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.

Kristen Johnson

A Girl and Her Glitter came about with an initial conversation with my brand manager about what I wanted to do. We wrote out a clear description of wanting to create and make DIY projects from crafting to home decor, party planning and everything else I do. Seeing that I didn’t want to “pick a niche” I wanted to have a name that would act as an umbrella name and cover everything that I do. I am the girl and the glitter are my abilities. I love to share projects that come to my brain and sharing how tos while being entertaining is my sparkle. Read more>>

Kirsten Krupps

I really wanted something that had a fun photography term in it. I spent a whole day when I was still working at a local camera shop bouncing ideas off my coworker and friend until Shutter Hound came out of my mouth and I knew that was it! I added Pet Photography to the end to hopefully make it clear that it’s not just dogs, but all animals are welcome! Dogs just happen to be my most popular subject. Read more>>

Cleveland Shinn

In this world there tends to be more followers than leaders. The majority of people stay in tune with the norm and very seldom do they break out of their comfort zones. When I decided my business name it was based on the fact that I live outside of my comfort zone. In the automotive industry it is very easy to get relaxed into the same automobile customization that everyone else does because it’s mainstream and popular. Read more>>

Beth Lehman

I remembered reading The Scarlet Letter in high school. Ok, full disclosure, I definitely didn’t read the book when it was assigned – but I did read the Cliff’s Notes and watched Emma Stone in the movie, Easy A which was inspired by The Scarlet Letter….but I digress. In the book, Hester Prynne was found guilty of adultery and having a child out of wedlock. Her sentence required her to wear the scarlet “A” for the rest of her life. In the beginning of the novel Hester’s letter A is a representation of her sin and adultery. However, as time progresses, the meaning of the letter changed. It now represented, to some, ABLE. Read more>>

Nicole Simper

I was working in the kitchen at a Wine and Whiskey Bar in Seattle, the person managing/running the kitchen quite and I was next in line to take over all the kitchen responsibilities. The owner of the Bar asked me what I wanted my title to be. I have been working in kitchens and in the food industry since I was 16 but the title of Chef seemed to pretentious and maybe I was having a bit of imposter syndrome that I could actually backup that title. Read more>>

Ashley Burnett

The name Coastal Roots Greenery came to me really quickly actually. In the past 10 years, I’d moved 8 times, from NY to FL, to VA, and then finally back to FL. When we came across Nassau County, FL, we knew it was somewhere we could put down roots. The last town we lived in was very far from a coast, so we were very excited to move back towards the water, and I knew I needed to include that in the name. And finally, I wanted something that spoke of what I was going to be offering people, greenery. Hence, Coastal Roots Greenery was born! Read more>>

Beatrice Filippini

My name is Beatrice, and my dad always called me Beba. I started as a craftsman opening my workshop Atelier Orafo. But then I decided to create my own brand and I decided to call it Beba, and Gioielli that stands for jewels in Italian. Read more>>

Carmen DeCharisse

The thought process behind my company name was absolutely based on my lifestyle and the love I have for the motherland Africa. I would travel back to Africa every so often and I would bring back authentic African goods to sell in the diaspora. I always wanted my business to be a representative of who I am. My name is Carmen DeCharisse. De, is another way to spell “the”, so I decided to use the first part of my middle name. Carmen, is my first name. Afrik, is another way to say Africa. So that’s how I came up with DeCarmenAfrik. DeCarmenAfrik is a namesake fashion brand. Read more>>

Genesis Rum

The founders, Joshua Steckler, MacAlister Steckler, Jack Titus and Preju Kanuparthy have all been friends since the 6th grade. They took many classes together and went to the same middle and high school. They were all in the same 10th grade AP World History class with their all time favorite teacher, Mr. Menenberg. In their first week of school that year, Mr. Menenberg had the class do their first word of Vocabulary. The class guessed and guessed the first word and he finally revealed the word – Genesis. Read more>>

David Crane

I came up with the name for my company based on the first dog treat recipe I formulated. Our crunchy peanut butter treats are made with the spent brewing grain used during the brewing process for making beer, hence Doggie Beer Bones! Our grain-free, soft-baked treats contain no spent brewing grains, so I formulated that recipe with nutritional brewer’s yeast to keep it in the “beer” family. Read more>>

Joanna Suazo

When I decided to start my own small business, I wanted a name that was tied and meaningful to a personal experience. In 2019, I received the unexpected news that I was going to become a mother to a beautiful baby boy. And practically with only one month to prepare for his arrival. During this transitional life change and being a single mom, the encountered challenges and being able to provide all the essentials was an obstacle. Read more>>

DAVID Mason

The name of my company is The FreeDom Group. When I came up with the name for my company, I knew the word freedom had to be involved. The word freedom to me means unrestricted. A lot of creatives are somewhat bound by other executives in the industry in their creative process. My company allows creatives to express themselves freely through their art(s) and as a manager, just help and guide them through the process to understand it all. Read more>>

Sophia Hyde

I named my business Favorite Self Coaching. When I started my coaching business, I originally went with the default, Sophia Hyde Coaching. Two years later, I stumbled on the words “favorite self” and I couldn’t get them out of my head. It immediately penetrated me at the heart and gut level. Those two simple words embodied everything I teach, model and believe. Read more>>

Allison Scaring

Designs by Allison is a celebration of all things made by me, Allison! I started this business initially make leather earrings and now I have expanded into making all sorts of jewelry including necklaces, earrings, bracelets and more. I also create a variety of other home decor items including custom glass blocks with LED lights, tumblers and glass coffee cups, shirts, tote bags, signs, hot plates and more! I wanted a name that could allow me to grow and not just focus on one product. I also wanted to include my name for a personal touch. Read more>>

Demetria Fitzgerald

I was making candles for a while before I settled on what the brand would be. I knew that I wanted to start a candle business, but at that time, I wasn’t sure what would make mine stand out. In order for the business to be successful, I didn’t think it would be enough to just make candles that smelled good. My branding needed to be special. So for a while, I put my supplies to the side and waited. I waited for an idea`that resonated with me. Early one Saturday morning, it came to me! I would make candles that fused two things that I love, scents and Black culture. Candles 4 the Culture was born and the rest is history. Read more>>

Malia Williams

I spent years trying to come up with the perfect name for the brand that didn’t exist physically, but was very real in my mind. It had always been a personal challenge of mine to hone in on one specific idea (or name) which is why I took the extended track to finishing undergrad. MALIAS HOUSE came as a suggestion from a business partner at the time. When she presented it, I knew the name, MALIAS HOUSE communed with my spirit and was divinely inspired by God. Read more>>

Salim Mekhmoukh

MADO sounds like “motto” which is intentional as we originally wanted to call it that. We just couldn’t make it happen so it became MADO. My motto is to always work had so you can play hard. Read more>>

Ceasar Watson

I was juggling a million names when I actually wanted to start a business, but nothing was clicking. One day I was cleaning a clients house (yes I clean houses as well lol). Of course the client loved it, she stated she never seen a man clean up so good. So on my way home I came up with the name A MANS TOUCH SERVICES. Asked a few close friends and they loved it, so I stuck with that and ran with it….. Read more>>

Brittany Frazier

I came up with the name Gifted Hands from clients and family. People would always tell me how gifted I was with styling hair. I work with my hands a lot so I just added hands to gifted. And the name stucked. Read more>>

Adrienne Lee

I always wanted a name that reflected me so classy was one of the words came to mind & so instead of the cliche “clothing” term to add with classy. I decided to substitute it for “laundry”. At that moment it just made sense and it clicked well together, so I stuck with it. Read more>>

Bethany Moses

I went through a few different names before settling on my current business name. It was hard to come up with something because I wasn’t sure what my process was going to be or what my business was about. I was just trying to think of something different but relevant to my industry. My brother built a successful business and sat me down and made me think about all of my business elements. He helped guide me to think about the things that really matter. Read more>>

Samantha Caughey

I get this common fairly often, which is understandable-it’s a mouthful! Our full name is Tulihulipoosies (two-lih-who-lih-poosies), but we refer to it as “Tulis” (Two-lees). I gave my business that name because when I was young, my Dad called flowers “Tulihulipoosies.” He actually got the term from a movie. I often think about officially shortening our name to Tulis, or Tulis Florals, but for now our name feels too nostalgic and sentimental to change it. Read more>>

Joshua Cubas

OPiiA derives from -opia which is a noun combining form relating to a type of vision affect or defect. As a stand alone word, however, it’s coined as a paradoxical feeling of both invasiveness and vulnerability when locking eyes with another. Read more>>

Umunique Nikki Williams

My business was originally “StyledByNIK.” With “NIK” pronounced (Ne•ek) a play on my name “Umunique.” Then once I decided to rebrand, it became “UMUWANNASTUNT.” Which in turn is also another play on my name, but also a play on words like asking someone “Um, you wanna stunt?” Because that’s the effect i wanted to leave on anyone that was receiving my styling service and it just kind of stuck. Read more>>

Darren Sudman

The company is called Unless. It comes from a quote in my favorite bedtime story, The Lorax. At the end of the book, the villain pleads with a little boy. He says “unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better it’s not.” Read more>>

Adrian Jenkins

In choosing the name of my company, I wanted a name that was meaningful, unique, and something that I loved. My daughter’s name is Dani and I love flowers, so I thought the name was a match made in heaven. Read more>>

Tavanya Wright

I will try my best not to make this response very long. There was a time in my life, a very dark time that I was navigating my way through. And if I am being honest, failing miserably. One day I picked up a journal and that is how I used to address myself every time I made an entry. “Hello Love…” , My journal saved me. Read more>>

Jace Kha

I think the hardest part of starting a business in the beginning is to get started and finding the perfect name that will stick. I was losing patience after going through a dozen different names and nothing was calling me until one day as I was doing something random around the house; the world “Alchemy” just popped in my head. Read more>>

Donny Lobisomem

I came up with Ink & ELBOW through my love for Art and Martial Arts. My favorite moments in the process of creating is laying down the Ink and fine details. Whether it be Tattooing or Illustrating.. Elbow, came from it being my favorite move to use when training or sparring. Read more>>

Asha Lipscomb

Truth, I didn’t come up with my company name my grandfather did. I was at his house one day while he was cooking in the kitchen, and he said very nonchalantly “you should name it Acorn’s Bakery”. To truly know me is to know that me an my grandpa are two peas in a pod. Read more>>

Leanna Mazzeffe

Entrepreneurship runs deep in my family – I have been lucky enough to grow up around barbers/hairstylists, relators, bakers, grocers… you name it! With much inspiration to become a self-starter, I began creating and selling embroidered and screen printed merchandise nine years ago, when I was just 17, but 3+ years ago decided to make my business official and named it, “Mazzeffe’s,” Read more>>

Amelia Lafleur

I collaborated with some of my close girlfriends and come up with a new brand name for my workroom. I wanted the name to be completely my own, bringing in some of the French Canadian influence that I was raised around. Sophie was the name I chose for myself during my years of studying French in class. I incorporated a play on words with the French name and Sewphie’s Custom Fabrications was born. Read more>>

Tianna Avant

I came up with the name of my company while working on a class project in college. A part of the assignment was to create a logo but before I could come up with a logo, I needed a name. I had an idea of what I wanted my brand’s image and personality to consist of but it was terrible hard to come up with a logo and name that represented both. Read more>>

Sara De Luca

Invita comes from the Italian word “Invitare,” which means “To Invite”. We want to invite our guests to celebrate a centuries-old Italian tradition: Gathering at a neighborhood cafe to socialize, collaborate, and offer a cup of espresso to a friend. Our goal is to modernize this tradition and bring Italian coffee to Southern California. This is why our company motto is “Ti Invito Per Un Caffe!” which translates to “We invite you for a cup of coffee!”. Read more>>

Ramon Perez

I think this was the hardest part of building a business. Some say it has to be catchy, interesting, unforgettable, etc… but for me it is about who you truly are. If you are the face of the company then the name has to be a reflection of you, your passion, your attitudes, and what you stand for. Read more>>

Elisha Sanders

The name of my company stems from my want for a daughter. Someday I hope to have a daughter an her name will be LONDONCHARLES. I want her to already have a name that is a household brand that I built from the ground up. This will also be a way for me to jump start her legacy of doing great things in her life. Read more>>

Jenn McMillen

I’ll tell you the story for how I came up with a name for my business, but it’s not the real one! The fake story: as many Texans know, the word for “fire: in Spanish is incendio. It actually means “conflagration,” which is a raging, out-of-control fire, but “fire” will do just fine. Our tagline for Incendio is Igniting Customer Relationships, and our logo is a heart (for customers) with flames (for the igniting). Read more>>

Maria Papalia-Meier

I created “thetoelessrunner” because I thought it would be something unique that people would want to look up and see what it is all about. I lost my toes in October of 2014 after surviving Septic Shock. I went into Septic Shock from a strep infection I didn’t know I had. I was given pressor drugs while in the ICU, these meds restricted the blood flow to my extremities. When I woke up my feet were black from my ankles to the tips of my toes. I went into the hospital on June 18th, came home August 8th and had my toes amputated in October. Read more>>