Names selected for this list were based on their uniqueness within the credit union industry. In other words, there is only one credit union using that name (”Beehive” is the only exception.) Other criteria included:

• Each reflects something phonetically interesting and/or thematically evocative.
• Each name is memorable, and lends itself to a URL that’s easy to recall.
• Searching Google for these names is likely to yield the correct result in the top 2-5 results, especially when paired with the term “credit union.”

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LIST

Looking out 10 years at the landscape of financial brands, what will we see? Here’s six trends in this two-part guest post from The Financial Brand over at OpenSource CU.

Read Part 1

• Prediction #1: More of the same
• Prediction #2: More self-deception about service
• Prediction #3: More me-too names

Read Part 2

• Prediction #4: Traditional branches will thrive
• Prediction #5: Innovation will come from extensive R&D
• Prediction #6: Being green won’t make a difference

#1) Employees - 1,553
#2) Community - 526
#3) County - 323
#4) Schools - 279
#5) West - 214
#6) Teachers - 214
#7) City - 199
#8) Postal - 183
#9) First - 179
#10) North - 170

Connection to employees reflected in names

• 1-in-6 credit unions have the word ‘Employee’ in their name
• Over 600 credit unions have ‘School,’ ‘Teachers’ or ‘Educators’ in their name
• 183 have ‘Postal’ in their name
• 157 credit unions have ‘Municipal’ in their name
• 110 credit unions have ‘Health’ in their name
• 108 credit unions have ‘Fire’ in their name
• 73 credit unions have ‘Police’ in their name

‘Community’

• 1-in-16 credit unions use the word ‘Community’ in their name
• 48 credit union names start with ‘Community’
• 10 credit unions share the name ‘Community Credit Union’
• There are 4 ‘Community Choice’ CUs and four others named ‘Community First’

Who’s Number One?

• 161 credit unions use the word ‘One’ or number ‘1’
• 220 credit unions use the word ‘First’ or ‘1st’
• ‘First’ is the first word in 116 credit unions’ name; 25 others us ‘1st’ elsewhere in their names

Geography & Topography

• 393 credit unions use ‘County,’ 199 use ‘City,’141 use ‘State’
• About 100 credit unions use either ‘America,’ ‘American,’ ‘US’ or ‘USA’
• ‘West’ beats ‘East,’ 214 to 100
• ‘North’ beats ‘South,’ 170 to 131
• ‘Pacific’ beats ‘Atlantic,’ 40 to 16
• 141 credit unions use the word ‘Valley’
• 92 use ‘River’
• 68 use ‘Lake’
• 52 use ‘Coast’
• 40 use ‘Hill’
• 39 use ‘Rock’
• 37 use ‘Mountain’

‘Credit Union’ first

• 30 credit unions shun convention by putting ‘Credit Union’ in front of their name instead of at the end, such as the 7 credit unions who share ‘Credit Union One.’

Bottom line: You don’t have to change your credit union’s name just because it contains a commonly-used word. But if you’re going to change the name to something new, you should avoid these words. Using words that are this ubiquitous don’t distinguish you in any way, and they carry significant trademark risks.

Want the full list?
If you’d like the full list of words commonly used by credit unions in their names and the frequency with which they occur, shoot me an email.

An employee of Maine State Credit Union says in his blog that “people should be able to see your credit union’s name and know if they are eligible for membership, without ever opening your membership brochure.” This is especially important, he adds, if you expand your field of membership.

So he takes issue with his employer’s choice to switch from ‘Maine State Employees Credit Union’ to ‘Maine State Credit Union’ when it got a community charter – in only two Maine counties:

“When we expanded our field of membership we dropped the ‘Employees’ from the name…who do we serve now? Looking at the name it would be easy to think we served the whole state, but I’d be wrong. We now serve the Kennebec and Somerset counties, but our name doesn’t tell me that. I have to search through the membership brochure to find out what towns are included in our coverage. I don’t like that.”

He also offers this advice: Credit unions shouldn’t drop the term “Credit Union” from their names (by replacing it with “Financial,” for instance). It robs them of a key point of distinction, he reasons.

Key Question: Do you know what your employees are saying about your organization online?

Bottom Line: Google Alerts. I found this post through my Google Alerts. If you set up the right Google Alerts, you can stay abreast of just about everything that concerns you and your organization. “Fine tuning” your Alerts to eliminate irrelevant garbage can be frustrating, however.