Like the title, how long did you need to find a good business name ?

 

I've spent countless hours looking for something good that I could also get the .com for but they seem to all be taken. The search continues !

 

On a side note, I hear cupcakes.com is on sale for only half a million.

AIt took us several weeks (not continuous research, mostly just my wife and I brainstorming) to come up with our name. A good way to start is looking at your competitive advantage, and try to work that into the name.

These days you don't really need to have a domain name that matches the name of your business exactly, so don't let that restrict you.

It took me a few hours. I also had friends and family texting me ideas. Eventually I got so tired of trying to find something that I text my sister in law telling her this was "making me crazy", then that's when it hit me... Baking Me Crazy. 

I went through 3 different names in the last 5 months.  I let them sit and see if I still the like the sound of it a week or so later.   I have finally got something that I really like.

AI brainstormed for a few days and came cup with a short list. The first name I came up with I tried on for a few months, but it just didn't seem to fit the branding image that I was going for. I had to do some refining of my mission statement and target market to fine tune my company name. It ended up being something completely different than my first name, but once I said it and slept on it, it just fit. kinda like naming a baby :)

I wish I'd spent longer and researed common typos; since setting up my domain, making my website and buying in business cards/flyers I have noticed that phones and tablets autocorrect 'Grays Cakes' to 'Garys Cakes' its infuriating!

And even more annoyingly if people do spell it right google finds cake shops in a place called Grays near london- 500 miles away from me! urgh. .................maybe time for a re-brand :-(

Well, I was part of a parenting website and asked some of the women in my online ante/post natal club (with whom I'd become very good friends) for help with the name.

 

At the time, I hadn't intended to do celebration/wedding cakes...  I was going to do children's cake decorating parties!  Which is why when one of the ladies suggested the name Pat-a-Cake Parties, it was perfect!

 

Of course, things change and I only did a few parties but the cakes really took off and I was 'stuck' with the name.  But had I known then what I know now, I wouldn't have had the 'parties' bit.

 

As an aside, one of the ladies suggested Suzy Scrumptious (which I really liked) but my husband said it sounds like a name you'd find on a business card left in a telephone box! and I could end up with the sort of enquiries I *really* wasn't interested in!!!!!!!!!

 

Suzanne x

My name took about 20 seconds, because I don't believe in "cute" names.  Name of city plus what you do.  Therefore my biz name was Louisville Wedding Cake.  Now my biz name is Louisville Dessert Truck.

AMy husband is military, so we move quite a bit, so linking with a location isn't the best idea for me. Luckily my first name isn't very common, so I started with that and decided on simply "Belinda's Cakery". It only took me a day or so to decide. :)

I'm kind of in the same boat as Jason, I'm putting a few hours in it left and right giving myself some time in between to clear my mind. I don't want to force it. I'm totally jealous of Leah who only took 20 seconds haha. Your name is quite generic which is great and easy for the customer to remember, it's what I'm trying to achieve but with possibly a personal touch included ( like Jason mentioned ) and that's where I'm blocking.

 

I have a list of about 15 names I'm playing with. Using words like " bakery " " cakery " "cakes " that are easily recognized and easy to move around to create new names.

 

@Gray:  If that happened to me I think I would die, I have to remember to quickly try the speller on my phone once I do my final picking! It also annoys me that by default iPhones have a " .com " button, it makes it really hard for me to want to settle for a .ca for Canada if someone already as the .com because I'm afraid people will get confused.

 

@Relznik: Indeed scrumptious comes to mind like " raunchy " hehe.

 

Thank you all for your insights. Here's a little something fun as a reward. Seizure warning ( low ) ? 

  It's a chocolate display that they spin and hit with a strobe light, pretty cool effect.

I've been through a million ideas for business names, luckily I didn't go ahead and register any of them! A lot of the suggestions my friends had didn't really suit the kind of image I'm hoping to go for - they all had fun ways to play on my name etc, but I wanted to have an elegant name that would work both for an at home business and any eventual store I open. I would prefer to attract wedding clientele so I considered what kinds of words appeal to brides, but wouldn't scare away regular celebration clients if they heard about me. I also considered how it would look on paper, and how hard it would be to spell or remember for a URL. 

 

I think I have a good name thought up for the city we're moving to, I've checked google, go daddy and facebook and it doesn't seem to clash with anything. But I'm not sharing until it's officially mine!