generic, confusing or overused term
- doesn't have any negative connotations (in any language)
- isn't misspelled or "creatively punctuated" in any way
- doesn't have common alternate spellings
- doesn't include hard to spell words
- doesn't include a number
- doesn't start with the words "the", "a", or "an"
- doesn't start with the letters "va"
- isn't too genre specific
- doesn't include profanity

Even though it seems like an exhaustive list, I'm sure that there are other issues that I may have missed. Now I'm off to brainstorm some band name ideas...

Once you have a good name, you might also want to trademark it. I've never done this before, and I understand that it is a bit more complicated (and more expensive) than the copyright process. However, I also read that it is one of the best legal tools you can have on your side if you should get into a scrape with another band trying to use your name. I found a pretty comprehensive guide on trademarking band names over at the Direct Legal website. If you've got money to spend, you can also pay them to do all of the research and paperwork for you. You can trademark your band logo, too.