So you want to start a blog? That’s great. Having a blog is loads of fun and opens lots of doors. It can lead to job opportunities, paid partnerships, press trips and reviews, but first you have to make your blog in to something that people want to be associated with. Hence why the name is so important. When I picked the name for my blog I didn’t know any of this, I didn’t think of it as a business or about where it could lead, if I had I probably wouldn’t have picked The Strawberry Fountain. If you want to know how I picked that name you can find out at the end of this article but first, here are the things you should consider if you want to know how to pick a name for your blog that will help you stand out from the crowd in a good way.
What are you blogging about?
If you want people to find you on google then having a name that clearly says what you do and what you write about is important. If you are a travel blog you might want to go with something like – Travel With Me, Travel Blogger on the go or Watch us travel. If you want to focus only on one area or you are hoping to give advice you can incorporate this in the title too, Family travel Tips and Tricks, Solo travelling hacks and all. However, try not to be too specific unless you are sure this is all you really want to focus on.
If you want to be more of a generic blogger that writes about daily life and wants to eventually end up working with brands and reviewing products then you could go with something like One stop review shop or This family reviews it all.
Avoid jumping in with a name until you are clear what you want to write about and then check that name fits.
What does it look like written as a website?
This might sound daft but read the title of your blog as one word. When the website is written in www. format down does your title still say what you think it should or could it now be read differently and maybe even inappropriately? Trust me I have seen a few that look like swear words until you realise there should be fingers paces between some letters. This isn’t always an issue but can put brands off if you have a baby blog that reads mummy shit back instead of mummys hit back, these become two very different blogs! Which makes me want to remind you to check your spelling, apostrophes and changing words to plurals.
Check it doesn’t already exist
Things to avoid when piking a blogging name
Okay so now you know some things to think about when picking your blog name but what should you avoid, well actually quite a lot. Here are some of the most important things.
Anything related to ages of children
These change very quickly and suddenly your blog named 2 under 2 is actually a blog about primary school kids not toddlers and the people coming to your blog looking for advice on potty training can’t find it so leave straight away.
Using the names of your child or your partner
Your kids might decide they don’t want to be associated with your blog when they hit high school. This might be hard to believe now if they are fully on board, or it might seem years off if they are currently babies but if you still have your blog in a few years that probably means it’s doing well and the last ting you will want to do is take it down because you’ve split up with your partner or your kids don’t want to be involved, so avoid using names.
Avoid using specific places
You can still niche down your blog to a certain area but I would avoid being too specific in the name in case you move and want to continue blogging but now all your press trips are in Devon and your blog is called the Lake District Lovers, it just isn’t going to work.
Once you have an idea for a name the next thing you need to do is check it oesnt already exist. You can do this by typing it into google and seeing what comes up or by checking that the domain name exists. However, I would also check social media channels to make sure there isn’t someone who has a social account with this name but no blog as that could become problematic as you will eventually want all your socials and blog to match.
How did I pick the name for my blog?
So many people ask me how I chose the name, The Strawberry Fountain, for my blog and so I thought I’d let you in on the secret, I ignored all of the above. Would I change the name if I could go back in time? yes probably as I am forever having to explain what it means, especially to brands.
When I first started writing my blog I knew that I wanted to talk about two things: parenting and beauty reviews. I knew that I wanted something that could cover both so names like The Parent Blogger or Beauty Unearthed were a no no. I also knew that the big plan would be to write full time and long term therefore I wanted a name that could grow with my interests and hopefully my business so names like Baby, Beauty and Me, or Mummy and Mascara were also out.
I wanted a name that was cute and girly, that didn’t give the game away (so I could change my topics if I wanted to) and that made people wonder what it was, hopefully enough to check it out. I don’t recommend this tactic, people are lazy, make it obvious.
My favourite colours have always been pinks and purples and despite being scared of pretty much everything that flies I have always liked the look of butterflies, so delicate and pretty (as long as they don’t fly to close to me, or worse yet land on me), so I chose the name The Purple Butterfly. I liked how it could represent the evolving state of my career from hobby writer to, hopefully, full time writer and I liked how it sounded. I also thought it would enable me to come up with some nice graphics to go along side the title.
But of course it wasn’t meant to be as the website was unavailable, somebody had beaten me to it and I was back at the drawing board.
Picking a name was harder than I thought it would be, I knew what I didn’t want but what did I actually want?
I wanted an escape, somewhere that wasn’t painted blue, revolved around cars, trains or super heros, somewhere I could remind myself I was a girl despite living in a house that was over run by my boys and all their blues.
I wanted a little piece of pink in a word full of blue
The strap line came first as you can see and from there I guess the idea of a little trickle of pink like a garden fountain came to mind and then from know where The Strawberry Fountain popped in to my head. It seemed to perfectly represent this image of a small girlie space surrounded by boys that I wanted to create and after a quick search whilst holding my breath I realised the domain was available and The Strawberry Fountain could become my little piece of pink in a world full of blue.
Of course, as I’m sure all children do, my boys have managed to infiltrate this space of my life just like they have every other and I now find myself writing less and less about all things pink and girlie and more and more about the boys, the things they like and the places we go. But I write it all in my very pink office, so I guess that’s okay!
I hope this helps you understand a little more about how to pick a name for your blog.