Every naming conversation we have starts the same way: a founder arrives with a shortlist, sometimes twenty names deep, asking us to pick the best one. The honest answer, most of the time, is that none of the twenty are wrong — and none of them matter yet, because the decision that actually determines whether a name works has not been made.
A name is a container. It only reads as strong or weak once you know what it is supposed to hold. "Clarity," "growth," and "north" are not bad words — they are unowned words, available to any brand in any category, which means they carry no position on their own. The name does work only after the position exists to give it meaning.
This is why we build the position first and screen names against it, not the other way round. A cleared, available, pleasant-sounding name attached to no strategy is still a coin flip. The same name, tested against a specific claim the brand is willing to defend, stops being a coin flip and starts being a decision.
The practical consequence: if you are choosing a name before you have written down, in one sentence, the one thing your competitors cannot say without contradicting themselves — you are choosing too early. Write the sentence first.