Help! Losing Sleep Over a Business Name...

Hello everyone!

Okay...so...I'm having massive difficulties with choosing a name for a potential future soap making business. :roll: I am a quirky sorta gal so I truly think that if I could just find a name to work under, that would be a ginormous motivator for me! The more I can "visualize" the quicker I'll be able to move forward with inspiration.

I've been contemplating names for an entire year already & NOTHING has stood out for me. During all of my research, notes, forum surfing & YouTubing I always find myself interrupted with a need to find a name. I've seen SO many cool names out there and can't help but think, "****! I wish I thought of that!" Lol!! Needless to say, it's been quite frustrating for me. roblem:

I believe that a name should be both "magnetic" as well as partially reflect it's creator's spirit. Sooo........

#1. I am an absolute dreamer
#2. I am a SyFy/Fantasy nerd (in other words, I love MAGIC!)
#3. I respect Mother Nature
#4. I'm a HUGE Tim Burton fan (Alice in Wonderland is a fav!!)
#5. I'm attracted to anything Steam Punk
#6. Love simple but catchy single word or short names. (Hello! "Alchemy & Ashes", "Newt & Fig"...AMAZING names!!).
#7. I am addicted to CANDY!!!

I'm hoping that as I move forward in the forum I WILL remember to compliment other amazing names that I've come across. All of you are so darn clever!!

So...any thoughts?? Many of you have been so utterly amazing with replying to my posts. I'm truly having the time of my life right now & am so grateful for any advice that I've received. I'll be checking in as often as I possibly can & look forward to some fabulous ideas!! Thanks so much for all of your help in my venture thus far!!!

Short names = amazing. easy for clients to remember, but your domain name might alreadybe registered, so be open to alternatives. For example, if your name is sunflower soaps and sunflowersoaps.com is already taken, you might have to consider sunflowersoap.com, sunflowersoaps.net or sunflower-soap-iowa.com, etc.

Stay away from Hollywood - Tim Burton's interpretation of Alice is protected by a number of copyrights. Fair use does not cover you making money. Putting a disclaimer like "I'm not meaning to infringe on anyone's copyright, I just like this movie," doesn't count either. Neither does using their images from Google. It's not yours, don't touch it. However, the entire concept of Alice in general IS open - it's old enough to be in the public domain, so maybe you can do a Steampunk Alice theme. "White Rabbit Magic Soaps" is a potential name in that example. Make sure you come up with your own art though, you can't use someone else's without permission, period.

Try doing some brain storming. Write down words you like, throw them in a hat and pull them out and rearrange them til you get something you like. Here's some starters:

Alice
Wonderland
White Rabbit
Cheshire Cat
Red Queen
Rose Garden
Steampunk
Victorian
Victoria
Super
Future
Metalworks
Soapworks
Soap
Bath and Body
Natural
Naturals
Mother Nature
Pagan
Druid
Earth
Sky
Air
Fire
Water
Candy
Sweet
Lolly


Out of this I got:

A Victorian Future Bath & Body
Alice's Dream Soap Kitchen
Soap Candy
The Red Queen's Soap Garden
Super Natural Soapworks (or, supernatural soapworks)
Alice vs. The Elements - A Bath and Body Shop with a Super Natural Twist

See, pretty easy. For me anyway. Good luck!

Lenimae's Soap Candy...... lol! Hot Steamy Punk Soaps! Alice's Natural Wonderland Soap! Mad Hatter's Soapworks! I Dream of Soap! SyFi Soaper!

Another thing you want to keep in mind when choosing a business name is your business plan. What do you want your clients--and potential clients--to associate with your product? In many cases, your business name is a person's first introduction to you. What do you want that introduction to say? What traits do you want them to associate to you? This is all part of branding.

For example, if you want people to associate your soaps with luxury, you want to look at words, phrasing, and imagery that reflects that. Same thing with whimsy, fun, etc.

If you've been thinking about this for a year, you obviously are serious about doing this and want to do it right. Think about not only who you are but also what you want to say/reflect to the public, and go from there.

Nature's Apothecary was the first thing that came to mind. Dreamer's Apothecary, Earthly Delights Soapworks, Aether Apothecary... just a few thoughts... by the way, we have a lot in common ;-)

Afrothecary (of course, that could be read as Afro the cary, instead of aFROTHecary)

Froth & Cog

Frothonaut (I like the word froth, apparently)

Looking Glass Soapery

Oh, I like Froth and Cog

WOW PEOPLE! I cannot express how much I love you all right now, lol!! You are absolutely AMAZING!!! I cannot thank you enough for all of your input, advice & suggestions. You have helped me out more than you can possibly imagine! Yaaay, so excited! Once I do finally pick a name I'll be sure to post it asap.

@ ParkSoap -- I totally agree with Badger! Uber cool name!! At the risk of sounding like an idiot...lol...how did you come up with "Froth & Cog"? I really am lovin' it right now but don't know if it's short for any soap related terminology??

@ 2lilboots -- "Steamin' Punk Soap Co." suddenly came to me as well thanks to your "Steam Punk" related suggestion!

Once again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for taking the time to help me out! You guys are awesome! If anything else comes to mind PLEASE do keep the suggestions coming!!!

You could also try the brainstorming exercise I suggested above. Or use the name suggestions given as a starting point to brainstorm your own. In the end it's your company so you have to decide for yourself what to call it. Good luck, a year is a long time!

I like Froth & Cog also I also thought of "Steam Punk Soaps" reading the OP. Nice and simple. Wish I'd thought of it

So many great ideas here! As you wrote CANDY in all caps I get the impression you like it a lot! I thought of Soap Candy but that's already taken. However, Steamin' Punk Soap Co. also stands out and it's keyword friendly!

melstan775 said:

You could also try the brainstorming exercise I suggested above. Or use the name suggestions given as a starting point to brainstorm your own. In the end it's your company so you have to decide for yourself what to call it. Good luck, a year is a long time!

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I will try the brainstorming exercise for sure. It actually sounds kinda fun, lol! Thanks so much!!

Sweet Dreams
Dream Maker
Abracadabra
Magic Bubbles
Magic confection

Lenimae said:

@ ParkSoap -- I totally agree with Badger! Uber cool name!! At the risk of sounding like an idiot...lol...how did you come up with "Froth & Cog"? I really am lovin' it right now but don't know if it's short for any soap related terminology??

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I read apothecary and immediately froth came to mind, so I started thinking of things to go with that. You mentioned steampunk, so I started thinking of gears and cogs, so Froth & Cog came from that. I don't think cog has any relation to soap making, unless you think of cogs as being a part of manufacturing, then it could be connected that way.

There's also a cool little store in my neighborhood called Cog & Pearl, so that probably had something to do with it as well.

I've been wracking my brain, thinking about the same things!

As for you, how about something along the lines of Body Candy...?

lisamaliga said:

So many great ideas here! As you wrote CANDY in all caps I get the impression you like it a lot! I thought of Soap Candy but that's already taken. However, Steamin' Punk Soap Co. also stands out and it's keyword friendly!

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I do love candy! Hmmm, maybe a little too much, lol! The thing I love about it is actually the smell & all of the glorious colors!! My goal is to make colorful yummy smelling soaps that look like they came out of a Willy Wonka Factory! Wouldn't THAT just be AMAZING?!!

I had come up with "Spa Candy ~ Bath & Body Treats" but didn't know if I liked it enough to LOVE it. I never did check if it was even available. :roll: I always seem to drift back towards it though...

Lenimae said:

I do love candy! Hmmm, maybe a little too much, lol! The thing I love about it is actually the smell & all of the glorious colors!! My goal is to make colorful yummy smelling soaps that look like they came out of a Willy Wonka Factory! Wouldn't THAT just be AMAZING?!!

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Keep thinking along those lines and you will come up with the right name & some yummy looking products.

Here's a site that has some inspiring looking products. The packaging is simple but effective. http://treatbeauty.com/category/71679612321/1/The-Bath-Truffle.htm

Thank you, Lisa! I'll definitely check it out!!

Creative how you came up with Froth & Cog, ParkSoap!! It's both catchy & unique.

Thanks so much everyone!!

My name came to me before I even thought of selling...just popped into my head one day
I clicked on your post because a friend of mine recently asked me to help her name her new jewelry business and she wanted something Celtic/magical, but easy to pronounce and not off-putting to potential conservative clients. Needless to say she shot down my favorites:
Dichotomy
Erzuli
And BTW, just a word of warning about using "Apothecary" in your name...a friend of mine who is a master herbalist had a shop named "(her last name)'s Herbal Apothecary" and after several years in business, someone apparently complained to the FDA about her use of the term...long story short; she was forced to change the name since she didn't have a pharmacist's license.

cerelife said:

I clicked on your post because a friend of mine recently asked me to help her name her new jewelry business and she wanted something Celtic/magical, but easy to pronounce and not off-putting to potential conservative clients. Needless to say she shot down my favorites:

Click to expand...

cerelife said:

Dichotomy
Erzuli

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A lot of people don't know how to pronounce "dichotomy" when reading it, so I wouldn't use it, although it really is a pretty word.

I'm a gamer so I've had times in my life where I had to come up with a character name that wasn't already taken in a game. There is an Elvish Name Generator here (apparently my Elvish name is Eámanë Carnesîr) and it also does Hobbit names (Bramblerose Loamsdown of Deephallow LOL).

I wanted unique ethereal names for my perfumes so I use the Angel name generator here.

There's a Steampunk Name Generator here. It gave me Queen Martha Penchin Cowley (Aristocracy) or R. Semple Hopwood (Commoner)

There are also searchable word dictionaries online where you can put in a word and it'll give you the Celtic, Gaelic, etc. For example, words in Gaelic that can mean soap:

snàthad...
snàthainn
sneachd
snigh
snìomh
snìomhaiche
snodha
snodhach
snotraich
snuadh
so
soap
sóbhrach
soc
socair
sochair
sochar
socharach
socrach
socraich
sodal
sodan
sodar

Although I do not think that "snotraich" is a good name for a soap company

Ok that was fun Lemme know if you need me to find other such sites for ya!