[MakinTheBestOfIt]

There has been talk both here and elsewhere about business names.  Some are trying to change theirs others are wondering if they should use real names or names that describe their craft....so, how did you come up with your business name?

Ours came because I was at a crossroads with a lot of health problems.  Trying to start a business at that point was taking the worst and "Makin the Best Of It."  MBOI was an offshoot of that on forums when people didn't want to type the full name they would shorten it to MBOI.

[aimeesrockworks]

When my husband and I were brainstorming names he suggested that I use my first name and then something to describe what I was selling. He has a company (with a totally random name) and said a retail business would sound more friendly if my real name was linked. I went to our local business records website and started typing our ideas into the tradename search... viola.  Aimee's Rock Works.

Thankfully there aren't as many Aimee's as Amy's so I had a lot to choose from.

I also think he wanted my name to be in it so when I came whining to him he could reply with "Hey, figure it out, it's Aimee's Rock Works."  (he still gets a slightly evil grin when saying this too)

[MrsWTownsend]

I chose Gina's Jewels based on my sisters suggestion, as I was at a complete loss.  As it turn's out (upon buying my domain name) there is another Gina's Jewels out there.    I have even been contacted by her customers who have been trying to track her down, asking me to honor her guarantee and repair her jewelry...  Now I'm not so thrilled about having that name or even excited about working on my website or adding to it [but it's a done deal].

[Larissa]

I like "Makin The Best of It" also because it sounds like what you do - say, taking plain glass items and making them the best they can be by painting them.  That's how I took it to mean.

As for us... my body art business is officially, according to the Dept. of Taxation, "Face Painting by Larissa."  It was fine at the time, but a mistake when it came to expansion.  Now I mostly use "Face & Body Art by Larissa," though it's not official.  Once I added in temp tats & henna, though, the original doesn't make sense.  Also, at one point I tried to add on balloon twisting, which has nothing to do with anything.  It still isn't great, since my sis works with me sometimes, and she's not "Larissa," but it's tolerable.

Reef Botanicals came about because we were trying to brainstorm good names, and Eric's oldest and most beloved cat, Reef, died the same week we decided to make the soap a business, just a few days before.  He finally asked me, "Can we name it Reef Botanicals?" and I loved the sound of it, so we did it.  I immediately designed our initial logo using a photo of Reef, but now it's the pawprint.  Once E redesigns our site (he's working on it!), it'll have a "Why Reef Botanicals?" explanation too.

[Lajoni]

When I first started using forums etc I made my username ''Lajoni'' as this is the first 2 letters of my childrens names LAURA JOSEPH NICO in age order or else it could just as well have been Nijola or Jolani LOL

When I started selling my painted items and portraits it seemed the natural choice and my FB Fanpage and Blog shop are called ''Lajoni's Place

I did play around with the idea of ''Painting New Memories'' but preferred the more personal of the 2 so called my blog PNM instead

[memoriesinmosaics]

I started my business by making custom pieces  for people using their dishes and keepsakes in the mosaic.  I liked doing it so much I decided to just make some of my own using dishes I found as well as purchased jewelry, etc.
The name doesn't really apply unless I do a custom, but I've had it for a couple of years and don't want to start over.

[JewelrybyNaLa]

I am most LOVIN' these stories!

The way I came up with my business name is similar to the Lajoni story in that NaLa are the first two letters of my first and last names.

[LTDBeads]

Well, I wanted my own website, as in a dot.com. So I searched every combination I could think of, but they were all already taken. Actually, I think some machine goes through every possible combination of words in the dictionary and buys anything that's available. Even Joan's Stones was already taken (not that I really wanted to use that for my name, though I do still have a box out in my garage labeled Joan's Stones. It's 40 years old, in my mom's handwriting, from when I collected stones as a kid.) One day, while visiting a friend, I had a brainstorm. Instead of Beads Ltd, Beads Unlimited, etc., why not just switch it around. So I borrowed his computer for a minute, searched, and found that LTD Beads was available! And bought it right then and there.

Then, I tried to register it with the county clerk. Oh, no, they said, you can't use "LTD" because that means "limited". Well, if "LTD" was your initials, you could use it, but since it isn't, you can't. Now, here's where I really start to love computers. To prove their point they called up "LTD" on their computer with the list of all registered businesses. Lo and behold, at least a dozen popped up immediately. LTD Plumbing sticks in my mind. They were a bit embarrassed. So the decision was that if I could tell them what "LTD" stood for as initials, I could use it for a name. They were patient as I figured something out, we wrote it into the paperwork, and voilá, I bought the name there, too.

[Haffina]

My real first name is Jennifer, and I had a friend growing up who always called me Niff or Niffer - so we decided that was my nickname - but I disliked the way it was spelt, so we came up with Niffah - which is what virtually everyone knew me as. When I went back to TAFE (college sort of thing) in 2004 I had to set up a yahoo account, and Niffah was already taken, so I pondered for a while and then decided to spell Niffah backwards and add an A on the end so it sounded 'female'. So Haffina was born. I then used that name everywhere I signed up online. I eventually joined a forum called Alundra's Conundrum (owned by Jade - the techy person I introduced Andrew to), and when Jade saw all the stuff I was making she decided I should have a store. I sort of ummed and arred, so she went over my head and started a store on the AC which she called Haffina Creations. When I opened up on Artfire I went with the same name (with her blessing ) Then I opened up a Zibbet and called it HaffinaAgain, as a bit of a gag. I also use HaffinaAgain on Etsy and MadeIt.com. My HAFshop is a Haffina Creations, and I have Beads By Haffina on ArtFire as well. I call it the HaffinaCreations Empire LOL I use the same avatar for all of them, so they are all linked, and the banner's are virtually the same.

[PennyFarrow]

My story is pretty obvious, its my name. I knew I would get bored with a quirky name and I wanted it to describe me and change with me so I decided to use my name, after all it works for Mark Newson and a bunch of other designers who started out working in the backyard shed

[MakinTheBestOfIt]

I'm loving reading these!  Everyone seems to come at their business name from a different angle.

[aimeesrockworks]

These stories are really a lot of fun... great question to ask!   

[Dragonclaw]

My name came about this way... I made a "Bear claw" from obsidian and kind of planned to make a bunch of them, but I thought I might be stepping on the toes of some First Nations (native americans).
 My twin, from different parents (same birthday, day, month and year) says she is part dragon... the light went on and I made my first Dragonclaw. Which I gifted to her on our 50th birthday
So that became my name...

[CraftedRoots]

I love everyone's stories!!!! I would love to come up with a more meaningful name. The one we have I pretty much made so we could start selling on Etsy! If I had waited to come up with the perfect one, well, let's just say we wouldn't be selling on Etsy yet. Did I ever mention it took a month for me to OK the name my husband wanted for our daughter? I kept trying to find the perfect one, but nothing stuck. Eventually he taught our son what the baby's name was, so I had no choice but to give in. I'm still working on the perfect name for our Etsy shop, and hopefully Etsy will allow name changes by the time I have it figured out!!

[GrandpaToys]

When my wife and I started our family, we differentiated between the two sets of grandparents by our fathers' hobbies. Since my father loved model railroading, my parents became "Grandma and Grandpa Trains". And, since my father-in-law loved to play chess, my wife's parents became "Grandma and Grandpa Chess".

So, when our daughter told us that she was having our first grandchild, we considered what he would call us. Given my penchant for playing (and, considering I had decorated "my room" with vintage toys), I couldn't resist the idea of "Grandpa Toys". Fortunately, like our mothers before her, my wife didn't mind, either.

Naming my shop after this "persona" is especially meaningful for me because, after developing my first fingertip puppet -- the primary item in my shop -- I used it to entertain my grandson.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/GrandpaToys