Trade business name generator

What makes a trade name work

A trade business name has three jobs: being sayable down a phone line, being findable in local search, and not making somebody wonder what you do. Everything else is decoration.

The two patterns that hold up are your own name and a local one. Your own name signals that a person is accountable, which matters when you are letting someone into your house. A local name — the town, the road, the landmark — signals you are nearby, which is the other thing people are really asking.

Check before you fall in love

Before you print anything, check three things: whether the business name is available to register where you trade, whether the domain is free, and whether a trademark search turns up a conflict in your sector.

That last one catches people out. Registering a business name is not the same as having the right to use it — a trademark holder can require you to stop, after the van is wrapped and the site is built. This tool suggests names. It cannot and will not tell you any of them are free to use.

The usual mistakes

• Words nobody can spell after hearing them once on the phone
• 'Solutions', 'Services', 'Group' — filler that makes a one-van business sound like it is hiding something
• Naming yourself after one service, then spending a decade explaining you do the others too
• Anything that looks like an established local firm; you will get their complaints