Business names - so many clever ones.

Folks - I thought it would be fun to test the waters on some of my builds. I've about got the whole packaging thing down, but then it occurred to me, maybe I need a business name!

There are so many good ones -- I especially liked Esprit Decor. Whoever came up with that was on a roll that day.

Do you think business names should be based on your avatar name, or a play on words?

What is an easy way to get a list of names already used in SL. Is there a succinct list of the classifieds somewhere, maybe SLExchange?

How did you choose your business name?

Karmakanix is nicked from a Jeff Noon novel where it's the name of a business. I just liked the sound of it. It'd be even better if I built vehicles.

The comic is Megatokyo and the character is Tohya Miho. She was introduced in the panel titled "Something darkly cute this way comes." (^_^)y

When I started in SL.. I was absolutely in love with the fact that we could fly. I have long been a fan of jetpacks, from the first time that James Bond conveniently used one to escape a rooftop. When I realized we could make our own stuff in SL, and I had access to a freebie jetpack.. well you can imagine that within my first week or so, I had built a jetpack. A few weeks later, I had made another jetpack... and was working on a third

I really didn't want to build in SL.. honestly, I wanted to be a dancer. It was a strange, and new world to me, and one of my friends said that she knew of a club that was hiring dancers. Well, long story short, it was a BDSM themed club, that attracted a lot of "Shemales" and enthusiastic fans.. and while the owner said I didn't have to run off and go get "the parts" if it made me uncomfortable, my friend repeatedly suggested that the tips would be way better if I did.

Well, I wasn't uncomfortable. What I was.. was poor. After shopping the idea around a bit, I found that most "male genitalia" were really expensive. And there was just no way I was going to spend like L$1000 for a "stage prop". So.. I sat down and built my own.

Fastforward a month or two. A friend of mine was organizing what she called "An All Alt Orgy".. the idea being that people would spin-up a newbie alt, and working only with freebies, they would put together an anonymous sex party. She asked me if I would put together some kind of demo-mode version of the penis I made, and in exchange she'd give me some space in her shop. That worked out for a while, but not long afterwards, her shop closed down, and as she began building what is now a small private estate empire, she offered me the use of her unused mainland, for the purposes of making my first store.

And as we sat there, discussing the idea, I mockingly said.. "A store? for my stuff? What possible kind of store could I have? I'd have to call it "Eclectic Randomness" or something.. because "Winter Ventura's Jetpack & Penis Emporium" isn't going to fit on a sign.

That was an inspiring story. I clearly hang out in the wrong places.

I'll scratch the word "eclectic" from my list. That's okay - I think I'm on to something cool.

I chose mine because the items i sell are My designs (designs by nissa rayna). Thinking of changing that tho here real soon. Need something catchy and memorable, then i'll work on memorable products to sell

Talon Faire It was lyrical and contained my name. Faire sounds mysterious and slightly magical though it is ladies clothes mostly.

I used my last name as well as initials and Designs or all the words...

just starting out may end op changing it to something catchy or funny.

I was just about to post about that.

A new business name can be difficult to choose. Some very good brand-type names only become very good when they become well known. Before then, they are still good but they are not easy to remember. Something more memorable is better, imo, unless a lot of effort is put into getting the name 'out there'.

I am not good with names, so when I first started my business name was RRD (short for RhaRha Designs) I was called RhaRha a lot...

but a few months later I decided to make a logo, and thus from the logo the store name was born and it stuck

Rha! Designs

the logo is just Rha!

I guess just use what works for you

NinjaLand - Back in the early days when I was the only one running land bots people would often be surprised with how fast I was buying land. People would say, "Wow that was quick" and since I was concerned about anyone stealing my awesome new idea I'd always respond, "Yes, I'm fast and deadly... like a ninja!" just to avoid the question.

Anyway, I don't even care or know anything about asian cultures but now I got stuck with this crazy Japanese temple thing for a shop and this whole asian theme going on for the whole business. Crazy.

I'll let you in on this little secret though if you create a business name make sure it contains the word describing what you sell. For example my group Supreme Flock of Land Ninjas and my business NinjaLand all contain the word "land" and so I make a killing based off my awesome search position. Calling your company something random and cool sounding can be random and cool but it might hinder your ability to get off the ground and attract customers.

I picked Heliconia because it was unique at the time. I did a search of SL and all that came up was a heliconia plant being sold at a gardening store. One word. Not a common name. No apostrophes. Can't be confused with any other similar words. Easy to remember. You can run a search for it on the forums and probably pull up threads only related to my store..

Some of my early products were branded 'CODA' from Conifer Dada, not to be confused with another, bigger brand called Coda which was started after mine!
But I don't use that name any more.

What I do like is my Egotherapy branding - I live at the Egotherapy Centre, and I use the name for my social group (semi dormant at the moment but feel free to join it and wake it up!) and my landholding group (closed membership!). I also have an Egotherapy Club, which doesnt really get any business at present, but I'll keep the name if I get into running a real club one day. However, my products don't carry a brand name.

I totally agree Phil, not only is your business name catchy, its very memorable, i still remember it being the first furniture store i went to in SL when I got my first sky box!!

This is my Second business name from starting out not really that long ago, look at place like Corn! One word name yet very memorable .. wonder if Cabbage will work for me?

Cabbage is extremely memorable as a business name. It's very odd for a business name though, but that's because it isn't known. When something like that becomes known, it becomes normal. E.g. Apple, Orange, etc.

Dragon Keep has been the name of my business for years, going on close to a decade now I guess. Every trade I dabbled in was under this name, from posable toy dragons and custom UFO-style plushes to Poser models and Photoshop brushes. When I started making and selling avatars I continued to use the name, partly because I couldn't think of anything else and partly because I like it. Unfortunately Dragon Keep and variations thereof are pretty common, in SL and elsewhere. I don't think many of my customers are very aware of the name, and people are constantly getting my works confused with those of others who sell from my store, or use scripts or animations I made. Technically the SL branch is Dragon Keep Creations, which isn't being used by anyone else as far as I know, but still few actually use the name. The fact that I didn't sell any dragon avatars until a few months after starting probably didn't help either.

Well- I don't sell Talons and I don't hold a Faire- but - I did make Ladies' Fashions part of the land name.

i picked "Hammer of the Gods"

play on my name + make jewelry-silver smith uses hammer type thingy

I thought long and hard about names for what I do and anything I come up with anyone else can too.
So I often keep it associated with my name.
For long time since Dagon Grimm's birth in 2003, which Dagon is part of my fiirst life name having art related business named Dagon Inkworks and Then I briefly had gallery called FD Spark's Doodles & Unbuyables because none of my stuff usually sales.
I can't even sale hand drawn outfit that took hours on onrez because no one notices that I made for 50 to 40L
At one point when I was knew I had Art and fabric store called FD Spark's Art & Fabrics.
I have some pretty long business names too.
Maybe that is problem why it didn't work.
Too Long of a name

Its not my business as such, more my personal art gallery/home but my partner came up with "Jigsaw" which fits my place perfectly.

well we started off by breaking away from a business partner who told us to **** off to hell and die..
hence Apocalips.. heehee

one person's end is another's Genesis.

the japan bit is just where we are from.

I was utterly lacking in imagination that day

Fortunately it has an ok ring to it for what I wanted to convey, so all is not lost.

That IS perfect. Almost a triple entendre.



Your logo is awsome though and drives the name home.

So that brings me to more realizations. I probably need a logo too!? Oh wait. I'm an illustrator. I can handle that. But after picking a name for the business, I probably should name each product as well . . .!

Okay, give me another year and a half.

name i`m using came from what i liked to do, wich is lsl<->web stuff and not be dependent on object keys

name wasn`t used and could be used in general so jumped on it for the lack of imagination
2nd attempt recently failed again and kept keyless again

rocket science is like rezzing a polywood cube compared to thinking about a good, catchy and general name, not to mention logo creation...rather rewrite my scripts then waste a week with 0 results

'Domicile' came about because among other things I sell homes, and one of my ranges is called 'Primflints' because I try to keep them low-prim for 'prim skinflints'