Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? So, we asked some very sharp folks to tell us the stories of how they came up with the names of their brands.

Tresa Halbrooks

Yes, trying to capture the heart of your business in a name can be a struggle. After 11 years of working in the NFL, advising players on their PR, image and philanthropy, I decided to start my own business to better serve athletes, high profile clients, celebrities and non-profits. I thought long and hard about what to name my company and I kept coming back to the types of conversations I would have, over and over, with so many athletes that would sit across from me at my desk. Read more>>

Kayla Robison

Back in 2015, I had just landed my first executive chef role at Nation Kitchen and Bar, a gourmet burger restaurant in a neighborhood of downtown Cincinnati, OH. The whole Instagram craze was just taking off, and I wanted a catchy name that showed off my skills in a fun way. Little did I know that this name, Commander N’ Beef, would turn into something bigger and become my whole brand. Since then, I’ve been featured on many national levels- having won Guys Grocery Games and Chopped- so the name is here to stay! Read more>>

Caprisha Daniels

I’ve been in this industry now for over 20 years. I started out as a braider. I was introduced to the world of Natural Hair Care when I lived in Atlanta, Georgia for 11 years. I started working in my 1st salon in 2008 as the braider. It inspired me to go Natural myself, meaning no more chemicals that would straighten my hair. Fast forward to 2010 when I moved back to California. The natural hair movement wasn’t as prominent like it was in the South. I was still Natural but mostly wearing extensions. Read more>>

Brianni Lundy

Naming a business is a lot harder than most people think. Then there’s the red tape of state databases and making sure that the name isn’t being used. When I was came up with B. Glossy, I was bouncing other names off my brother and a few friends, but none of them really stuck out. I thought to myself “What did I love about nails?” Then it hit me: that final top coat that is applied when the nail art is done. The glossy top coat! I always want my nails to BE GLOSSY. Read more>>

Lauren Johnson

I get asked about the origin of my business name often. When I started my business in 2012 and had always collected all things “mustache” themed just because it was something that brought me joy. When I was deciding on a business name I was thinking of a stash of things, a stash of photos, etc. Welcome to the work MyStache – a little bit of mustache, a little bit of stash / collection. “MyStache” was was named after “a stash or collection of photos”. Read more>>

Three Part Friends

A couple years ago, we were all working and being booked separately, but together. After a while, we noticed that we had a chemistry singing together and eventually, decided to go into business. Three Part Friends represents the three part harmony, soprano, alto, tenor; and of course, we are all friends. Also, Three Part Friends is not limited to us three. Emmanuel, Markeya and Shantell are the founders of the company, however whoever represents our name will guarantee that you will receive quality background vocals. Read more>>

Jessica Duckworth

As a second generation Danish-American, hygge was embedded in so much of my upbringing. Hygge is the practice of seeking contentment through coziness and camaraderie; this is a defining characteristic of Danish culture. I feel lucky to have grown up practicing Danish traditions and learning about Danish culture. When it came time to name my business, I knew the name had to include the word ‘hygge’. Naming my business Hygge Home Goods felt like the best way to honor my culture and heritage and embody my brand. Read more>>

Ahsh Murphy & Mika Bright

What’s in a name? EVERYTHING! When we first decided to start our business, most people don’t remember our first concept name was actually Be.eyekonic. It was very empowering to say out loud and it was a great spin off of the word “eye” referring and referencing eyewear. We thought it was perfect at first. Read more>>

Jacob Stuart

Although my digital business, Screenwriting Staffing, doesn’t follow the conventional mold of a “Staffing” agency, I appreciate the structured approach of an organization that links job seekers and potential employers. Registering with a staffing agency offers you the possibility of networking with several hiring managers who are actively seeking suitable individuals for their available positions. Read more>>

Janaya Alamillo

When I first started to even think I wanted a business with my name on it. I didn’t want my business to literally have my name in my business name, I wanted it to stand out and to be different. Things I have always done has been unique, so I knew from the start I needed fatally unique photography as my business name. Read more>>

Felicia Hasal

In 2016, I had an idea to start selling the homemade bodybutter I was making for my son. How do you name a product? I sifted through dozens of names. Then it hit me! When you grew up in Detroit and are currently living in Chicago, what better way to pay homage to your favorite cities than to name your product after them. This is how the first name of “Urban Butterz” was born (Insert laughing emoji). Read more>>

Catherine Hinz

The business idea and planning for Beyond Words Co. came well before our name. In fact, deciding on the name was one of my biggest challenges as the founder. I went through endless brainstorming sessions and persistent check-ins with friends and family for a name that felt fitting. Nothing was right, and it was beginning be both stressful and a hurdle to actually launching my business. Read more>>

Rikilee King

Get Lucky Photography, LLC, or simply GLP for short. Well, I am a wholehearted believer in lucky pennies. I’m always on the lookout for them wherever we go, and even considered creating a photo collection of every penny I find. But the moments when I stumble upon them unexpectedly bring the most joy as if the universe knew I needed a little bit of luck. Read more>>

Annie Rumohr

My business name came from a rebranding. As an artist I’ve gone through a couple name changes trying to find what felt right. I used my name as is often recommended but then my name changed. I needed a rebrand at a time when my life was thrown into a time of change and a lot of unknowns for me. I went through a divorce after 11 years of marriage and decided I wanted to pick a name with meaning. Read more>>

Michael Glowacki

Originally, I just went by my name, but with a hard to pronounce polish last name “Glowacki” I wanted to go by a moniker that would be easier for folks to remember. In graduate school I created an art piece of a functional exit sign that looked exactly like a normal white boxed exist sign with red lettering, but it said “EXIST” instead of “EXIT.” The piece was inspired by a Modest Mouse song titled “Exit does not Exist.” Read more>>

Jacquelynn Allen

When I first started cooking, it was very important for me to smell each ingredient I put into a dish. Once the dish was almost complete, I could smell every ingredient and knew exactly how it’d taste! When I am cooking, I cook with my nose. I cook so many things at once, tasting every single thing was not ideal for me. So I came up with the name Scents of Taste because if I could smell each ingredient, I knew how it was going to taste and knew it’d be good. Now don’t get me wrong! I taste my food haha, but if the smell is right, I know I just made a masterpiece ! Read more>>

Rachel Hunter

When I decided to go full force with my business I knew I needed a good, solid name that spoke true to my soul. I have always loved all things “happy”. I love bright colors, sunshine and some would say that I’m the everything is “rainbows and butterflies” type girl. I knew that I wanted a business name that exuded happiness and made you smile. I love the sunshine so much. It brings me life, lights my soul on fire, pulls me out of a funk, and give me all the endorphins. Read more>>

Tiffany Hines

Event planning has always been a passion of mine and I wanted the name to be focused around that. I wrote down a bunch of words I felt best described a good event. The four words that stuck out to me most were precise, impressive, creative and lasting which I used to form an acronym, PICL-pronounced as pickle. Read more>>

Felicia Saunders

I get this question often. R1twenty Photography, what’s that mean? My business name is based off of a bible verse- Romans 1:20. Basically I want to capture the beauty in Gods’ creation. Whether that be by capturing newborns and children which is my specialty, or capturing families, couples, landscapes. Events, or business owners finding joy and beauty in their fields. As long as I’m capturing in the moment, the beauty of the creation, it is special to me. Read more>>

Becky Saric

The small details and meaning behind my business has always been a priority from the beginning. Right before the pandemic hit, my parents lost their house to an electrical fire and it was deemed a total loss. It was also during the time that I just so happened to be creating my small business plan. They lived on the corner of Oak Street and Elizabeth Street in a smaller town in Wisconsin. It dawned on me that 15 years ago my sister and I briefly talked about opening a vintage resale shop and she had the idea of naming it “Oak and Elizabeth”. Read more>>

Jamie Klecka

When I started my company Bella Traverse Design, it was common to use your own name such as Jamie Klecka Interiors. However at the time I was still in school for design and had started as a home staging company. I wanted something that represented me, that also wouldn’t need to be changed as my business evolved. As feminine as my company name sounds, it is named after my two sons Travis and Trevor. Read more>>

Danielle Sutter

A college friend of mine, living out of state begged me for over a year to start an Instagram handle specifically for cooking and food images. I used to post on my personal story what I served for dinner and etc. I finally gave in and did just that, started a handle for food, more_garlic_than_called_for. Nothing exciting and no intention to do anything with it. Fast forward a couple months, each time my local fiends and I got together to socialize, I was ALWAYS responsible for food. Read more>>

Salecia Barry

The name of my business is a culmination of the experiences that led me into business for myself. It wasn’t our first name but its our best one. Originally, we were operating under Lion Rose Records. It was intended to be a play on some of my favorite quotes that I felt conveyed the message of what I trying to achieve in my business. The quotes being “until the lions learn to write, history will be told from the perspective of the hunter” and “the rose that grew from concrete”. Read more>>

Chapter 28

I always get asked why I choose the name Chapter 28? Here’s the truth. Growing up I wasn’t always confident. I always felt like I lived for other people and not myself. You know basically trying to live up to other peoples standards of who im supposed to be. I always felt like I lived for other people or always put myself on the back burner. Read more>>

Ashley Moser

My ‘why’ behind the name of my practice. I had known something needed to change for a long time. I was exhausted and irritable and felt like something was missing even though I ‘had it all’. Making any sort of change felt so overwhelming so I stayed stuck for a lot longer than I like to admit. Read more>>

Rich Jackson

I chose the name Skinny Pete’s Gourmet Catnip for our company based on several criteria. First, I believe that a name should be descriptive. At a glance, your prospective customer needs to know what your goods or services are. We sell catnip. Second, the name “Skinny Pete’s” evokes the image of a mascot or character. In our case this was the name of our not-so-skinny cat, Pete. We are about fun and humor so the name juxtaposes nicely with our logo image of a fat cat. Read more>>

Britany Sims

The meaning behind my brand name Britany Nicole Eleven22 LLC breaks down like this: of course Britany Nicole is my first & middle name which most people know. Eleven22 is actually a date: November 22nd, which was my bestfriend’s birthday. I lost him to suicide two days after my 14th birthday, so of course when I was trying to come up with my brand name I wanted to pay some sort of tribute to him. Read more>>

Daphne Subar

Growing up, I always loved to bake and watch my mother in the kitchen. Once I had a family of my own, the kitchen became a communal place in our home, not only for my husband and daughters but for our friends and family. When she was young, one of my daughters printed out a photo of a bakery with the words “Subarz: All bars, one bakery” on it and stuck it up on the refrigerator – a play on our last name, Subar. Read more>>

Tromell Gavin

The name of my company came when I was helping my grandmother clean her house and she had her tv playing in the background. Not sure of what channel it was but they use to play diverse music. This Hispanic song came on and the song was called rico suave. I looked up the definition of suave and thought it kind of described my personality, so I named my business Suave Visuals. Read more>>

Meaghan Barry

This question has become one of the best conversation starters for us. Almost every client has asked us this at some point. The truth is that when we decided to start a design studio, there was not any particular name that called to us. Instead of brainstorming, we decided to use a random word generator while sitting side-by-side. “Unsold” was maybe the fourth word to come up, and once it flashed across our screen, both of us had a positive reaction. Read more>>

Kennidy Rivet

During quarantine I was bored and decided to start my hair Instagram a few months before I started school, and I was with my mom trying to decide what to name it, I said I wanted to do “kennidy does my hair” and my mom was like was no no no how about “kennidy did my hair” and from then on I have stuck with that and haven’t changed it! Read more>>

Conscious Queen

Conscious Queen was actually inspired by a popular YouTuber named Conjure Queen. I learned a lot from watching her videos, as I was growing into my spirituality, which is strange how I was drawn to tarot and astrology. So I have an Instagram page @conscious_tarot1111 where I highlight astrological transits. Read more>>

Darren Williams

This is a interesting one. Basically I was trying to figure out a name that would incorporate God somehow someway, since He is the one that had me start this. So I thought to myself well God is love and God is eternal or forever and so I basically just combined the names and said Love Eternal since that’s what He is ultimately. Ironically this was the easy part haha. Read more>>

Jada Roberts

The story behind how Voyage got its name is not some extravagant story where ever since I was a little girl the word voyage had some significance to me. In all honestly, during the time I decided to start a business our home at the time was getting renovated and the color that the walls were getting painted was named Voyage (wasn’t the prettiest color in my opinion) and my mother referred that name to me. Read more>>

Abby Luebbert

Let’s start with the basics here! My name is Abby Luebbert, and I own my interior design studio called Heirloom Design Company. Here’s a bit of background on how the name of my company came to be: I spent a lot of time deciding on the name of my business…any by a lot of time, I actually mean years! In a way, I think I really started developing my brand’s identity before I even knew that I wanted to start my own interior design studio. Read more>>

Kandace Tiara

I have been so overwhelmed when it came to choosing the right name for my business! A few times, I have named my business and then realize it’s just not it! Would you believe me if I told you that I went through 3 different mind changed for the right now for my business? I really honestly had to dig deep and pray on it! I just knew I wanted it to be personal and also personal as far a growth perspective because I truly came a long way. Read more>>

Julian Rebelo

The name of my podcast derived from the idea of Chosen Families within LGBTQ+ circles. As a genealogical researcher, photographs serve as critical documents of our relatives throughout history. However, what I was noticing as a common pattern was that often times old photographs and documents were separated from their loved ones, and sold in second hand stores. The goal was to be able to utilize my background in research in order to tell these individuals stories and return them to families. If I could not find an immediate relative, I also welcome these individuals into my life, as part of my chosen family. Read more>>

Ariea Brim and A’til Williams N/A

Believe it or not, coming up with our business name was pretty easy! We got the idea to name our business “Luxe Brunches” due our LOVE of brunch time. We wanted our name to be a reflection of what we enjoy the most during the weekend, as well as how we feel, which is luxurious! Read more>>

Michelle Douglas

LouAllen Creations originated from the memory of my late father; who was also a photographer. My mom always called me “Lou” and my dad name is Allen. The name has always been with me for years before I started taking photography serious. I use to the draw the name of LouAllen in my journal repeatedly and I would say to myself that ” this is it “. Read more>>

Shira Ferman

While the creation of the company took only one week, the naming of the boutique took three. Naming the business was one of the hardest things I have done while owning this boutique. I wanted it to be fun, bright, and positive. I started by writing down words that made me feel happy and combining them in a variety of ways. I was inspired by For Love & Lemons and LoveShackFancy from their use of the word “love” so “love” and “lovely” were added to the list. Read more>>

Madeleine Szochet

Unlike most of my colleagues in our industry, I opted not to name my firm after myself and name it after my late mother Irma “Iris” Ruiz. She passed away when I was a senior in high school was the primary influence for my pursuit of a degree at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. “Blue” is the favorite color of all three of my children, and so that’s how Iris Blue interiors was born. I wanted the name to reflect a multi-generational influence on my pursuit of entrepreneurship. Read more>>

Alex DeYoung

MagneticHeart Guitar Works the name was a long-time coming. I’ve wanted to be a guitar builder ever since putting my first kit together with my dad. From that point on; I was sketching designs and names in notebooks. I landed on the name MagneticHeart in 2016/2017 when I realized that electricity and the pickups are essentially the beating heart of any electric guitar. The name was catchy, unique, and not currently in use, and from that point MagneticHeart Guitar Works was born. Read more>>

Jennilyn West

Chez Cherree is a play on two things: my nickname, Cherry, and a french term “Cherie,” which means “lovely one,” “darling,” or something close. Cherry comes from a silly song I listened to at 14, when I had a crush on a boy in math class. The lyrics went “I think it would be hip to give you a kiss and taste Cherry Chapstick.” I instantly used this name as a code and a link to the cute boy from math. On the internet. In video games. Read more>>

Cassandra Boorom

The Gnarled Barnacle is a name that Joe has been carrying with him since he was a kid playing D&D with friends. It was the name he chose for a tavern in the game. Read more>>

Anasiah Clark

So back in 2021, me and my young daughter Autumn at that time she was 6 had decided to do something fun & unique together. The idea that we came up with was to hand make lip gloss & sell it. That was something we did to spend time together due to me having to work a 9-5 from Monday through Friday. This was something that I decided to do to also raise more money to be able to take her to Disney World for her birthday which was successful. At first we called the hobby “Glossy Lips By Autumn.” Read more>>

Rebecca Hormozi

People always ask me, “What does ‘Supreme Soul’ mean?” To be honest, it can have many meanings. If you’re looking for a more literary approach, it has various interpretations depending on the context, different belief systems, and philosophies. In some places, it refers to the concept of the highest consciousness and divinity. It can represent the connection between the universe/God and everything in existence. In my mind, the term “Supreme Soul” does and can signify those things. However, I always had a feeling that more meanings of this name would come to me, and I trusted that feeling. Read more>>

Stella Bella’s Events Co

We came up with the name of our company through the inspiration of Grandma Stella who was the matriarch of the family. She hosted daily lunches filled with amazing foods such as bread, antipasto, pastries all while providing laughs and comfort through her infectious personality. Neighbors and friends were welcomed into our home quickly turning into family, which became a tradition. We create these picnics to keep her warm spirit alive, sharing good food and love within an intimate space. Read more>>

Denitra Townsend Gregory

The name of my business, Unforgettable YOU, was designed surrounding the pressure that outside influences can have on an individual. I wanted to always remind my clients to keep who they are in the forefront, regardless to what society says they should be. It serves as a constant nudge to stand firm and shameless about who YOU are and HOW YOU are YOU. Read more>>