What’s in a name? A lot apparently, as entrepreneurs, artists, and makers of all kinds spend enormous amounts of energy searching for the right name for their business, project, organization, or creation. Below, you’ll find the stories of how various successful brands, creators and entrepreneurs came up with their names.

Kyle Menard

The best ideas can evolve through a series of not-the-best-ideas. That’s exactly how the origin of my business, Totally Good Time, got its name. In 2015, I was going to start a business and was setting up the groundwork for doing something I love. Originally, the idea was to incorporate my own line of greeting cards for my LGBTQ community. Being literal and obvious with design is one of my favorite ways to create. Read more>>

Evette Preston

The name Preston and James partially comes from my last name Preston. I’m one of 10 girls with no brothers. After the passing of my father, I wanted to celebrate our family name and give homage for it to carry on in a non traditional way. Read more>>

Tricia Heatherington

When Travis and myself decided to start our family farm we wanted a name that would represent us, our family. We came up with Two Five Farm, which is named after our children 2 girls, 5 boys. This name is unique and perfect. It represents us, our family. Read more>>

Cecilia Tripp

I love the story of how Laurel Canyon Creative came about. My friend was in town from New York and we had just gotten coffee at Aroma Cafe. It was decided that it was such a nice day out that we wanted to walk through the neighborhood. I shared with her how I had been thinking about wanting to start a Social Media Management and Web Design company and she suggested that, just for fun, we start brainstorming some business name ideas. Read more>>

Mashaunda Johnson

The name of my company came from the partnership of my Co-CEO NisaF. Early in her career she was often called the Walkin’ Bag and I was called the Walkin’ Business. Together we wanted to create a company that can represent and please all aspects of the entertainment industry (music, movies, fashion, entrepreneurship).We want everyone to understand that they themselves no matter where they are, are a Walkin’ business. Promoting independence, self confidence and hustling. This being said we founded Walkin’ Bag Entertainment Read more>>

Rachel Barrett

When I started baking cakes it was just for friends and I did not plan to launch a small business. The cakes were delicious, and beautiful, and multiple friends independently called me Cake Queen, as a term of endearment. I immediately knew I was creating something meaningful and that was what I wanted to name my new business. Read more>>

Daniele Klien

I started my small business during the Covid-19 Pandemic lockdown. While my corporate background / career is in Risk Management & Corporate Insurance, ,my passion has always been in the arts, so I began making handcrafted jewelry as a form of self care, while both my husband and I were working from home with a new infant daughter, and a son who would have to start kindergarten remotely. Read more>>

Rasheeda Purdie

The story behind my business name RAMEN BY RĀ came about early during the pandemic. After so many ideas I felt I was overthinking it and water to keep it simple. So one day my partner said put your name into it somehow and build from that. We went back and forth with ideas with both ra, ramen, ramen, ra, ra-ramen, then BOMB RAMEN BY RĀ came up! It was like a light bulb went off and we both looked at each other and said THAT’S IT, that’s the one. RAMEN BY RĀ is IT! Read more>>

Lauren Flagg

The story behind my brands name ‘Obviously Vintage’ is quite simple really. In High school and entering into college years, I was obsessed with 80s and 90s street wear fashion. I could not afford the pieces I truly wanted to wear, so I began thrifting and revamping old clothes that I already had in my closet. When I moved to Atlanta my sole purpose was to become a Streetwear Fashion Designer. Read more>>

Melody Fox

Naming a business is difficult. Am I going to like this years down the road? Does it fit my overall vision of what I do? So many questions. Originally I had my business name as ‘Foxy’, which didn’t quite work out, but did become the brand of my knitted hats. During the naming process I became the dog mom of a beautiful red Labrador retriever. I always wanted a ‘big dumb’ puppy. Big paws, big head, just big. Read more>>

Gina Agassini

The name was something I thought a lot about. The word “botica” (apothecary) is a Pharmacy where they dispense medicines, I wanted a place where people could get natural blends for their specific needs. When looking for a theme for the spa, I always knew I wanted it to be something natural, I wanted a relaxation center with natural and pure ingredients. Read more>>

Jamaica Crist

Our current business name, Top Tier Treats, is relatively new in the whole timeline of running the business. We’ve only been using it for about 6 years. We opened our cake shop back in 2005 as Jamaica’s Cakes. We chose that original name because my name is Jamaica, and I do cakes. It makes so much sense if you know me, know what I do. Read more>>

Apurva Shah

This is a great question and we get asked this often. “Who is JAYS?” The managing partners for our firm is Jack Yen and Apurva Shah. We took the combination of both of our names and created JAYS (Jack, Apurva, Yen, Shah). Early on, we didn’t really know what to call our firm, but it’s worked out and we’ve loved the branding and support from the community to identify it within the real estate industry. Read more>>

Aderonke Bademosi Wilson

ABWilson Consulting. My name is Aderonke Bademosi Wilson. I’m a business owner, facilitator, photographer. When I made the decision to focus on photography and work to get established as an artist, I had to come up with a name. I wanted something that I could build a brand around. ABWilson Photography was born. I created the logo, the URL was available when I developed the website. It all came together seamlessly. Easy. Simple. Read more>>

Madi Elle

The shortest story is simple: M.N.Elle Studios is based on my name. My full name is Madison Nicole Langton and I have been going by Madi since high school. When I was in college, I read an interview of a female doctor who chose to practice under her maiden name. Her reasoning was simple and along the lines of, “My husband didn’t put himself through years of medical school. Why should his name have any ties to my success?” Read more>>