Your small business name needs to be relevant, memorable, and easy to pronounce. It should stick in memories and match your market offering. A good business name should also clearly reflect what you do, who you are, or what you sell. First impressions are crucial. Many of the most memorable brands started with a simple jumping-off point to get the ideas flowing. Start simple, then keep refining until it’s perfect. Use this list of five free business name generators and our reviews of them to start your search.
Why a Business Name Is Important for Your Business
A business’s name can help your business succeed—or get in the way. People first see it when they search for you online or drive past your location. Choosing a business name is one of the most crucial business planning decisions you can make. Take into consideration the following factors:
What are your business goals? How will this name help you achieve these goals? What does this name convey to the public about you and your business? Does this name have any negative connotations associated with it? Is this name available for use as a trademark or domain name?
5 Free Small Business Name Generators
Each name generator utilizes different methodologies to generate a list of names based on your input. You can use these results as a starting point for brainstorming your brand. These traits determine what makes a business name a real winner:
Match the product: Does this name make sense for your business? Evoke emotion: Is the name relatable or intriguing? Unique: Will customers confuse it with other businesses in your industry? Easy to use: How easy is it to spell and pronounce the name? Keep it short and sweet. If you don’t, people may forget it easily or abbreviate it. Marketable: Can you build your brand around it? Is it too niche? Memorable. Does it attract your target audience?
To test these name generators, we used a fictional small business idea to gauge how well these websites delivered quality results based on the abovementioned requirements. Let’s imagine you own a specialty shop that plans to sell herbs, spices, oils, and vinegars as well as related kitchen-based gifts online and in a retail location downtown in a suburban area. Your target audience is adults in their 20s and older, with some disposable income on hand. The keywords “gourmet olive oil and vinegar,” “specialty foods,” and “kitchen” or “pantry” will work as starting points.
Anedea Online Free Business Name Generator
Anadea Software Development Company has a free naming generator that offers “lots of interesting company name suggestions.” Let’s see how accurate that assertion is and what kinds of names it created.
What It Generated
It generated hundreds of names, including Equator, Valiant, Junkyard, and Roadside that made no sense for our fake business. However, there were still quite a few gems. The generated option “Archives Gourmet olive oil and vinegar” could be turned into “Gourmet Archives,” which is an intriguing, relevant name for this imaginary business. Adding a tagline like “Expand your pantry and palate” would work well and complete the branding. Other good options were Masterpiece, AvantGarde (AvantGourmet), and Prometheus.
Business Name Generator (BNG)
BNG is a sleek, responsive name generator with plenty of options for creative brainstorming. More than 3 million users around the globe gave it 4.7 out of 5 stars. We tested it and discovered that BNG created some wild, unforgettable business names.
What It Generated
BNG created memorable names such as Gourmetiva, Oilizoid, Hippy Olive, and Delish+ that all met our naming standards. This tool is just a matter of whittling down your favorites because it does much of the creative brainstorming for you.
Business Name Generator.net (Formerly Namesmith)
What It Generated
Our favorites were Gourmetite, Olive Logic, Good Pantry, True Gourmet, and Vibe Vinegars. Many options remained unhelpful and nonsensical, such as GourmetShip, OilScout, and VinegarSice. Overall, it is a solid branding brainstorming tool, perfect for keeping it simple.
NameStation
NameStation is a vibrant, modern-looking name generator tool that lets you crowdsource good business names through a “naming contests” community. They offer multiple generators after signup, including keyword, niche, handpicked, compound, and alliterative options.
What It Generated
We utilized its Niche, Portmanteaus, and Tweaked name generators to create these business name options: Divergent Truffle, Morning Gouda, Selected Co., Primidl, and Visiani. Some unusable names that had nothing to do with our keywords included Flopence, PelviCrab, and Beechooge. There’s some machine error here, but sometimes that leads to surprising results.
Shopify Business Name Generator
Shopify offers a free name generator tool to visitors and customers alike. Like Anedea, the generator takes your keywords and adds randomized words to the beginning of it. Not groundbreakingly creative, but it can be a useful starting point if you quickly want to get some ideas.
What It Generated
We were able to generate names such as Wicked Oil & Vinegars, Penta, Red Bird Gourmet, Geo Pantry, and Thrive Kitchen Store. Many more name options were too wordy, standard, or confusing to use for a business name.
