Coming Up With The “Perfect” Blog Name

A few days ago, I’ve received an email asking for advice on coming up with a blog name. I’ve then decided to study on that topic and share what I’ve learned here.

I’m sure many people have this dilemma, myself included. For those of you who have already started blogging, do you remember the struggle of coming up with your blog name?

Coming up with a blog name is a struggle because we all know that it will play an important role, just like branding. The name stays with your blog for a long long time. It gives your blog identity. All of us want to come up with the “perfect” name for our blog. But what really is the definition of a perfect blog name?

To most of us, the perfect blog name is one that can stay in the mind of the audiences and separate the blog from the competitions.

I’ve got to admit; coming up with the perfect blog name is no easy task, especially if it’s in the English Language. There are 171,476 words for you to play around with.

The good side of having many words in the language is the ability to use words that are different as compared to other blogs in your niche/industry. Generally, to stand out and be distinguishable, no two bloggers have the same blog names.

The question is: Out of all the words, which one will you settle for?

Indeed, the toughest decision bloggers need to make.

Before we begin on how to come up with the perfect blog name, grab a piece of paper and a pen. Write down a list of names you already have in mind. Along the way, feel free to add in or omit them. Towards the end of this article, you may have a few blog names ideas.

Now that you’re ready, let’s begin.

1. Figure Out What Your Blog Will Be About

First things first, I want you to imagine what your blog post will be about. I know, most of you already have a rough idea of your blog’s content before you brainstorm for a blog name.

But, I’m telling you, a rough idea isn’t enough. You need to write them down to get a clearer picture. So, start writing down what your blog will be about; the topics it will cover and the first five content you will publish.

By doing so, it helps you to decide whether you should go for a narrower or a broader name. It tells you whether your blog name is suitable for the type of content you will share.

For example, you decided your first 5 content would be on “How to Do Around The World”, “How to Do Elastico”, “How to Do a Rabona”, “How to Do an Akka” and “How to Do Stepovers”.

Your blog name should then be related to futsal skills and not be something like “Futsal Basics” or “All about Futsal” because technically it does not talk all about futsal. If a blog wants to talk all about futsal, they have to include content like “How to Jump Higher”, “How to Run Faster” and “How to Dribble”, instead of just skills.

Now that you understand better, I want you to list down a few names that are suitable for your content.

The more the better, because you may need to omit some as we go.

2. Identify Your Target Audience

Target audience is people you wish to cater to with your blog. People have similar needs and characteristics with one another. Identifying your target audience helps you to be clear with the content you should provide.

How can you identify your target audience? It is by defining your products, services, and content and asking yourself the type of people who will engage with your blog for the content you provide.

Now that you’ve identified your target audience, think of a few words that have meaning to them. Different audiences have different slangs. For instance, if you’re targeting a younger audience, you can use phrases like LOL (Laugh Out Loud); 5 Silly Billy moments that will make you LOL.

By using your target audiences’ slang, it creates a connection between your target audience and your blog.

If your blog is about cooking and your target audience is mothers, you should not use slangs that they don’t understand for your blog name. Instead, make it simple, such as ChefMama or MamaCook.

3. Take A Look at Other Blogs In Your Industry/Niche

Source: StyleCraze

Now that you understand better about your blog and your audience, it is time to take a look at other blogs in your industry or niche.

Just a simple search of “Top (Insert Niche) Blogs” on a search engine will show you a list of “competitors” blogs. Look at things your competitors have in common. You can then apply those elements that contribute to their success.

After analyzing the similarities, you can also choose to come up with something different which may help you stand out from the competition. For instance, if the majority of the blogs don’t have the word Vegan in their name, you can add it in to capture the untapped audience (provided you’re a vegan). Looking at competitors’ blog will really give you some inspiration.

4. Grab A Dictionary

Now that you’ve taken a look at other blogs, grab a dictionary, get on Google or go to the Thesaurus website. Start searching for words you can use in your blog name. For instance, if you want to be a travel blogger, find words that you can associate with travel.

To a certain extent, travelers are required to be fearless as some of them solo-travel or try new things in new places. Instead of using The Fearless Traveller which is generic, you can use the Intrepid Traveller. The less common word choice may spark interest in people.

5. Consider Using Your Own Name

Many bloggers include their own name in their blog name. It is a good idea to have your name in the blog ONLY if you are planning to make it a personal blog.

Using your name can be good in a few ways. It gives people the perception that your blog is credible because your real identity is out there. Besides that, your audience will also feel connected as they know you by name, which makes you somewhat their friend. After some period of time, you may even be an authority of the niche.

It makes your blog personal too. For example, DIY Crafts by Jess or Travel with Jack. Below are more examples of blogs with a personal name.

6. Consider Using Some Tools and Tricks

i. There are many tools you can use to come up with a blog name. For instance, a blog name generator. You only need to describe your blog, provide related verbs and provide some of your details.

It will then generate some really good and interesting names you can use. The image below is a result of the details I’ve keyed in.

Do take note that this generator brings in words from an external source, which can occasionally include potentially offensive content…

ii. There are many tricks you can use as well when coming up with a blog name. Firstly, you can consider using alliteration. They are words that have consonants repeated at the beginning. For example, Dunkin’ Donuts, Paypal and Best Buy.

The second trick I have in store is using abbreviation. They are a shortened form of any word or phrase. For example, K-Mart and IKEA. Three-letter abbreviations are the most popular. To name a few, they are BMW, JBL and 3M.

The third trick is using another language. However, you need to make sure they are easy to pronounce. Once in a while, people like things to be different. Using another language may evoke a different feeling in audiences and give you a special place in their mind.

For example, you see two pizza shops side by side. One is called The Pizza Shop and another is called La Pizzeria. The quality of the pizza may be similar but somehow you’ll see the second shop occupies more people.

Last but not least, consider creating a portmanteau. A portmanteau is the blend of words together. An example would be Microsoft, a portmanteau of microcomputer and software.

7. Read Out The Name

Read it out a few times and ask yourself what you think of the name

I am pretty sure you have a list of names by now. Read them out loud. What did you feel as you say it out? Is it weird? Awkward? Difficult to pronounce?

Let me share my own experiences. I had a clothing brand named Clyxes and all my social media usernames followed my brand name. It was made out of random alphabets, I thought it sounded cool and unique.

Little did I know, when I launched the product, I had friends asking me how it was pronounced and what it meant. Not having meaning to the word is totally fine but you should always make sure your blog name is easy to pronounce. When your blog name is easy to pronounce, it will be easy for your audience to remember the name.

Omit from your list the names you feel are awkward or difficult to pronounce.

8. Ask Around

People have different perspectives, you never know what you can learn from others.

Sometimes, when you read out the name yourself, you will not find any problem with it because you came up with the name yourself. Of course, you’ll feel that the name is flawless.

One thing I regret is not asking around what people think about my brand name. Everyone has a different perspective. A word can mean another thing to another person. Like I mentioned earlier, I thought the name was cool, but to some people, it’s meaningless.

When you ask around, people can also help you spot what’s wrong with the name and people may even suggest you better names and improvements.

For instance, Pen Island. You thought, wow, an Island of pens! You planned to write a blog that will talk about the different types of pens available in the world.

After you’ve created your social media accounts and written your first blog post, you shared it with your friends. Your friends then tell you that there is something wrong with your domain name. You read it to yourself, www dot Pen Island dot com, what’s wrong with it, you asked. He then explained his perspective (www dot penisland dot com) and it hits you.

Now, you need to delete all your accounts and come up with a new blog. You need to start all over again and wave goodbye to thousands of your followers. Moral of the story is to always ask people what they think, be it your family, friends or strangers.

These are the 8 steps I take when coming up with a blog name.

If you noticed, I quoted the word “Perfect” in the blog title.

In that email, I have mentioned that no matter what you name your blog, it will work out. To me, there is no “perfect” name.

The only 3 criterias you need to consider are:

1. You like it; it is something you will be proud to associate with yourself.
2. Easy to pronounce; a name which is easy to pronounce will also be easy to remember in the mind.
3. It’s appropriate (refer to number 8 above); inappropriate names will less likely be shared by people. There are chances it may go viral as well but the chances are low.

Why do I say no matter the blog name (provided the 3 things are considered), it will work out?

It is because of one element in the blog. That is blog content. Just like our personal names, we do not know which is the perfect name. We are given one that our parents liked. If you think about it, it is what we do that actually add values to our name.

Just like celebrities, their name is earned through their hard work and hours spent beating on their craft. If Will Smith just procrastinates and not practice his acts, Will Smith would just be an ordinary man’s name.

It is the same with our blogs. We name them and it is our content which will add value, making your blog name a great one. What you do is all that really matters.

Here are some tips on content after you’ve got your blog name:

1. Use Blog Title Generator

Blog Title Generator provides you with many interesting and catchy titles you can use. These title generated will attract people to your page and will give you content ideas.

2. Use LSI Keywords
A good tip you can use the next time you’re writing content is to use LSI keywords. LSI Keywords are words that are semantically related to your primary keywords.

Using several keywords instead of one in your content allows you to show up on the search engine result page for several keywords. It definitely increases your visibility and chance of ranking.

There are many LSI Keywords tools as well but you can give our sister site, LSIGraph, a try.

3. Do SEO
There are many SEO plugins out there that helps you ensure your content is search engine optimized. Search engine optimization, in other words, is a process of crafting your content to audiences’ liking.

Some of the things these plugin do are letting you know whether your content is readable, whether you’re using enough keywords, whether you’re using enough image and many more. Feel free to check our plugin out here:
SEOPressor Connect.

SEOPressor Connect guides you to create the “close-to-perfect” content.

4. Be Original
The best reminder I can give you is to always be original. Be yourself. It is what will make your blog unique when compared to the rest.

Also, your audiences will thank you for being original. There are so many blogs out there that have very similar content. Readers are always looking to learn new things and they just get frustrated seeing the same points over and over again.

So remember, always be original!

5. Know what your readers want

Another thing to consider when choosing the perfect blog name is this – make sure it’s something that intrigues your readers

How can you know what your readers want to know?

Well, there is a handy tool called BiQ that will show you all the popular questions for a certain keyword. All you need to do is type your keyword in, and press enter, and you’ll have a full list of popular questions your audiences are curious about.

That can be a great way to start the big search for THAT perfect blog name!

Conclusion:

There is no perfect name. It is totally fine to be creative with names as long as it fits the 3 criteria mentioned. If you’re worried that people may not know or relate to your blog name, don’t be.

Branding and marketing will do the job. Many big brands once started small and unknown. With the right branding and enough marketing effort, people will start to associate your blog name to your niche/industry.

1. If you’re still here, I have handpicked two articles as my appreciation to you for reading this far. This will be extremely useful when you are running your own blog.

32 Simple Ways to Increase More Traffic & Visitors To Your Blog

You may also want to check out a similar article that we have: How To Find A Great AND Available Domain Name For Your Website

With this, I would like to end my article here. Thanks for reading! Hopefully, this article has given you some inspiration for coming up with a blog name! Also, let me know at the comments section down below what you think of this article.

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Updated: 22 November 2024

About Vivian

Vivian is an anthropologist lost in the world of digital marketing. She has an interest in learning about the science of marketing and the creativity that businesses use to transform themselves into purple cows.