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Trying to come up with blog names is enough to give anyone a headache… especially if you don’t have the right plan of attack. But once you figure out that there’s a simple formula to it, coming up with blog name ideas is a total breeze!
I put together this article to lay out all the steps for how to name a blog so that anyone can come up with an ideal name to fit their content.
Blog Names: Before You Start…
Before jumping right into naming your blog, there are a few things that you should consider ahead of time.
What’s Your Blogging Niche?
When the time comes to come up with a blog name, you should ideally already have a solid niche or Blue Ocean. Having a well-defined Blue Ocean will allow your blog to stand out in a sea of thousands of websites and help attract the audience you want.
Your Blue Ocean is also immensely helpful when coming up with blog name ideas because it’s best to have a name related to the topic your blog is about!
Nowadays, it’s not enough to say “I want to start a travel blog” or “I want to blog about food”. You have to go deeper and carve out a sub-niche for yourself in order to see success.
If you don’t have a Blue Ocean or well-defined niche yet, that’s okay! Simply head over to our article: The Ultimate Guide to Finding a Profitable Blogging Niche. This will help you narrow your focus and get you on the path to success before coming up with a name for your blog.
After you’ve got a solid Blue Ocean and know what you’ll be blogging about, then it’s time to start brainstorming blog name ideas.
Who’s Your Audience?
Who is the target audience for your blog? Who do you hope to attract to your blog? Who’s the ideal reader for your content?
Keeping your audience in mind can definitely help guide you towards a solid name for your blog because you want to come up with something that appeals to them as much as you. Of course, it’s important to pick a name that accurately portrays what you want, but it’s just as important to convey to your audience that you have common ground.
If you’re trying to target vegetarians, obviously you’ll want to avoid meat-related words. If you’re trying to target moms, include words that might appeal to them like “kids”, “home”, “busy”. If you hope to rope young people in, maybe include words like “hip” or “cool”, “chic” or “trendy” into your name.
Having a blog name that resonates with your target audiences makes them much more inclined to actually click on your blog rather than skimming right over it!
What’s the Tone or Voice of Your Blog?
Thinking about the perspective of your blog might help you come up with a blog name, too.
If you’re writing about your adventures and life or blogging from a first-person point of view, it might make sense to include your name in your blog’s name.
If you’re writing from a more serious or technical standpoint, try to express this with the words you choose for the name of your blog.
While your content matters most, your blog’s name has certain sway when it comes to conveying the vibes you’re trying to give off.
Remember: A Blog Name is Just a Name!
One key thing that’s worth mentioning before diving in is that good content will always outweigh a good blog name.
Content truly is king, so it really doesn’t really matter what your blog is called so long as you’re publishing quality articles that are useful to your readers.
I know it seems that a name is everything when it comes to a blog (I mean, who doesn’t want a catchy name for their brand?), but take Google for example. Google doesn’t mean anything, yet they have a wildly successful business because they provide their users with what they want.
The same concept rings true for a blog!
Don’t get too hung up on coming up with the perfect name for your blog. The more you overthink it, the further away you’ll get from the ideal blog name!
Getting started on your blog is way more important than spending weeks finding the perfect fit. All that being said, here are our top tips for how to come up with a blog name that’s perfect for you !
5 Tips for How to Name a Blog
Coming up with a blog name may seem daunting, but it isn’t rocket science. In fact, it just takes a few simple steps to come up with a name that fits you and your brand to a tee.
So open up a Google Doc or pull out your pen and notebook, follow along with these tips, and by the end of this, you’ll have some great blog name ideas!
Click here to check if your blog name is still available.
Tip #1: Brainstorm Keywords Related to Your Niche
As I mentioned before, having a clear niche is so important when it comes to naming your blog. When you have a clear niche you’re able to come up with specific keywords that tie your Blue Ocean into your blog name.
After you have a clearly defined niche, start to brainstorm keywords that relate to this specific topic.
If you have a travel food blog, some related keywords may be: eat, recipe, world, food, cuisine, earth, etc…
If you have a home gardening blog, you may brainstorm keywords like: gardening, home, yard, fence, veggies, etc…
Get the idea?
Tip #2: Use a Thesaurus to Create a Word Bank of Blog Names
Once you’ve come up with a solid list of keywords for your niche, head over to Thesaurus.com and plug these keywords into the search bar one at a time.
What this will do is give you heaps of alternatives that can be used instead of some of the more generic, everyday words.
Tip: When using thesaurus.com, the words most closely related to your search term will show up in dark orange. The less related they are, the lighter the color gets!
Going back to the travel food blog example, if I plug the keyword “eat” into the thesaurus, I get a whole lot of options like devour, dine, nibble, and ingest. Then, if I plug in “travel” I get suggestions for words like migrate, roam, tour, trek, wander, and beyond.
Doing this is a great way of breaking out of normal speech patterns and using more eye-catching keywords. These terms are still related to your niche but have a little spice to them, making for a memorable blog name.
After this step, you’ll start to have is a giant bank of words related to your niche.
Tip #3: Add Descriptor Words
Once you have some spicy words picked out, you’ll want to add some descriptors to your word bank.
Descriptors can be adjectives and verbs, or even a name! Their purpose is to beef up your blog name even further so it’s more than just “nibble wander” or “devour roam”.
If you have a travel food blog, some descriptors may be yummy, delicious, delectable, enjoyable, enticing, heavenly… you get the idea!
Don’t give too much thought to these – just let them flow out and contribute to an even greater word bank.
P.S. You can use the thesaurus for this step too! Just search for a generic adjective or verb and you’ll get plenty more results.
Tip #4: Mix, Match, and Make It Memorable
Once you have a giant word bank of words related to your niche and descriptors, it’s time to mix and match! Pick some words that sound good to you and try stringing them together.
It might take a while to find a catchy match, but that’s why you want a huge word bank to choose from! Keep on trying different combinations until you find something that might stick.
Something every blogger wants is a memorable name. You want a blog name that’s going to stick in people’s minds, a name that they’ll remember even after they close their browser.
To create a memorable name for your blog, you can use a few tactics.
Add Some Humor
A reader is much more likely to remember a blog name that gave them a little giggle than something more generic.
Cats Who Code is a fairly well-known tech blog that publishes articles about web development, hosting, and other tips and tricks. Nothing on their website has to do with cats (especially because cats can’t actually code), but the name is catchy, silly and one that will stick out in your mind.
Be Punny
Similar to humor (but not exactly the same), creating a pun out of your blog name makes it easy to recall. One of our writers has a blog called Life in the Fast Jane. It’s catchy, fun, and memorable because it relates to her name (Jane) and is a play on the phrase “life in the fast lane”.
Another example of this is the popular blog She’s In The Glow, which is a beauty blog that employs the play on the phrase “she’s in the know” for its name.
Use Alliteration
Some blog or company names just roll right off the tongue. That’s largely thanks to alliteration!
It’s no wonder it’s easy to remember names like BarkBox, FabFitFun, Bed Bath & Beyond, or Dunkin’ Donuts. It’s inherently easy because of the alliteration.
You can use this technique of matching up the first letters of each word to come up with a blog name that truly sticks in people’s minds.
A blog name with awesome alliteration is personal finance blog, Making Sense of Cents. Although it doesn’t start with the same letter-they sound the same making it even catchier. I particularly love her play on words on this blog name.
Try Out a Different Language
It’s easy to fit generic words into a blog name, but that’s not a way to get people to remember it.
Instead, try to swap out a word or two for another language. For example, if you want the word “hello” in your blog’s name, maybe give “hola” a go instead!
I’m not saying to choose the most complicated word out there, but using a different language can be an effective way to name your blog if you use a commonly-known “foreign” word that’s easy to spell.
That way, nothing will get lost in translation and your blog name will have an added spark to it.
For instance, if you’re thinking about naming your blog “A Little Life”, try swapping out “little” with “petit”. While it’s a French word, most everyone will be able to understand what it means in this context!
Tip #5: Don’t Overthink it
If you’re having trouble coming up with a name, it might just be that you’re overthinking things.
While choosing the right blog name is important, the brand that you build around your blog is what you should focus on. You can make ANYTHING a success no matter what the name is.
Find a name in your blog niche that you like and start from there. Remember, there is no such thing as the perfect blog name.
After you’ve followed these 5 tips, you should have some cool blog name ideas that are eye-catching, related to your niche, and (hopefully) memorable!
Blog Names: Do’s and Don’ts
But wait! Before you commit to a blog name, here are a few do’s and don’ts to consider when you’re making your final choice.
DO be descriptive. Most great blog names are descriptive enough that readers get a general idea of what a blog is about. Great blog names are those that use a lot of keywords that allow people to immediately figure out what the blog is about.
DO be specific. The best blog names include keywords surrounding the central topic of the blog. Not only does this give readers insight into what your blog topic is, but it helps with SEO down the road.
If you’re blogging about a specific destination, be sure to include that in your name! Or if your blog specializes in vegetarian recipes, be sure to include vegetarian (or some form of this word) in your name.
DON’T put yourself in a box. Some names might sound awesome right now like youngbroketraveler.com but what happens in 5 years when you’re not young or broke anymore? Instead, try to choose a name that will grow with you and your brand rather than locking yourself into a certain identity.
DON’T use punctuation marks, numbers, or misspelled words. You want people to be able to find your blog on the first try without moving the dash around or having to switch out “you” for “u”. You also want people to find your blog without having to spell it out every time!
In order to figure out if you have a good blog name or not, try out the Mom Test.
Imagine you’re saying your blog name to your mom for the first time. If she says “What was that?” or “Can you spell that out for me?”, your name hasn’t passed the mom test.
Overall, you want to pick a blog name that is short, clear, and easy to remember. You want a blog name that your mom will understand the first time you say it!
Need More Inspiration for Naming Your Blog?
If you’re still feeling overwhelmed by the process of naming your blog, don’t worry! I’ve put together guides to blog name ideas for some popular niches to get you started.
Check out the guides here:
- Travel Blog Names: Our Step-by-Step Naming Formula (Featuring 100+ Examples)
- How to Come Up With Lifestyle Blog Name Ideas
- How to Name Your Food Blog (+40 Awesome Ideas You Can Use!)
- Mom Blog Name Ideas (+Tips On How to Name Your Blog)
- How to Name Your Fashion Blog (+100 Name Ideas & Examples)
- Beauty Blog Names: A Step-by-Step Guide + 100 Examples
The Next Step: Register Your Blog Name
After you finally come up with the perfect blog name, you want to make sure it’s available and register it.
Note: When registering your domain name, be sure to choose a .com address. This grants your blog the most credibility!
An exception to this is if you’re creating a location-specific blog and are only targeting people in a certain area. Then it may benefit you to register for a .co.uk, .co.nz, or other country-specific address.
Before actually registering your domain name, you’ll have to check that no one else has beaten you to it. You can do this with Bluehost’s domain name checker here:
If you purchase hosting through Bluehost (hosting is what you actually need to get your blog online), you actually get a domain name for FREE, which means you don’t need to worry about purchasing it from another website. You’ll also have the convenience of having your domain registration and hosting in one place.
This method kills two birds with one stone and saves you money spent on a domain. Plus, with our Blogging Fast Lane discount, you can also get hosting for 63% off, allowing you to save over $180 dollars!
After reading through this guide, you should realize that coming up with cool blog names isn’t too hard after all! It’s all about picking words to describe your niche and stringing them together in a fun and catchy way.
But no matter what blog name you choose, always keep in mind that the content on your blog is what really matters. Even if you have the best blog name in the world, it’s nothing without killer content to match.
Hopefully, this article has helped you come up with an amazing blog name and made the process as simple as possible.
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