Trying to come up with a name for your craft business? Whether you’re launching a new Etsy shop or getting started selling at craft shows, you'll need to figure out how to name your handmade business.
In this video and in the post below, you'll learn the 5 essential steps for naming your handmade business:
Picking the right name for your handmade business is an important step to getting started as a new small business owner. A brand name can help you establish trust and loyalty brand awareness with your customers. It can help differentiate you from your competitors. You'll want to get this right. Right?
Here's the 5 steps to take to name your business:
1. Figure out what makes your handmade business different
The first step to picking the right name for your handmade business is to figure out what makes your business different and unique from your competitors.
One of my favorite branding experts and marketers is Sally Hogshead. She's the author of a book called Fascinate: How to Make Your Brand Impossible to Resist.
If you're just getting started trying to figure out your brand and what makes your brand different, I highly recommend this book.
One of my favorite quotes from Sally Hogshead is, "Different is better than better."
Often when we're just getting started as business owners, we might think that we need to be better than our competition. But that's not necessarily the case. We just need to be different. And we need to make that difference clear for the right people.
Think about what makes your brand different, and what makes your products different.
What makes your handmade business story different and unique from your competitors, whether that's other people on Etsy or at a craft show, or big box stores like Walmart and Target?
You'll want to make sure that your company name matches the essence of what your company is all about and what you want to convey to your ideal customers.
As you start coming up with potential names, think about your core values and your company's core values.
Why are you in business? Why do you create your handmade products?
You’ll also want to think about your ideal customer and what's important to them.
Your business name should be unique, it should be memorable, and it should be easy to say pronounce and spell.
You want to think about both how it sounds when somebody says it out loud, as well as what it looks like on paper and on a screen, whether a phone screen or your website.
You'll probably want to stay away from mentioning the exact product you make in your business name, because if you want to expand what you do later on, you're kind of stuck.
For example, if your name is Jennifer and you make jewelry, you might think, "Oh I can name my business Jennifer's Jewelry." But what if you want to add people to your business later on? Or what if you decide you want to make other accessories or fashion or add other types of products? In these cases, you may feel stuck if you put your own name or "jewelry" in your business name.
Your company name needs to evoke a feeling or a story about what your company and your products are all about. But it also needs to differentiate you from competitors. It shouldn't be too boring or beat basic or generic.
For example, a clothing store called Fashion Forward or a bakery called Decadent Desserts make it really clear what that business sells: clothing / fashion or desserts. But they're also pretty generic and basic. They don't really stand out from their competitors and they're not very memorable.
I've had a few business names of my own throughout the years. My very first business was called dismantled designs. I started this company right out of college in the early 2000s. I was making one of a kind handmade clothing from upcycled materials, taking things like old denim jeans and turning them into skirts.
"Dismantling" to me felt like the idea of what I was doing. I also liked the alliteration of dismantled designs. And by using the word designs it gave me more opportunity than just calling it dismantled clothing. I could sell accessories I could sell other types of products because design was a much broader word than clothing.
After doing that for a few years under that original business name, I started a company called Miss Malaprop.
Miss Malaprop started in 2006 as a blog and it really became a another identity for me. I was the blogger and I was the person behind this business. It eventually became the name of the company where I sold most of my handmade goods and did craft shows for many years.
I became known as Miss Malaprop to the point where people would run into me around New Orleans and recognize me as that name from the internet or from craft shows.
When I first came up with the idea for the name Miss Malaprop, it was kind of a twist on my name, Mallory. I was a theater kid growing up, and there's a character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play The Rivals called Mrs. Malaprop, who frequently misused words. My business name was sort of a twist on that, except it was Miss Malaprop instead of Mrs. Malaprop.
The other thing was that I couldn't find many other businesses using similar names. The one exception is a long running bookstore in Asheville, North Carolina. They've been around for many years, but they're called Malaprops. So while it's slightly similar, my business was different because it was a very different product that I sold (I wasn't selling books), and I wasn't in their location.
2. Brainstorm potential craft business name ideas
The second step is all about brainstorming potential ideas.
Now, during the brainstorming phase, it's all about quantity over quality. You don't have to worry about narrowing things down right now. We'll do that later.
During brainstorming, you really just want to come up with as many potential ideas as possible for business names. The more crazy, wacky and wild you can go -- the broader the range of ideas you can come up with, the more you'll have to work with. You might be able to mix and match some of those ideas together in new ways to come up with a perfect business name just for you.
Some tools I like to use during this phase of a brainstorming process include things like Post-It notes. You can write your ideas on sticky notes and stick them all over your wall and then move them around later.
There's also some great digital tools now, including Miro boards or Apple's Freeform app where you can create digital sticky notes. You can also just start a list, whether on paper or on a Google Doc or your favorite note taking app.
Start making a list of all sorts of words:
words that you love
interesting words
words that reflect your brand's mission and values
words that reflect the aesthetic or look of your products
words that reflect your ideal customer and what they're interested in
family names that have some sort of special significance to you
place names or location based names
You could even make note of sounds or non-word words, things that just sound fun to say. As long as it's still memorable and easy to say and spell, it's fair game.
Think about Etsy: that's not a real word, but it's short and sweet and easy to type and remember. It worked for them as a business name.
If you're stuck for ideas, try flipping through a dictionary or thesaurus, or head down to your local library and just start picking up books and see which words catch your eye. You could even look at foreign language books and see if you can come up with words that might be interesting.
You can also use AI tools like ChatGPT to get the wheels turning:
Now, if you're going to use a tool like ChatGPT, this can be a great tool to help with writer's block. But I don't necessarily recommend taking their exact business name suggestion as your own unless it's truly amazing and unique and then passes the rest of the steps that I'm going to cover. But tools like ChatGPT can be helpful for getting the wheels turning if you have writer's block.
3. Research the marketplace and your competition
The third step is to research the marketplace and your competitors.
Now that you've started coming up with some potential ideas for business names, do your research and figure out if anybody else is using any of your business name ideas. If they're already in use, you won't want to use them. You need something that is both unique and memorable.
You'll also want to see which of your potential business names still have a domain name available for a potential website, plus which ones have social media handles available that you can use.
You should probably also check for any potential trademark and legal issues. NOTE: I am not a lawyer, so I'm not going to go much further into this. But just know that if you're planning to run a business, you should probably consult with a professional to just make sure that you are doing everything correctly and that you're not going to pick a business name that a few months or a few years down the road, you might run into issues with. What if you have to rebrand everything because you've picked a name that someone else already has trademarked and is using?
If you're in the United States, one resource that I would recommend checking out is a company called Indie Law. They specialize in trademarks specifically for small business owners and independent entrepreneurs.
4. Narrow down the options
After you've done your research, the fourth step is to narrow down your options.
Remember the criteria that you really want to focus on. Your handmade business name should be:
unique
memorable
easy to say
easy to spell
easy to pronounce
As you narrow down the options, you'll want to look at everything you came up with during the brainstorming phase.
You can mix and match things. If you were using Post-Its, you might want to reorganize and put things together in new groupings, because they might spark new ideas for business names.
You can use things like a sticker or a marker to highlight the ideas that you like or cross out the ones that you don't like. If you know you hate an idea, delete it or move it to another area.
It's time to start narrowing down your options, but you don't have to narrow it down to the perfect one right away. You just want to start narrowing down the list.
As you begin to narrow down the options, enlist the help of some friends and family members.
Try to get feedback from a diverse group of people. Ask them to look at your options and tell you:
Which business name ideas really seem to express what you want to say about your products?
Which options match the brand that you're trying to create?
Do any of the options have potential pitfalls, or could they be offensive to anyone?
There could be options you've thought of that may mean something different to other people. You'll want to steer clear of business names that could have a negative connotation for your brand. You should try to avoid accidentally naming your business in a way that could be offensive to people, especially your ideal customer.
As you narrow down your options, also think about what your name might look like in potential branding. How might it be displayed on your website, on business cards, or on product packaging?
Think about potential ideas for what your whole brand identity and the visual look of your brand would be with this chosen business name.
This fourth stage of the business naming process is one that you really don't want to rush.
Spend the time that you need to get it right. Hopefully, you'll be using this business name for a long time. You don't want to have to rename your business or rebrand just a few months down the road. So take your time, do your research, and make sure that the business name you choose really feels right and aligned for the brand that you're trying to create.
5. Put your new handmade business name into action
Once you've chosen the business name that you love, the fifth step is to put it into action!
You'll want to register your domain name for your website using your new business name, plus lock down all of those social media handles.
You should also take any necessary steps to register your new business name with your local authorities.
All of the laws about registering your new business and your business name can vary a lot from place to place. I recommend finding a local expert in your area, whether it's an accountant or a small business lawyer.
In many places, there are also really great organizations that you can help you with these business basics of getting everything set up.
Here in the United States, a few helpful organizations are the Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) and SCORE. Organizations like these often offer free business counseling and mentoring, plus other helpful small business resources. I highly recommend searching for resources like these in your local area and using them.
Once you've decided on your business name, you'll also want to incorporate that name into your branding materials and your visual identity. You'll probably want to have a logo with your brand name, which you'll want to incorporate into your website and/or Etsy shop. If you have special packaging materials, you'll want to add your new business name and logo. If you're selling at craft shows, you might even want some banners or signage that has your business name on it.
You'll also want to tell customers about your new business name.
If you are at the very beginning stages and just getting started with your handmade business, this is a great opportunity to announce yourself and your new business name.
Or maybe you've been using another business name for a little while and this is really a rebrand or rename of your craft business?
Either way, you could throw a party and/or create a launch campaign to celebrate your new name. You could literally host a party or event to launch your new business name. You could also do something like offer a limited time sale to the first 50 or 100 customers that purchase from you after you've announced your new name.
The launch of a new business or a rebrand can also be a great opportunity to reach out and do a press release to your local media and try to get some publicity.
Want to learn more about marketing your handmade business?
I hope all of this information has been helpful!
If you're just getting started and trying to figure out all of this branding stuff and your target customer, this is exactly the kind of thing that we cover in depth in my program, the Badass Creatives Marketing Accelerator.
Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more handmade business marketing tips.
