From the small shop around the corner to the global corporation, every business needs a name. Especially in saturated markets, where companies and products often only distinguish themselves by their names, these names are of fundamental economic importance as part of corporate identity. Fabian Fahlbusch explores historical and current motivations for name selection. He traces the development of the names of major German stock corporations since the beginnings in the 19th century and discusses the currently valid linguistic criteria for creating an ideal company name. In a representative survey study, the author ultimately investigates the impact and use of business names in everyday communication, advertising, and press texts.