Importance of names

[Boris the Frog]

Hi, I'm just planning to start up as a freelancer and your tips thread was good.
My question is how important are names?
I've always used the same username on websites since I first used the internet way back when.
But I'm not sure what name I should set up under.
To start with the company is just going to be me freelancing - but it could expand to cover other things (eg. a cafe press shop).
I am a Flash and Director designer/coder and was wondering about the use or relevance of words such as 'interactive', 'studio' etc in a name.
Do they mean anything to the clients? Are they a little outdated now?
I'm kind of drawn to abstract names such as 'nine carrots' but could this be a hinderance when it comes to marketing?
I don't have a website yet (I know!!) so there is no domain name yet.
Any useful stuff thrown my way will be appreciated - thanks.

[flashpipe1]

Partially depends on your market/audience.

If you're looking to get clients through your site on search engines, you should try to include keyword(s) in your domain name...other than that, depends on the professionalism you're trying to convey.

If you're looking for smaller customers looking to create a site/CD, etc. something like four-carrots-multimedia.com would be fine, but might not work as well if you're looking to develop RIAs for banks or something like that...

Just my 2 cents...

[RUSHVision]

Hi Boris, I remember you from the 'title' thread.

I think names are important, but I don't think it's crucial that your name specifically mentions that you do design or development. There are plenty more, but one good example would be Tokyo Plastic. That sounds more like plastic manufacturer than a design firm, but that hasn't stopped them from being successful. And what about Xerox? What the heck is that? I don't know what it used to be, but now it's synonymous with 'copy'.

I like the name Nine Carrots, but to me that sounds more like a small studio than a big one. That's mostly because it hasn't been established yet, though. So lacking any kind of manufactured associations, people will tend to associate your name with whatever 'nine' and 'carrots' already mean to them. To use this to your advantage you might consider using 'carats' instead of 'carrots'. This way you get people to think of the quality of diamonds rather than a small bundle of vegetables until you get a chance to establish yourself through your work. Just something to think about.

Keep in mind also that you can always use some kind of tagline like Nine Carrots Design & Interactive Development or some such thing. That way you can call yourself whatever you want and still let people know what it is that you do.

[Boris the Frog]

thanks guys.
nine carrots just came out when I was typing. I'm actually thinking something to do with clouds now (of course, naturally!) but the tag line thing helps RushVision - The nice part about one of those is it can change with branding which is helpful if the company changes direction later on.
flashpipe1 - interesting point about sounding like a small company - although I don't think it bothers me tbh now that I think about it.
What's wrong with being a small team or a one man band - I'm not looking for crazy huge projects anyway - so I'm cool with that.
It the company develops and gets bigger then word of mouth should hopefully have my name on their lips
Thanks guys