D.B.
Honestly, if you are serious about this business venture, work with a good advertising copywriter, one who does "conceptual" work. That means someone who doesn't just come up with cutesy puns or write good body copy, but one who will really take your products and your vision and your intended market, and put it together.
My husband has done this sort of work for years, and I can tell you that it's worth the investment you will make to get something that holds together. You need to know who your competition is (so you don't do anything too close to them) and (IMPORTANT) so you don't wind up infringing on trademarks and copyrights. That can get very expensive if you step on someone's rights inadvertently, and then you will have to start all over with a new name (losing customers and the gains from advertising up to that point).
The more info you can give an advertising person, the better you will do. Photograph samples of your work, identify the types of people who will buy them, explain how you will sell them (booths, consignment to boutiques, on line, whatever), and your basic competitive advantage. Failure to do this will cost you much more in the long run.
You could use a freelancer vs. an ad agency, but they have to have experience. They don't have to have experience in these products - that's a common misconception. A good writer can write well if you give enough direction. But as with computers, "garbage in, garbage out" - if you have a preconceived idea of what you want, but you aren't open to a fresh name/design or if you don't give enough input, you will be frustrated and you will alienate the type of professional who can be incredibly helpful to you. That conceptual writer should have colleagues (either in an agency or other freelancers he/she works with) who can do the graphic execution for you. You're talking company name, hang tags, stationery, business cards, web sites and banner ads, and more. So it's not just the cute name - it's what you're going to do with it. A good freelancer should be able to come up with a dozen names and then recommend 3 top ones to you. A good art director can give you some rough designs too - but start with the IDEA, not the design!
Don't sell your business short, or yourself either, but failing to treat this as a professional enterprise. You need to stand out, and that means having a fundamental understanding of who you are, not just now but as you expand.
While we all love to be asked what cute name we like, your background in corporate America should tell you that no decent company would put this out to an inexperience group for opinions. (We all wish you well but we don't necessarily know what we are talking about!) Think of the clever commercials you see vs. the car dealers who do their own - bad writing, bad talent and all! If you look cheap, you won't be successful. You need a branding expert, and that doesn't mean you have to go to a 100-person ad agency and pay all that overhead.
