50 Catchy and Memorable Business Name Ideas You Can Use Right Now

Last updated on March 16th, 2024 at 08:41 pm

Summary: Are you looking for creative business name ideas? The right business name should be simple, catchy and memorable to help your new business grow. Our 4-step business name generation process involves brand definition, choosing a naming strategy, shortlisting the best ideas, and getting feedback from others. Follow this strategy to come up with simple and marketing-friendly business name ideas. If you’re still stuck at the end, pick a name from our 50 free examples or generate one using an AI tool. Remember to buy a cheap domain name and get affordable website hosting to get your business underway.

If you’re like me, coming up with business name ideas is really hard. It’s frustrating to discover that all the names you can think of are already taken. Even worse, the names you think are creative end up being unsuitable because they fail to communicate your brand mission and vision.

Given how much competition there is today, especially in online business, an attention-grabbing name is all-important. Whether it sparks laughter, intrigue, or mystery, a millisecond of interest may be all you need to hook a customer.

The business name you choose also dictates your branding and marketing, including what domain name, email, and social media usernames you use. A good business name should give you an unforgettable and SEO-friendly domain name to help with website ranking and conversions. 

Expert Tip: Truehost Philippines has a domain name checker you can use right now to check all your different domain name ideas.

Why Should You Care About Your Business Name?

People are fussy and tend to shy off from brand names that are too unusual or strange. There’s some complex psychology behind brand names, and often our original name ideas we get are not suitable for building a strong brand.

Did you know that your website user experience and performance significantly affect how much time visitors spend on the site? This in turn influences how many of them end up buying your product (conversion rate). A clean, responsive layout, fast load time, and easy navigation are crucial to conversion rate optimization. 

It’s not just about visual appeal: website optimization and reliable hosting are the foundation of success in online business. Fortunately, it’s easy to get affordable but fast hosting to suit personal and business needs.

You can change your website hosting provider at any time, but if you get your business name wrong, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Business Name Examples: Successes and Failures

Did you know that Google was originally called BackRub? Sony was Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, and Yahoo used to be Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web.

We can’t imagine how different things would have been if those names had remained, but we do know a few secrets to a good business name. For starters, a brand name should have a positive emotional connotation; it’s all about the feeling that your brand inspires.

First impressions can make or break your business. Some famous brands have cracked the secret of using shock value to cut through the noise and gain valuable attention.

Funniest Business Name Examples (Successes and Failures)

These creative business name examples might be funny, ridiculous, surprising, or disgusting, but they’re all memorable. The best ones have even managed to become popular and profitable due to their shock value. Here are a few examples:

• Back to the Fuchsia – several flower shops and a landscaping company have adopted this inspired name
• Vinyl Resting Place – a vintage record shop name that’s worth a chuckle; apparently it gets a lot of referrals
• Juan in a Million – a Mexican restaurant name that’s actually funny!
• Hooker Furniture – a furniture shop in the USA with the tagline “Easy Elegance”
• Tea Li Ling – a tea shop based in Parañaque; we like the way it sounds and feels
• Samsonite – named after the Biblical figure known for strength; we like its suggestiveness

The other names on our list may leave you wondering, “What!” They may or may not work for some audiences, and we invite you to judge for yourself whether they’re a hit or a miss.

• Jitters, a popular name for coffee shops
• Stubbs Prosthetics – what?
• Thai Thanic for a Thai restaurant
• A Salt & Battery – a UK fish and chips place
• Curried Away – a take-away restaurant
• Ash Wipe – a chimney cleaning and repair business
• Egg Sheeran – a restaurant in Butuan City
• Ken Afford – a restaurant in Quezon City – I chuckled at that one!
• Income Taxi – when did taxes become funny?

These examples are proof that no matter how funny and creative your chosen business name sounds to you, it’s always a good idea to think about its practicality.

The business name you choose should be something on which you can build a brand. You should be able to tell a story about it, convey your brand’s most important values, and inspire trust and credibility.

50+ Filipino Business Name Ideas for Inspiration

The following business name ideas have been carefully curated for uniqueness and creativity. However, some might be the names of existing businesses, so they’re intended to provide inspiration only.

The easiest way to find out if the name you want is available is to check the Business Name Registration System (BNRS).

Expert tip: Business names are limited to specific territories (Barangays, Municipalities, cities, or provinces). As such, a trademarked business name registered in one place may be legally used somewhere else. See our business name registration guide to understand how you can trademark your name with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

15 Business Name Ideas for Food Brands

Some of the most creative brand names are restaurant names. Perhaps that’s because of our close and intimate connection with restaurant experiences, including the food, service, and ambience. Here are some enticing names we found:

Use these restaurant name examples as seeds to inspire more unique names. You can twist the wording, change a name, or use different words for the same concept.

Example Business Name Ideas for E-Commerce

When naming your online business, it’s important to think about search engine optimization (SEO). A descriptive business name helps more people to find your online store and can increase trust, leading to more purchases.

However, marketing needs shouldn’t stop you from getting creative, as shown by these business name examples:

Obviously some of these won’t be as good and some may need a little tweaking to fit your business. It may also be challenging to get a .com domain for some of them. Consider different domain extensions such as .xyz, .biz, .shop, .net, and .company, which are easier to find and more affordable.

What Makes a Good Business Name?

We like to imagine that a business name will come to us in a moment of inspiration, but often it’s the result of a lot of hard work and experimentation. Creating a business name is about stripping your entire brand down to the one or two names that best define you.

To start with, a good business name should be simple, short, and easy to say. It should roll off the tongue effortlessly and be memorable, especially if it’s a brand you expect to spread across borders and cultures. A short name is also easy to translate into brand visuals like logos and themes.

Secondly, your business name should have a compelling story behind it. We humans are suckers for good stories, and we easily get attached to the personality, values, and history of a brand. This is what makes it relatable and memorable and helps create brand loyalty.

Rather than go for a super-creative business name, try to strike a balance between originality, authenticity, and simplicity. A descriptive business name is preferable, but other factors should also be considered, including:

• What will your URL and social media handles look like?
• Does your brand name have negative connotations in other contexts, languages or cultures? For example, the Toyota Previa was mistake that a simple Google search could have prevented
• How does the name sound? Ask friends and family to say repeatedly it and give their honest feedback
• Who will your clients be? Demographics such as age, income bracket, and gender may have a significant effect on brand perception
• Is the name and its abbreviations legal? Internationally recognized acronyms and initialisms are illegal, for example, CIA, FBI, WHO, UN, and FDA
• What do you want to communicate about your brand mission, vision, and values? The best names instantly conjure up a mental image of your brand, e.g., PayPal or Apple
  • Abstract names can also work if you shape the perception around them. Famous examples include Rolex, Google, Pinterest, and Pepsi

Some of the world’s most iconic brands are highly symbolic. Think about Toyota and Tesla (innovation), Shell (leadership), Lego (playfulness, energy, optimism), Airbnb (people, places), Mercedes-Benz (universality), Olympics (unity), and the World Wildlife Fund (protection, urgency). That is what it means to build a brand behind a name.

It takes a lot of effort and time to build a solid and popular brand, but all you need to do is start.

Expert Tips on How to Choose a Business Name Idea

Don’t be discouraged by all the do’s and don’ts of choosing a business name. In our experience, most brands don’t start with a perfect brand name. The world’s top brands are refined and improved over years.

Don’t let choice overload stop you from starting your business today. The important thing is to pick a name and run with it. If you’re still stuck and can’t make a choice, try this simple guide:

• Define your brand
  • Get clarity on what your business is about
  • Distill your unique value proposition (UVP) to its most basic form
  • List all the unique names and phrases that best define your brand. Don’t be afraid to use native words, foreign languages, or slightly twisted words
• Settle on a naming strategy, e.g,
  • Fun names, e.g, Go Daddy
  • Acronyms, such as the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT)
  • Founders names such as Goodyear, HP (Hewlett Packard)
  • Descriptive names, such as Whole Foods or Duracell
  • Geographical, such as Patagonia or Komatsu, Japan
  • Marketing or SEO names, like Same Day Delivery
  • Combination names, such as Microsoft (microcomputer software) or Qualcomm (quality communications)
  • Simplifications, such as Cups & Plates or Odds & Ends (AI business name generators are very good at this)
  • Intentional misspellings, such as Flickr, Kool Aid and Dunkin’ 
  • Clever wordplay, alliteration, puns, etc., such as Dunk’ Donuts, Laffy Taffy, Froot Loops, or Mello Yello
  • Invented and whimsical words and word combinations, like Kodak, Xerox, or Tumblr
• Create a shortlist of the names that best resonate with your brand or best convey your brand personality and values
  • This is a good time to consult friends, family, and business partners for feedback and suggestions
  • Stick with the simplest, most descriptive, and most memorable names, e.g., Truehost, which conveys our commitment to trustworthiness and reliability
• Test the brand name
  • Use A/B testing on your website to check how people respond to your new name
  • Think about future growth and whether your chosen name covers all possible areas of growth. For example, Apple Computers became just Apple to allow for products like iPhones, watches, and iPads
  • Add a tagline to support and complete the brand name, e.g., Nike’s “Just Do It!” or KFC’s “Finger lickin’ good.”

Remember to check the availability of your chosen name at every point to avoid trademarked or reserved names.

Buy Your Domain ASAP

Once you have settled on a brand name, buy and register the associated domain name(s) as soon as possible. Domain names are highly competitive and someone else might snap it up while you’re waiting. This is particularly true with domains that have .com extensions.

It’s also a good idea to get your website started at this point. The earlier you get your domain name and website indexed by Google, the faster you can start ranking and generating traffic. This directly translates to money once your business goes live!

Don’t worry, it’s not expensive.

Truehost brings you the cheapest domains and website hosting services in the Philippines. You can start with a cheap domain (one with a .ph subdomain) and a basic hosting plan, all for less than ₱2600/month.