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.

April Stearns

It was the summer of 2015. I was 38 years old and 3 years out from a Stage 3 breast cancer diagnosis. I’d just spent the last 18 months of my life caring for my dad as he was dying from pancreatic cancer and then settling his estate and selling my childhood home following his death. I had quit my job in event planning in order to care for my dad and found myself at a crossroads: I could go back to event planning, but I found myself to be utterly changed from my own experience of cancer and the grief of losing my dad. I was struggling to understand how anyone moved on after such devestation. Read more>>

Maysun Hassanaly

Ladina is a Malagasy word rooting from the word “Mandadina”, which means the act of braiding things together, and also, the shoots of a climbing plant. Ladina in itself means “interwoven”. I chose the name Ladina because I wanted the brand name to reflect the ethos behind the company: to reconnect yoga practitioners to the earth with eco-friendly yoga accessories inspired by Africa. Read more>>

Keilah Early

Impacts has two meanings to me. One is the obvious: my goal is to make a positive impact on people’s lives through improving their relationship with their dogs. The other meaning lies within the word. “Acts” 20:35 in the Bible states “It is more blessed to give than to receive”. I hold that scripture very close to my heart and so “ImpActs” was the perfect name for my business. Read more>>

Jessica Louise Phillips

The name ‘With Open Wings’ was born out of my combined love of freedom through travel and the desire to provide spaces or experiences for people, particularly highly sensitive empaths, that felt like a warm embrace and a safe space for them to be their true, authentic selves. Read more>>

Jennie Lynn

When I first started having ideas of creating a business, I wrote “transforming heartbreak” in the notes section of my iPhone. I didn’t entirely know what it would become. Upon first starting my Coaching business, I kept more of a broad focus and with personal brand title “Jennie Lynn”. As I began coaching so many women, I started to see that relationships were really the area that I was supporting them the most. Read more>>

Tari Fields

The name of my company is actually my gamer handle it’s who I am. Before photography I was a Cheesecake Queen and a lot of people call me T. So when I got my gaming system I naturally decided my handle was Qween Tea and I spelt it differently because I am different my name is different Tari pronounced Terry. So all in all I am Qween Tea and I do photography and that’s how the name came to be. Read more>>

Alicia Fernandez

Strawberries by Ali was put together by my passion for baking all things sweets. Friends and family can recall my baking some delicious treats from my middle and high school years. I began my business with the idea of simply creating chocolate covered strawberries, hence Strawberries by Ali. As time progressed, I brought in old recipes and treats my friends and family loved. My clients quickly fell in love and I began creating more products! Read more>>

Ruso Margishvili

The number 42 comes from my family’s store in my hometown of Tbilisi, Georgia. They started the concept store in 2019 in my childhood home, and we named it 42 after the number 42 of the building. The store consisted of a couple of rooms: you would enter from the side street into a small coffee shop and a shop with small design items from local makers. Then you would step into a large open space that held workshops and various creative events. Read more>>

Brittany Hart

I was laid off from my job for two months due to missing a mandatory training. While at home, unpaid and trying to keep busy, I decided to bake a birthday cake for a friend. That strawberry shortcake received so much hype that i then took to Twitter and said, “I’m about to start taking orders”. Shortly afterwards, I received several orders for cakes, pies and cobblers weekly. Using family recipes from my grandmother who was a baker, I was averaging about three to four orders a week. Read more>>

Tailor-Marie Smith

Coming up with the name for my company certainly took a lot of time and consideration. I wanted to create a name that was not only memorable, but also explained in one word what my company was. Eliqua rolls off the tongue and conveys a sense of luxury to our customers. Eliqua is a combination of the words aqua and elixir…Eliqua! Simple, luxurious, and straight to the point. Read more>>

Myesa Arora

Since that “Jeeji” is the Hindi word for “sister,” “Jeejihood” seemed like a suitable choice. As a tribute to the sisterhood, the word jeejihood was used as the brand name for this company, whose mission is to aid tribal women who are sisters in another area of the world. Read more>>

Kym Baker

This is going to age me, Years before I started my business I was blessed to have boy/girl twins. When coming up with their names I wanted my daughter to have the nickname “CC” after the character CC Bloom in Beaches played by Bette Midler. When is came time to brainstorm a name for my business I wanted to keep it simple and have a message beyond the word. BLOOM just kept coming back to me, part of it I know had to do with the connect from me coming up with my daughters name but also the meaning behind the word BLOOM. Read more>>

MEGAN WEBB

Breakthrough Boudoir came from the belief that everyone should be accepted for who they truly are and you shouldn’t have to conceal any part of yourself. For those that do, I encourage them to “breakthrough” their reservations and their fears of what someone else might think of them. It doesn’t matter your age, size, gender, who you know, none of that matters. Being yourself is good enough. Read more>>

Steve R

Blue Bodega’s name originates from the bodegas that have become commonplace in NYC culture. Growing up in NYC, I recognized just how important bodega’s could be to their local neighborhoods. They become community hubs and are often the life source of many neighborhoods in the sense that they are able to provide just about anything and everything. Batteries, a sandwich, and a handball on 3AM on Xmas morning? They’ve got you covered. Read more>>

Emily Meyers

It took me some time to think of “Garlic Head,” and I actually changed the name 6 months into starting my site! The name’s meaning it twofold: 1) I (like many people) use garlic in most of my savor recipes and have loved it from a young age. I have a recipe on my site for Simple Garlic Pasta, which was actually my favorite childhood recipe. This represents my cooking “origin story” as it was one of the first things I learned to cook for myself. I still make it biweekly. Read more>>

Jovanca Maitland

The name of my company needed to be something short but memorable. If I have two minutes in the elevator I’m saying JANE and not Jovanca (they always ask me to repeat it, spell it, or explain the origin and that takes up my two minutes)!! It also needed to be meaningful to me cause it would be a name that would define my business and who I am. So JANE. Everyone remembers “plain JANE” but I make plain beautiful. The client looks to JANE to bring their vision to life but also fill in the blanks. Read more>>

Caryn Butler

I started my business in 2019 as a Virtual Assistant. I wanted a name that would reflect my vision of providing virtual solutions to my customers. A name that could remain unchanging as I pivoted or added services throughout the years. I wanted something that reflected pride and stood out as “one of a kind”. So Caryn Butler Virtual Solutions was born! Read more>>

Rose Seybold

I wanted my company name to be something that reflected me and who I am as wedding planner. Once I knew I wanted to start my own business, creating a name naturally became the first step. Several of my friends and family encouraged me to use my last name of “Hammers” making is something like Hammertime Events. Knowing that it wouldn’t be my last name for long, I wanted to focus on using my first name instead. One day when at my corporate job, I received a group text to help out with my best friends bridal shower. Read more>>

Kat Avila

Purpose LA, came from a vision and moment with God. As I was driving home I knew I wanted a name that was profound and reflected my values. In the middle of my drive home one day, I pull over and immediately called my husband. I said, “I know the name! I know the name! It’s Purpose! And of course he was like, “Purpose what?” . I explained that name came to me because that was exactly why we were opening a Mens salon with that name. Read more>>

Sara Williams

One night we were all sitting around on the couch just making a list of things that we thought would make sense for a coffee venture like mocha madness etc. My daughter had overheard us having this conversation and started piping in. We had just recently moved from Washington and she kept naming off things that she knew and liked. Well none of it correlate with Arizona so we had to switched some of our thinking. Mountains turned yo rock formations. From there we had hoodoo!!!! Read more>>

Elsa Krieg

The question I have received the most about my business, is why the name Lonesome Dove Photography? Well, if you know, you know. And by that, I mean you know the mini series Lonesome Dove. Two former Texas Rangers rejuvenate their sense of adventure and drive a herd of cattle from the dusty town of Lonesome Dove, TX, bordering the Rio Grande, to the breath taking mountain ranges of Montana. The story highlights the friendship of Captain Woodrow F. Read more>>

Almond Brewer

#LeagueB Learning Everything • Accepting Greatness • Uniting Everyone to Build. As a young kid growing up in the inland empire I lived in a few different areas. Each time I had to adapt and make new friends, meet new people. As I got older connecting people and bringing people together for a great cause became something I gravitated to. I feel we are all called for greatness and we just need to accept it, and that where our motto and brand name originated. Read more>>

Josh Hoffman

We believe that a home comes together over time, building layers with items that are purchased new, found, and handed-down over generations. We originally started out selling repurposed furniture along with found and handmade items in our garage, back in 2012, under the name “Tattered.” These items had stories and were chosen to be a part of someone’s home. We would host a few occasional sales a year, where we would advertise on Craigslist, FaceBook, and with yard signs and fliers throughout the community. Read more>>

Tamira Perkins

The name T’s Hair Dreams is very simple to explain. My first name starts with the letter T,and my daughter’s name is Dream. I wanted to include both our names in my business and that’s what I came up with. Read more>>

Hannah Zimmerman

The name “Just Once” comes from my brother. My brother has complex communication needs. “Just once” is something that he always says. Usually it is when my family or I are trying to convince him to try something new like going to a sleep away camp for the first time, playing a new game with us as a family, trying kayaking, or starting a new job training experience. And usually he says it pretty grumpily. But he always tries the new something and usually enjoys it (even if it’s just a little bit). Read more>>

Corinne Matovich

It is said, “Before we ever put a pencil in a child’s hands, those hands should dig, climb, press, pull, squish, twist, and pinch in a wide array of environments and with a variety of materials” (Amanda Morgan). Rad Roots is a culmination of all of the lessons I have learned in the realm of caring for children in early childhood. We are gently supporting the steady growth of their sturdy and deep roots to hold their later growth in life. The Waldorf philosophy supports this notion that the first years are about children coming into their physical body, before they expand intellectually. Read more>>

Don Burns

Sitting on the couch during covid and wanting to do something different. We have lived in Lakeland, Florida for 20 years and always bought merchandise from local vendors. I wondered if there was a “phonebook” online for Lakeland. What I found was the Lakeland Chamber, the City of Lakeland, the library, the small businesses and charity organizations all were on different websites. So we decided to organize a Lakeland phonebook all one site. We decided “I Am Lakeland” would convey the way we feel about Lakeland, Florida. Read more>>

Melissa Diamond

In 2006, I initially started baking for my loved ones and soon word spread about my baking skills and my delightful, sweet treats. My then-boyfriend, who later became my husband, and his sister played a significant role in helping me expand my business by introducing me to new clients. After gaining more customers, my husband and I decided to name our company Sweetcakes by Melissa. Read more>>