How to Choose a Blog Name: A Guide for Beginners

Choosing a blog name is hard but a critical step. And it can make or break your blog. Here are tips on how to choose a blog name and why it’s worth the effort.

It is far too common for new bloggers to register a domain too quickly, only to discover months or years later that they chose an inappropriate blog name. Which was my case sadly.

There are many reasons why a blog name might need to be changed down the road. Maybe the name doesn’t effectively describe the niche. It could also be that the name is a bit awkward, or too complicated and long to remember.

My first blog name was TitiCrafty. It was supposed to be a handmade scrapbook-style greeting cards blog but I soon realized my blog could be so much more than that and that I could monetize it and make a business out of it. So that name did not reflect my niche, it was complicated to spell and remember. So I had to change it and my website hurt for it.

That’s why I think that learning how to choose a blog name is so important. Going through a rebrand with blog and domain change comes with lots of risks. My goal with this post is to help you make the best decision possible.

What is a blog name?

Basically, your blog name or domain name is your blog’s address on the internet. When you build a blogging website, you also have a specific electronic address that points to you. And a web hosting company will host your blog online.

Essentially, a web host is a company providing hardware and software necessary to serve your blog on the Internet.

You can think of the blog name as the address of your blog (your online home). When users type your blog name into the browser, it will go to your blog like this https://thecraftingnook.com

How to choose a good and creative blog name?

Here comes the tricky part. You might think, why can’t I just pick a name and go with it?

As a blogger or soon-to-be one, the name of your blog is your online identity. Choosing a name for your blog is just as important as naming a company or brand.

If you want your blogging biz to grow from a hobby blogger to a professional one, then you should definitely need a great name and that requires using a bit of strategy along with some creativity.

One key driver of brand recognition is the domain name of your website. It can save you money and time in the long run if you take some time to research a great domain name now.

Depending on your niche, category and topic you could eventually use your own name as your blog’s name. But keep in mind that, your name doesn’t always reveal what your blog is about until they read further.

Don’t Rush

Seriously! It might sound duh! but it’s super important that you take your time to choose a blog name for what might become a successful blog business.

The name you choose for your blog should preferably be a permanent decision.

You should consider all the options when choosing a blog name and be 100% sure that you have found THE perfect name. Look ahead, how do you see your blog in 2, 5 and 10 years. See the possible variations/changes it could suffer.

Don’t use life current situations or events

This also might sound like an obvious thing but trust me, this happens quite often. Don’t use current situations that might change over time. I can’t stress this enough.

This is the biggest mistake I’ve seen people making that leads them to a domain change at some point which usually has a big toll on your reputation, authority, and traffic.

Just to give you an idea of what I mean, things like “Mom and Three Kids (momandthreekids.com)” is risky because you can either have a 4th child or they just grow up and your content will most likely change but your blog’s name will be outgrown.

The blog and domain name should represent your ultimate business goal or at the very list have an evergreen life. What your business is about but broad enough that if it changes within the same niche, it would still fit.

For example, my blog’s name is “The Crafting Nook” and it’s all about crafts of course. But the last couple of years I’ve been leaning towards home decor more. Since I make most of my decorating, it still fits into my blog’s name.

Keep it simple so it’s easy to remember.

When you pick a great blog name always keep it simple, catchy, and memorable blog name.

Getting people to read your blog post is the key to its success. Therefore, making it simple and easy to read will definitely encourage your audience to return to your content time and time again.

In short, you want a name that is short, simple, catchy, and that will benefit you in the long run.

BUT be careful with how your blog’s name would read on the URL.

Sometimes we get carried away with the name we choose and go buy the domain only to realize that the domain ended up with something unintentionally awkward. AJ from Blog Pioneer gave a couple of funny but very awkward examples:

Dickson Web:
Their URL used to be dicksonweb dot com. Not a good look obviously.

Speed of Art:
The URL is speedofart dot com which, unfortunately, can be read in multiple ways.

I couldn’t help but laugh so hard. OMG! Those are the perfect examples of probably good names but that need a little help of hyphens in the URL or a bit more thought to make sure your name comes out perfect.

Questions to ask yourself when naming your blog

1) What is your blog going to be about?

What’s your zone of genius? what topics you could talk about for days and days and still have more to talk about? Think about how far you can go and how flexible it could be for holidays, seasons, special dates, etc.

Choosing your blog niche first is one great exercise for finding the best blog name for you biz. Do you want to build a food blog, fitness blog, travel blog? whatever it is, defining this will set you for a great start.

2) Who is your target audience?

It’s critical that you create your persona. She/he/they should represent the type of people that would be interested in your content. Is your content more suitable for women or men? also, is it for young or older people? Is your content for moms, biz owners, college years, online shoppers?

Understanding your target audience will help you find the perfect name way easier and faster.

3) Will you be building your brand around your blog name?

Your blog could easily be the starting point to promote products, services, courses, etc.

For example, Pies & Tacos is a food blogger full of delicious baking good recipes, specialized in macaron making and she also sells 2 cookbooks and soon she will launch a course about macarons.

Even if you decide to just rely on Ads, branding your blog could be beneficial to land better partnerships and campaigns.

Either way, knowing this from day one also gives you some parameters to choose a good blog name.

4) Does the blog name read OK when it’s in a domain URL format?

Like I said above, make sure you don’t end up having a really weird domain name LOL.

5) Is it easy to say or spell?

How easily people around you can spell it or quickly say it without confusing the words and letters? Avoid word combinations that tend to tangle the tongue while saying it

6) What happens if you change or vary your niche?

This is something hard to think about but very helpful.

We all start a blog with the best of intentions to focus on a niche. However, things can change over time. And sometimes you’ll find yourself changing your original idea for one that you think is better.

That’s okay.

At that point, one of the things you’ll need to consider is whether your blog name and brand are right. Do they have enough wiggle room to allow for a change of direction or do you have to completely start over?

Considering that we don’t know what the future will hold is a difficult question. You should choose an open-ended, generic blog name if you are unsure or have any ideas about potential changes.

There’s nothing wrong with not doing it, either. You still have the option. The only risk is losing the momentum in the process.

The Elements of a Memorable Good Blog Name

What makes a blog’s name memorable? It contains at least some of the below elements:

Relevant to Your Topic. The name should remind people of the subject of your blog.

Relevant to Your Target Audience. It should speak your audience’s language, using the same voice your audience likes and the tone of your blog.

Unique. It should stand out from others in your topic so it sticks in people’s minds.

Humor. If you can make people chuckle when they see the name of your blog, it will be easier for them to remember it.

Use Alliteration. Alliteration is a literary device that repeats consonants or vowels to make it catchy. Examples are PayPal, Twitter, and Coca-Cola.

Linked to Your Brand. It’s helpful for your blog name to connect to your brand’s logo, motto, mascot, or other design elements.

How to Make Your Blog Name Instantly Forgettable

On the other hand, there are some mistakes to avoid. Although you want to use keywords and make your blog name SEO-optimized, don’t stuff it with keywords that don’t mean anything. You’ll come up with a generic name that search engines like but your readers can’t remember.

Although you want to be creative, don’t choose a name that’s impossible to pronounce. This will make it much harder for people to remember it. People should be able to look at a name and instantly understand how to pronounce it.

Since it should be unique, do a quick Google search to see if there’s a popular blog or website that’s very similar. There’s a good chance you’ll find blogs with similar names, but you don’t want people getting yours mixed up with another.

Humor helps but avoid irony, inside jokes, or allusions your audience won’t get. When using humor, aim for something your readers will easily understand and laugh about along with you. Be careful with any negative terms like “cheap” or “broke” that might hurt your brand image.

Also, try to keep your name from being too narrow and specific. Your blog might grow and change in the future. You may find yourself changing topic slightly. Choose a blog name that gives you space to grow.

Brainstorming a Perfect Blog Name

Create a huge list of ideas. Everything that comes to mind. Accept suggestions at this stage.

You can also use random blog name generators that can help you find great blog name ideas such as Nameboy. Look at blogs in your niche for ideas and inspiration for brand names. Consult the dictionary and thesaurus to get as many ideas as possible. Then, run them by friends and associates and get their feedback. Get your list down to the perfect name and you’re ready to go.

Go through it every couple of days and start scratching off those that don’t sound good to you.

Once you have about 3 names that you think could be the winners, repeat them out loud many times, ask people to say them out loud so you can be sure that’s how you want to be called in the blogging world for a long long time! Also, write them down as URLs and make sure it doesn’t create awkward words.

Google your favorite names. Why do we need to google the name? If you want to name your new business The Pink Butterfly, but you google these words and several other businesses come up, you’re not only going to be competing for google ranking alongside those people with the same business name, you might also run into trademark issues depending on the nature of the other businesses with the same name.

Trust me on this, you don’t want to go down that road and get a Cease & Desist letter because your business name is conflicting with someone else. It’s very frustrating and heartbreaking.

Once you’ve decided on a name and have discovered the domain is available, it’s time to actually purchase that domain. Most Hosting services can sell you domain names.

I love some of the methods that David from the Blogging Wizzard shares to come up with the perfect blog name. He has very interesting formulas that might come in handy for you.

What happens when you need to change your blog’s name?

Well, that will depend on how long your blog has been around, your domain authority, your link juice, and your reputation.

It will not be the end of the world but there’s a big list of things to take care of when you decide to change. And some risks you need to be prepared for

• You have to start an awareness campaign to let your audience know you are rebranding and changing your blog’s name.
• You will need to rebrand.
• Check out the new blog name’s availability. Most web hosting companies give you a list of available domains in the case your specific one fails. Purchase the right one. Also make sure you lock different extensions like .org, .net, .edu, etc, and still leave your .com domain as the primary one.
• Do the proper redirections to send the existing traffic that flows through your old domain, go straight to the one. This usually can be handled by your web hosting company. WordPress also makes it easier with some plugins.
• Change your social media handles: Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, facebook, credit, etc.
• Change your email address.
• Be prepared for a drop in traffic, ranking and domain authority.
• Be prepare to work hard on your content, search Engine optimization and fix all issues that might arise

How do I find a domain name?

Most Web Hosting companies can provide you with your domain name. Some give free domain names for the first year (or for as long as you are hosted with them). There are several well-known companies you can use and search for domain name availability:

• BigScoots
• Cloudways
• Media Temple
• BlueHost
• GoDaddy
• Namecheap
• Enoms

Any of these companies are great for a domain registrar, but for hosting your actual blog, that’s a whole other story. A really good web hosting company will be the foundation of your success and you should not go for the cheapest. Think of it like the web hosting is the land where you will build your dream home, you can’t just get the first and cheapest, you need a good land.

Do you want to learn more about Starting a blog and building a relationship with your audience through blogging? Check out these posts, How to start a blog from scratch, Building Blogging Relationships part 1, Building Blogging Relationships part 2.

You may also want to read How to choose the perfect web hosting for your blog.

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