How Brands Are Named in Europe: Naming Trends from 2.75 Million Entries

The name is the part of every launch where everyone gets stuck. So we analysed 2.75 million trademark names from the EU register (data source EUIPO) and looked at how brands in Europe are really named. In short: most founders reach for the same building blocks, and that is exactly what makes a name harder to own.

The most common building blocks

Count which words keep showing up in trademark names and three themes lead clearly: technology, sustainability and everything that sounds „smart".

Building block	Names	Share
tech	21,191	0.77%
eco / green	13,173	0.48%
smart	12,723	0.46%
pay	3,989	0.14%
cloud	3,887	0.14%
data	3,865	0.14%

„tech" appears in more than 21,000 names, from fintech to Techstars. „eco" and „smart" are almost level and show two moods side by side: sustainability and convenience. Fintech blocks like „pay", „cloud" and „data" follow behind.

The typical startup endings

Even more telling than the building blocks are the endings. Whoever names a startup reaches strikingly often for the same few syllables.

Ending	Names	Blueprint
-io	14,230	the classic tech ending
-ly	10,388	Bitly, Feedly
-fy / -ify	around 4,294	Spotify, Shopify
-ai	3,327	the AI zeitgeist

„-io" and „-ly" have long become the badge of digital brands. And that is the catch: these endings signal „modern startup", but they do so for tens of thousands of others too.

The AI surge

One trend jumps out of the data: around 2,497 names contain „AI" or „GPT", 145 of them „GPT" directly. The snag is legal. In July 2026 the EU General Court refused even the „OpenAI" word mark as descriptive. Anyone naming their company „SomethingAI" today picks a name that is instantly clear but, for exactly that reason, hard to protect. More on this in our post Can you trademark an AI name.

Why popular also means risky

A common building block is a crowded field. A name that blends into tens of thousands of similar ones has it twice as hard: it sticks less, and it is more likely to collide with an already registered mark. On top of that, the more descriptive a name is, the harder it is to protect as a trademark at all. Whether a name is protectable is ultimately a legal assessment. What you can see for yourself right away is whether your desired name is already taken in the register or confusingly close.

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Methodology

We analysed around 2.75 million EU trademark names that carry a word element (pure figurative marks without text are not included). Building blocks were counted at word boundaries, endings at the last word part of the name. This is a deliberately conservative approximation over letter patterns, not a measurement of actual naming intent, so slight fuzziness is possible. The data source is the EU trademark register (EUIPO), as of our own database snapshot.

Takeaway

The data shows a clear pattern, and that pattern is also the warning: the obvious building blocks are long taken. A name that deliberately goes against the grain stands out more easily and is usually easier to protect. And whatever you choose, check early whether it is already registered before you invest in a logo, a domain and marketing.