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.

Nadja & John Scavone

Naming anything, especially a business, is indeed a challenging task. The name “Born to Be Free” wasn’t just chosen; it was a deliberate and passionate declaration of the values that my husband John and I hold at the core of our lives and our business. We wanted a name that reflected our deep belief in the principles of freedom, self-sufficiency, and living in harmony with nature. Read more>>

Olivia Blodgett

At one point in my life I was at a meaningful crossroads and I came across the famous travel quote, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” Read more>>

Kathryn Randazzo

I wanted to step outside of the usual trend I see for artists in my area. Most of them I see are typically just LLC added to the end of their name and I wanted think outside of the box with it. Obviously part of my name is still in the company name but the way it is used is to show my perspective not just to state who is behind it. Kat’s Eye is how I create through my own lens of beauty, skill and client services….it’s unique to me! I also am a crazy cat lady so that played a part in creating my company logo. It all comes together as a play on words for my logo having cat ears and whiskers around the name which is used in place of the cat’s eyes. Read more>>

Paul Lilley

My initials spell my first name. Paul Andrew Ulysses Lilley. Ulysses felt like the natural name for my studio. Read more>>

Kate Jade

Many people are unfamiliar with Astarte, the ancient Canaanite goddess of wisdom, love, creativity, and primal energy. All of the titles of my creative endeavors pay homage to an aspect of this great divine feminine figure, especially my metaphysical shop, Astarte’s Temple, and my most recent non-fiction book publication, The Mother of the Gods. Read more>>

Steven Nugent

I’ve always been a mental health advocate and I wanted the name to represent that in some way. A “Lighthouse” stands as a beacon of light for ships in the darkness and “Photography” is simply a way to capture a moment in time using light. When the name came across my mind I thought it was perfect. It represented me as a person and portrayed how I wanted to define my work. Read more>>

Sasha Parrell

A lot of smaller businesses and people I know personally have brand names that they get sick of over time and end up rebranding every few years, so I wanted something that would hopefully not give me the “ick” in just a few years, so I went with Parrell Ink. I love a good play on words! Parrell is my last name, and Ink serves as a play on tattoo ink and ‘inc.’ from “incorporated” since I do other services as well like branding and advertising, and then on the side just for fun I write blogs. It’s been fun to tell people my brand name and see the light bulb turn on for them when I say, “Ink like tattoo ink”. Read more>>

Nikol Gianopoulos

The name ‘Sewtropolis’ is a blend of what I love to do and my Greek heritage! I came up with it many years ago when I started a brick & mortar store in Minneapolis. Sewtropolis then was a fabric store, sewing studio and a place you could take classes! It was such a fun business, but unfortunately I could not sustain it and closed it after 5 years. Read more>>

Phil Bailey

Haha. This key detail of my business bothered my sleep for a few weeks straight. I couldn’t come up with anything! Things changed though once I stopped to evaluate my “Why” for wanting to go on this journey and grow a business. At the time when I decided it was right for me to move forward with this business, my daughter, Quincy, had just been born. When talking with my wife, Joey, one night, I said, “My ultimate goal is for this business to grow to a point that I’m able to teach kids how to use a camera, but also that Quincy might one day want to take part in it the same way your parents allowed you and your sisters.” That’s when it hit me. Read more>>

Amore Monet, Mariam Ahmed

We were coming up with names that we wanted to represent who we were individually and as a team. It was important that we dreamed…and some would call us a little “mad”. We both were wanting to go into a more whimsical direction without it being too over the top. We are a more modern industrial salon, so we didnt want to name ourselves “Super Happy Fun Land” and everything be minimalistic lol. Something that incorporated “wonderland” and was still able to leave enough to the imagination that we were able to make it more minimal industrial. With that, we came up with “Hare Parlour”.  Read more>>

Kate Crawford

I love a good story and have always been drawn to the mythology surrounding Persephone. On one level, it’s an awful story of rape, control, violence and abuse which leads to Persephone becoming the Queen of the Underworld. However, Persephone (who was referred to as Kore; which translates to heart) was also revered as the Goddess of Spring. She was ALSO the personification of growth! Part of the beauty that is Persephone, in my opinion, is that she fully embodied this duality. Read more>>

Amanda & Brian Holbert

The name of our brand is Steel City Taste Budz. The story behind it starts back in January of 2020…talk about bad timing!!! It was Brian’s idea to start a separate Instagram page to post all the food we make and places we go out to eat, since I was already doing that. When trying to decide on a name, we didn’t see many pages with couples who posted food content.  Read more>>

Shawn Dinneen

My business, HeartStrings Journals was born after my fiancé tragically passed away in 2022. I found journaling to be an amazing healing tool for my own grief journey and also really enjoyed the creative process of designing my own. Creating HeartStrings Journals gave me something to put my mind to and set me on a path to turning such a tragic event in my life into something that could possibly be beneficial in helping others heal. Read more>>

Mark Kaufman

While living in Nashville, our favorite evening out was to patronize one of many music venues, like the legendary Bluebird Cafe, where singer/songwriters would ply their trade, not only telling stories about the inspiration for a song, but also crafting a song that told a story. It was one of the activities we missed most after relocating to Amelia Island, Florida, so we decided to introduce our new community to the genre by inviting some of the singer/songwriters we had come to know to perform. In 2005, we hosted our very first “Evening of Story & Song” for an appreciative audience of 95 friends and neighbors. By the time we retired the series eleven years later, we had hosted 45 artists and built an email list of close to 1,000. Read more>>

Christy Harris

I wanted the name of my business to be simple and represent exactly what I was selling: Butters, Oils, Soaps, Scrubs. From that, B.O.S.S. Essentials was born! The name was simple and easy to remember, which I felt was important in building my brand. Read more>>

Kelsie Key

The name of our company was born when I (Kelsie) was working as a Creative Director for a nonprofit. Early on, I would often hire, Brey Browne (my husband and Co-Founder) to help me with editing or designing for various creative campaigns. We joked that often we could make something out of nothing, meaning even when we had little resources, we still managed to make something great. When discussing starting our company together, Something from Nothing Productions (SFN Productions) felt like a no-brainer for us. Read more>>

Melissa Wilbur

When it came to naming my business or what name I’d be using to promote my services, I knew I wanted something that included my hame and had maybe a unique way of telling people just in the name what I offered… food, photography, photos of recipes. After a bit a research – specifically on Instagram to make sure no one else was using the moniker I was considering- Edible Shots by Melissa was born. In learning more about being a business owner, I’ve made my company an LLC S-Corp and I’ve also purchased the domain for Wilbur Family Studio, which may incorporate more commercial and branding type of work in addition to food blogger photography. Read more>>

Nikki Finn

This is something that Davis and I like to share with people all the time, actually. Setting up context a touch does help so bear with me here – When Davis and I first started working together, we would make themed Spotify playlists constantly. They usually were a combination of quick resources for us to use or reference for potential projects, or just songs we would be generally enjoying at the time. There were dozens.  Read more>>

Mitzyv De La Cruz

The story behind the name of our business “Tasty Goods” actually hitting together different words and looking different ways to say them . I did have in mind that I wanted name that stayed neutral as I didn’t want a name that focused on that one thing we were selling at that moment which back then we started selling churros. I knew that later on I wanted to have more things on our menu . Which slowly we did add dipped strawberries, cake pops , chocolate covered Oreos and many other things. Fast forward to now, the name still works with what we are doing AND will continue to work even if we add other things . Which is amazing . I honestly love our business name and I don’t think we will change it ever ! Read more>>

Francois Larosa

Hi Canvas Rebel Mag, love what you do, and the Creatives you acknowledge from all over. Also thanks for your patience with me I’ve been on the road, and flying around. Please excuse me on this interview, I might be all over the place but we’ll get it done together. Read more>>

Janice Lee

My vision for the office was providing a safe space for children and adults that may have had a negative experience in health care settings through kindness, education, and over all comfort even before even entering the office. We hope to achieve that through social media and providing a candid lens through which people can see how the office operates, meet the doctor, introduce the team. Hopefully, from the moment the patient enters the office, they feel the same positive energy, feel comfortable and safe, and already a member of the FriendLee Family. FriendLee Orthodontics is the embodiment of a warm hug and we strive to be the friendliest team around. Read more>>

Mike Roth

The name “Fly Line Productions” really encompasses the different areas of TV production I’ve worked in. The way I got my foot in the door in reality TV was because I was a Steadicam operator, which was a very specialized skill. You’ve probably seen pictures of Steadicams in behind-the-scenes photos from movie sets, sporting events, and award shows. The operator literally wears the Steadicam and it allows him/her to run around with the camera without any of the shakiness of their moving body being transferred to the camera. Reality TV is mostly a handheld medium, but when the producer wanted a sleeker looking shot, they would have me use my Steadicam. Read more>>