Choosing the name for a blog involves a series of tradeoffs.  An existing business may want a blog name to match their business name; however, the domain name or blog name may already be taken by another business.  Choosing a new, more creative name for a blog may make it difficult for customers to remember or associate with the business; consequently, it’s important to spend some time considering the tradeoffs.  Let’s look at three examples:

 1. A small bakery named “Bill’s”, located in Syracuse, NY, which features cupcakes.

A first obvious choice that pops into one’s mind is “BillsBakery”; however, the primary domain name (BillsBakery.com) is already taken even though no active website exists for it.  In spite of the many domain suffixes now available, as a business, the .com suffix would still be first preference for most businesses because that is the first place netizens would tend to look.  Since the business specializes in cupcakes, it may be to our benefit to “advertise” this via our blog name.  A blog named “BillsCupcakes” with a domain name of BillsCupcakes.com would be an obvious choice that would not only advertise their specialty,  but also be easy for people to remember and associate with the existing business.  A slightly more creative choice which also might work well would be “CupcakesByBill” (CupcakesByBill.com is also available as a domain name); however, this name sounds somewhat affected and may not be the image that the business wants to project.  Since Bills is in Syracuse, I’m going to assume that the customer base is more working to middle class range and recommend going with BillsCupcakes.com because the name is relatively short, easy to associate with the business, and the .com domain name is available.

2. Fang Films, a movie studio that focuses on horror films, most of which are released directly to DVD. 

In this case the obvious first choice would be to use the company name as the Blog and Domain Name; however, again the .com domain name is already taken (FangFilms.com) although currently unused.  Being in the creative business, a more creative name might work well.  As a blog site, I’m guessing that the intent would be to discuss horror films in general, not necessarily only the ones developed by Fang Films or ones released on DVD.  Consequently, I’m going to recommend a relatively generic name, FilmsWithFangs.  The name is similar to the company’s name and retains the connotation of horror films.  I feel that the preposition “with” helps drive home the concept of the horror film genre and works well as a creative expression; consequently, I’m willing to risk the extra characters it requires.  Fortunately, the name is also available as a domain name (FilmsWithFangs.com) which seals the deal for me.

3. Happy Pup Doggy Day Care, a new dog daycase business in Syracuse

My first reaction is to suggest changing the name of the business, but assuming the owner is set on this name, I will search for something less wordy for the blog name.   A good general theme of the blog would taking care of your dog/puppy.  Using the first two and the last words of the business name creates a shortened blog name which still retains the flavor of the business name (i.e. HappyPupCare) and gives the general flavor of what the blog topics will be.  Fortunately, the .com domain name is available (HappyPupCare.com).

For each of these choices, we see the tradeoffs required between trying to establish a unique and catchy blog name versus retaining a close association with the business name.  We also face a tradeoff between keeping the name short and making it meaningful enough to associate with the business and/or indicate what topics will be discussed in the blog.  Finally we are restricted to what domain names are available and how flexible we want to be with the domain name suffix.