Tips For Naming a Record Store

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Last Updated on October 3, 2020

With all the record stores in the United States, it’s no surprise settling on a unique name when starting a record store business can be frustrating.

Picking the right name gives potential customers an idea about the products and services your business provides, creates a good first impression, and helps you stand out from the competition.

What record store names are you allowed to use? How do you come up with something the represents your brand best? And what names are available for you to use?

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If you’re not sure how to answer those questions, you’re in the right place. Keep reading to learn my top tips for choosing the perfect business name and how to make sure your favorite choices are available across the board.

Let’s dive in!

Tips for Choosing the Perfect Record Store Name

If you’re struggling to choose a company name for your record shop, one of the best things to do is to just start brainstorming. As you go through the tips outlined below, make a list of words, phrases, and terms associated with your business.

From there, you can narrow down the list and cross off ideas you don’t like.

Once you have several top considerations, we’ll walk through how to make sure you’re allowed to use them. This last step helps you narrow down your list even more so you can make a final decision.

1. Consider the Services You Plan to Offer

There are countless types of musical genres, so one source of inspiration could be the type of music you love or plan to specialize in. Maybe you want to focus on hip-hop, or classic rock, or even indie rock. Or maybe you plan on focusing on local artists.

Whatever your focus, add the elements of different types of music you plan to sell to your brainstorming list.

Remember to avoid anything limiting your business’s future growth if you decide to go in another direction down the road.

2. Location-Specific Terms

Many record stores are specific to a geographic service area. So, if that’s true for your business, consider adding a location-specific term to your business name.

You can consider things like:

City nicknames
Neighborhoods
Regions or states
And descriptive terms

However, consider what happens if you expand outside your intended service area. Does the name become limiting? If so, it’s best to avoid it if you plan to expand or change directions later.

3. Avoid Business Names That Are Hard to Pronounce, Hear, or Spell

Despite the technological advances of voice search, assistants like Siri and Alexa struggle to understand slang and other confusing words.

This could limit how often your business shows up in voice (and text-based) search if your name is hard to spell, pronounce, or hear. Because of that, it’s important to avoid complicated words, industry jargon, and using numbers in place of letters. While having a unique record store name is good, being too unique may not be so good.

Keep your business name as simple and easy to remember as possible so potential customers can easily find you.

4. Consider Alliterations and Rhyming Words

Alliterations and rhymes are catchy and easy to remember. Because of that, they make an unforgettable name for your record store.

That said, it’s not always easy to come up with them. Start with choosing a few of your favorite words from your master brainstorm list.

Then, you can Google “words that start with M” to come up with a name like Melody Masters or R for Retro Records or whatever letter you’re using to create an alliteration. Alternatively, you can search “words that rhyme with _____”.

It can be time-consuming, but it’s an excellent place to start.

And don’t forget to add any exciting finds to your brainstorm list while you’re at it. Try not to overthink the names you come up with during this stage. Just write them all down as some of the more interesting ones may spark better ideas later.

5. Steer Clear of Initials or Obscure Acronyms

Initials and unusual acronyms are hard to remember, so they typically don’t make great business names of record stores. They can also be challenging to pronounce and confusing for voice search as well.

Furthermore, there are 325 different two-letter combination possibilities in the English language. And the odds of your customers remembering the specific letters you chose are pretty small.

6. Imagery Words

Another consideration when brainstorming name ideas is whether there are industry-related words music fans could relate to that could also lend themselves to also be used in a logo. For instance, a record store could use an image of a record or record player needle and focus the name around the image.

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7. Still Struggling? Try the Owner’s Name

If you’ve made it this far and are still struggling to find the best name, you can always consider using the business owner’s name. Doing so works well if the owner plans to also be the face behind the business.

Something to keep in mind is that using the owner’s name as the business name can make it more challenging to sell the business in the future.

Still Needing Inspiration?

Here is a list of existing independent record store names that may help give you some creative ideas. While many of these names may be available for you to use, be sure to check first to be sure it can be used.

Tips on how to check business name availability are after the list of names!

10 Million Discs
13th Floor Music & Accessories
A & S Record Shop
Algonquin Records
All Fusion Music & Electronic
Apprentice Music
Asylum Records
Atlantic Sounds
Babs Records
Basin Street Records
Bay Sound
Bayberry Music
Beatport
Been Around Records & CDs
Best Little Record Store
Better Days Records, Tapes & CDs
Big KAT Music
Big Kids Cd’s & Games
Black Wax Records
Blast From The Past
Blue Jay Way Records
Broadway Records
Budget Tapes & Records
Bull Moose Music
Capital Compass Music Shop
CD Exchange
CD Warehouse
Chain Reaction Records
Charlemagne Record Exchange
City Music
Classic Tunes Music
Confidential Record
Cool Runnings Music Store
Corner Record Shop
County Line Trading Post
Daddyo’s Record Rack
Dat Disc
Dave’s Records
Disc Replay
Domino Sound Record Shack
Drake Vintage Music & Curios
Ducks Flying Discs
Dusty Groove
Dyno Records
Eagle Valley Music
Earth Pig Music
El Suprimo Records
Electric Fetus
Fifi Records Shop
First Step Records
Fort Walton Vintage Records
Goodboy Vinyl
Great Scott Records &Tapes
Groovy Records
Hear Again Music & Movies
High Fidelity
Hip Cat Records & Music Videos
Hippie Cat’s Music Exchange
Hollywood Music & Movies
Hoofbeat Records
House Rockers Records Shop
Joe’s Albums
Joseph Street Records
Ka-Chunk Records
Karma Records
Laurie’s Planet Of Sound
Let’s Boogie Records & Tapes
Lucky Charms Records
Luvin Music
Main Street Records
Memory Lane Music
Music Meister
Music Trader
Musicland
Mystery Train Records
Off The Record Miami
On Top Records
Play By Play Record Shop
Record Connection
Record Exchange
Record Rack
Reggae Land Muzik
Rocket Records
Salty Dog Records Sarasota
Saturday Night Records
Smash Records
Sonic Boom
Spinnin’ Discs
Tape Town
The Record Parlor
Triple Play Records
Turn It Up
Turnt Up Musik Records
Ugly Mike’s Records
Underground Sounds
Vintage Vinyl Record Shop
Vinyl Solution Sounds
Wascal’s Wecords & Stuff
Weirdo Records
Welfare Records
Wild Cherry Compact Disc
Yesterday & Today Records
Yesterday’s Memories
Zia Record Exchange
Zodiac Record Shop

Checking the Availability of Your Top Considerations

At this point, you should have several top considerations to choose from. And the best way to narrow it down further is to check each one for availability.

This step is vital because using a name that someone else is using could be very costly, time-consuming to rebrand your business, and possibly embarrassing. There are several places to look to check whether a name is available to use, so let’s walk through each one.

Trademark Search

Trademarks are the most critical, so we’ll start here.

If a name or phrase is trademarked, you’re not allowed to use it in a similar capacity. So, run a trademark search for each brand name you’re considering and cross off those that aren’t available.

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Local Search

Just because there isn’t a federal trademark on a name doesn’t mean the name you want is available. That’s because there is a trademark known as a common law trademark. A common law trademark isn’t filed anywhere but provides someone who is using that name in commerce some limited rights in their geographical area to use the name. It can be hard to define how far geographically these rights extend as each industry is different, but at a basic level, someone can’t open a local store and name it the same or similar name as a competing business in town. If you think the name could potentially create confusion with customers, it is usually best to just find another one to use to avoid potential legal issues down the road.

To do a local search, open up the phone book (if you still have one), and do a Google search to see if there are any local competitors with a similar business name to the one you want to use.

Cross off any similar names from your list and take the rest and let’s keep checking.

State Entity Search (If Applicable)

If you plan to register the name of the record store as a corporation or LLC, you have to register with a unique business name. Each state requires every corporation or LLC to register a unique name for their entity. This doesn’t necessarily protect your name from anyone else using it, but nobody can register a corporation or LLC under the same name in your state.

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If you find the name is in use, cross it off your list and move on.

Domain Name Availability

Website addresses aren’t as critical as the first three searches, but it’s still worth doing. Typically, you want your domain name to be “yourbusinessname.com” without any numbers, dashes, etc.

It’s easiest for customers to remember, but these are hard to come by.

However, you can explore other configurations and extensions if your preferred domain name isn’t available. Just remember your customers may have a more difficult time finding you online.

You can start with . Type in the domain name you want to use to see if it’s available. The tool also returns other possibilities you may want to consider.

Social Media Profiles

Next, especially if you are stuck between a couple of names, check and see if anyone is already using your potential record store names on the main social media channels. Consider which platforms you plan to use and start with those.

Keep in mind you may have to shorten your company name for some platforms. Twitter only allows 15 characters, for example.

Start with your preferred platforms and do a quick search for your name. If nothing pops up, that likely means no one is using it, and you’re good to go.

Example: Someone is using startingyourbusiness on Instagram, so I would have to choose a different handle, making it more difficult for customers to find me.

Vanity Phone Number

An inexpensive way to make your small business stick out and is easier for your customers to remember is to get a custom phone number with your business name. These are affordable too, with pricing typically around $10-$25 per month, depending on the level of features you need.

Companies like and let you type in words to quickly see if a local or toll-free number is available.

Hopefully, you now have some ideas to name your record store. Once you have this list narrowed down to just a few and researched that they are all available, start asking friends, family, and potential customers their thoughts to get feedback and then pick your perfect record store name!