Knowing how to name products comes down to one template: brand, product, variant, size and pack, always in that order and spelled the same way. A name built this way is found by whoever types the word a customer just said. It also reads clearly on the receipt, the shelf label and the online store.
Most naming guides cover a different job: inventing a brand for something you make. This page covers both. The shop's product list comes first, worked on ten lines of a Kampala shop, then the checks for a new brand name.
Two jobs called naming a product
A shop names the items it stocks; a maker names the product it sells. The rules differ because different people read the name.
| Item name in your product list | Brand name for a product you make | |
|---|---|---|
| Who reads it | Cashiers at the till, store keepers, customers online, the receipt | Buyers in the market, on the pack and in adverts |
| A good one | Is found in two keystrokes and tells lookalikes apart | Is remembered, easy to say and legally yours |
| How often you do it | For every product you stock | Once for each new product |
| What goes wrong | The wrong size is sold, or one product is entered twice | Someone else owns the name, or it means something rude |
The product naming template
Build every item name from the same five parts, in the same order. Leave out a part the product doesn't have, but never change the order.
| Part | What goes in | Example | Leave it out when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand | The maker's name, spelled as on the pack | Colgate | Customers don't ask by brand, as with loose rice or nails |
| Product | The word a customer says for it | Toothpaste | Never: every name needs it |
| Variant | Flavour, colour, model or grade | Herbal | The product comes in one kind only |
| Size | A number, a space and the unit: 100 ml, 2 kg, 3 L | 100 ml | You sell it by weight, so the unit is the size |
| Pack | How many, when the pack is sold as one item | x 100 | You buy by the carton and sell by the piece |
Put together, the parts give Colgate Toothpaste Herbal 100 ml. A cashier who types "toothpaste", "colgate" or "herbal" finds it, and the size on the receipt matches the tube in the bag.
Ten shop lines, renamed
For example, here are ten names from a Kampala shop's supplier invoices and old lists, with what each gets wrong. The shop and its lines are illustrative.
| Before | The problem | After |
|---|---|---|
| COLG TP HRB 100 | An invoice abbreviation that nobody types | Colgate Toothpaste Herbal 100 ml |
| Sugar, entered twice | The 1 kg and the 2 kg share a name | Sugar Brown 1 kg and Sugar Brown 2 kg |
| SUGAR BALE 10X2KG | The bale is how you buy, not what you sell | Sugar Brown 2 kg, with a bale of 10 as its purchase unit |
| Fanta 500ML and fanta orange 0.5l | Two people, two spellings, one drink entered twice | Fanta Orange 500 ml |
| Rice super 5kg 32000 | The price is in the name, so it is wrong the day the price moves | Rice Super 5 kg |
| COOKING OIL 3LTRS | All capitals, and a third way of writing litres | Cooking Oil Sunflower 3 L |
| Charger | The 20 W and the 25 W look the same in the hand | Charger USB-C 20 W and Charger USB-C 25 W |
| Nails 3 | Three what? Sold loose by the kilo | Nails 3 inch, with kg as its unit |
| PCM 500 | Staff ask for the medicine, not the code | Paracetamol 500 mg Tablets x 100 |
| T-shirt red M, T-shirt red L, T-shirt blue M | Each size made as a separate product | T-Shirt Crew Neck, one product with the variants Red M, Red L and Blue M |
None of the new names runs past 32 characters. The two longest, the toothpaste and the paracetamol, carry four parts each.
Eight rules for product names
The template sets the order; these rules keep every name in it clean. Most of them prevent a mistake from the table above.
- Use the word customers say. If they ask for washing powder, those words go in the name, whatever the invoice calls it.
- Write every size one way. Number, space, unit: 500 ml, never 500ML or 0.5l. A search for "500 ml" won't find "0.5l".
- Spell out the supplier's abbreviations. TP and HRB mean something to one clerk at the supplier, and nothing at your till.
- Put the difference between lookalikes in the name. The code tells the scanner apart; the name tells the cashier.
- Leave out anything that changes. Price, supplier, shelf and words like New or Offer are wrong within months.
- Write in title case, not capitals. Capitals look like shouting in an online store, and a list that mixes both looks careless.
- Keep it short. ArmPOS takes up to 55 characters; the ten names above need 32 at most.
- One product, one name. Sizes and colours of the same item are variants of one product, each with its own code.
Codes follow their own rules, set out in SKU management. A name is for people and a code is for machines; a good product list needs both.
Brand first or product first?
Lead with whatever customers ask for. In a shop that sells across trades, that means two orders, decided once for each category.
| Trade | Customers ask for | Lead with | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Branded groceries, drinks, toiletries | The brand | Brand | Colgate Toothpaste Herbal 100 ml |
| Staples sold loose or unbranded | The product | Product | Rice Super 5 kg |
| Hardware | The item and its size | Product | Nails 3 inch |
| Pharmacy | The medicine and its strength | Generic name | Paracetamol 500 mg Tablets x 100 |
| Phones and accessories | The model for phones, the type for accessories | Brand for phones, product for accessories | Charger USB-C 20 W |
| Clothes and shoes | The item, then size and colour | Product, with variants | T-Shirt Crew Neck, Red M |
The order matters less for finding a product than for reading the list. A till search that matches any word finds both orders; a list sorted by name groups brand-first names by maker and product-first names by type.
Build the names in a spreadsheet first
Name the whole list in Excel before you import it, so every name follows the template without anyone retyping it. Put each part in its own column and let a formula join them.
| A: code | B: brand | C: product | D: variant | E: size | F: name | G: length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CLG-HRB-100 | Colgate | Toothpaste | Herbal | 100 ml | Colgate Toothpaste Herbal 100 ml | 32 |
| RIC-SUP-5 | Rice | Super | 5 kg | Rice Super 5 kg | 15 | |
| CHG-20W | Charger | USB-C | 20 W | Charger USB-C 20 W | 18 |
In F2, type =TRIM(B2&" "&C2&" "&D2&" "&E2) and copy it down. TRIM removes the extra spaces an empty column leaves. In G2, =LEN(F2) counts the characters, so anything over 55 shows at once.
Copy column F and paste it as values into the import file's name column. The inventory list template has the other columns the import reads.
How to name products in ArmPOS
In ArmPOS, a product's Name is what receipts, invoices and reports show, so the template pays off on every sale. These steps follow the Help center guides.
- Type the name in Name. It takes 3 to 55 characters. Code Product beside it must be unique (Add your first products).
- Keep the brand in the name. The POS search box reads codes and names, so put the brand in the name when customers ask by brand. The Brand field is for sorting and reporting by maker (Categories, brands and units).
- Test the search. At the POS, two letters are enough. In the guide's own example, "co" finds both Nescafe Coffee and Cooking Oil, so any word in a name counts (The POS screen).
- Make sizes and colours variants. Set the type to Variable Product and name each variant, such as 500 ml, with its own code and price (Products with variants).
- Leave the bale to units. A Bale unit built on Packet, multiplied by 10, lets you buy by the bale and sell by the packet. Units of measure explains the rest.
- Name before you import. Products › Import products reads a name and a code per row. The update import changes only cost and price (Import products from a spreadsheet). A later rename is done with Edit, one product at a time (Find, edit and update products).
- Print the label. Each label carries the product's name and a barcode of its code, with the price if you want it (Print barcode labels).
The same names show in your online store, where every active product appears unless you hide it (Set up your online store).
Naming a new product you make: styles and checks
A brand name has a different job: to be remembered and to be yours alone. Most brand names fall into one of six styles.
| Style | What it is | Examples | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Descriptive | Says what it is or does | Booking.com, Burger King | Hard to own: a trademark must be distinctive |
| Invented | A new word | Kodak, Google | Means nothing until you spend on it |
| Compound | Two words joined | YouTube, Facebook | Long joins that are hard to spell |
| Real word, new use | An everyday word in a new place | Apple, Amazon | Search results full of the everyday meaning |
| Acronym | Initials | IKEA, BMW | Forgettable until the brand is known |
| Evocative | A feeling, not a description | Calm, Innocent | A feeling that doesn't fit the product |
Uganda's registry, URSB, says a trademark "has to be distinctive, non-descriptive and not likely to cause confusion". So a plain description such as Fresh Milk is hard to register as yours alone.
Run each name on your shortlist through these checks before you print a single pack:
- Say it aloud in every language your customers speak. A name that works in English may mean something else in Luganda or Swahili.
- Search the trademark register. In Uganda, URSB searches its register before you file, for a fee. An accepted mark is advertised for 60 days, then lasts seven years and renews in ten-year periods.
- Check Kenya and your other markets. In Kenya, trade marks are filed with KIPI. A registration in Uganda covers Uganda only.
- Check the web address and social media names. Customers who hear the name will look for it online.
- Test it on five to ten customers. Ask them to say it, spell it and guess what it is. An AI chat tool can widen the first list, but people decide.
Frequently asked questions
Should a product name include the size?
Yes, whenever the product comes in more than one size. Without it, the 1 kg and the 2 kg share a name, and the wrong one gets sold and counted.
What is a product naming convention?
A fixed order and spelling that every name follows, such as brand, product, variant, size and pack. It makes names predictable, so anyone can guess and find a product.
What is the difference between a product name and a SKU?
The name is for people: it says what the item is. The SKU is a short code for scanners and stock records, and it never changes.
Should the brand be in the product name?
Yes, when customers ask for products by brand. The POS search reads names and codes, so a brand kept only in the Brand field won't come up when a cashier types it.
Do I need to trademark a product name?
Only if you make or sell the product under your own brand and want to stop others using the name. In Uganda you file with URSB; in Kenya, with KIPI.
Start with the ten products your cashiers search for most and rename them by the template this week. Create a free ArmPOS account to import the cleaned list and test the search at the till. Shops in Uganda can start from ArmPOS in Uganda.
