Naming your photography business can seem hard – hard to know what to name it or even where begin with coming up with ideas. When working with my clients to brand their business, they often ask to help them come up with some ideas for naming their business. I love being apart of the process and helping them to nail down the perfect name. With this being a topic I get asked quite a bit about I thought I’d share my guide to naming your photography business!

Some quick tips to keep in mind

1. Your name should be unique, stand out but be easy to remember. You don’t want your clients forgetting your name!

2. Avoid unusual spellings or complicated play on words that would be hard for others to remember.

3. Easy to pronounce

4. Classic and versatile, this allows your business name to grow with you.

5. Simplicity is key

6. Relevant to your type of photography, if you have a niche bare this in mind, you can choose your name based on the area of photography you cover. But do remember, if you change your type of photography in the future, your name will no longer be relevant. Choose a name you won’t have to change later as changing your name when your business is built up can cause some negative effects on your business

Naming your business after yourself

There is a reason a lot of photographers name their business after themselves. It can be the easiest way, allowing for your photography genre to change if you want to be open to changes in your business or not yet ready to niche down. It also allows you to be the face of your business. There is limited separation between you and your business, when people think of you then think of your business. ‘Hi, I’m name’ ‘oooh you’re that photographer’ – This business name is great if your unique selling point is YOU. If your business thrives that people work with you then this is a great option for you.

What if your name is long or confusing?

Try to think of alternative options for your name, maybe use a middle name, another family name. Maybe even try just using one name. A lovely client of mine asked me to assist in her naming stage, she decided she wanted to use her name so I suggested her dropping her first name and just using her last name to make it more memorable and unique.

What about naming your business NOT after you?

This can be great if you have a particular style or niche. The more specific your audience the more specific and creative your name can be if done right. But how? coming up with ideas can be hard and brain block is common. My biggest suggestion for this is opening a spreadsheet and coming up with a few buzzwords that represent you, your business and your audience. List as many buzzwords you can think of. Then open the online thesaurus and type in one of your buzzwords and get new words, add them to your list. Do this for each word, the more words equals the more combinations you can come up with. Some of the words may sound terrible and that’s okay, it’s all about just ideas at this point. Nothing has to be perfect right now

When you feel like you can’t possibly come up with more names, start to pair them together. Again, they don’t have to work or sound right straight away. The idea is just to get as many okay-ish parings as possible to help spark ideas. You can also use some online name generators to come up with new words and pairings. Add them all to your list so you have something to refer back too.

Then you just have to keep working at it. Keep coming up with new pairings, new ideas, new combinations. Swap them, mix them about and refine them till you get a few solid ideas. Remember while you’re coming up with ideas you like to make sure you google the names to make sure the name is available and no one else has the name and more importantly, the domain is free. Go to godaddy.com and type in your ideas to see if the domains are free. Even if you don’t have the perfect name, at least you have ideas to mull over and get rid of that brain block. Remember to keep it simple and make sure it relates to your business and your audience.

I hope this helps you name your photography business! Let me know what you come up with in your comments!