Tips & Ideas For Naming a Donut Shop

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Last Updated on October 15, 2020

Considering there are more than 13,000 donut shops in the United States alone, it’s no surprise settling on a unique name when starting a donut business can be challenging.

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

What donut shop names are you allowed to use? How do you come up with something the represents your brand best? And what about business name best practices?

Related: How to start a donut shop

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 Donut Shop Name

If you’re struggling to choose a company name for your donut shop, one of the best things to do is just to 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 Types of Donuts You Plan to Offer

If you have a favorite flavor of donut, it may be worth considering using these in your donut shop name. Maybe you want to focus on creme-filled or apple fritters or glazed donuts.

Add the different types of flavors you want to be known for and add to your brainstorming list. For a boost of creativity, expand the words around what your business does by using the thesaurus from your word processor or thesaurus.com to come up with additional synonyms.

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 donut shops 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 donut shop 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 for great business names.

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 D” to come up with a name like Delicious Donuts or Dreamy Donuts 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. 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. 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 that could also lend themselves to be used in a logo. For instance, a donut shop could use an image of a donut or coffee or rolling pin and focus the name around the image.

Related: .

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 also plans to 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.

8. Look at Other Donut Business Names

Here is a list of donut shop names from existing businesses 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!

#1 Donut Guys
34th Street South Donuts
55 Park Donuts
7 Days Donuts
911 Donuts
A B C Donuts
Ambrosia Donuts
America’s Donuts Of Main St
Angel Donuts
Baking & Donuts
Beach Donuts
Best Donuts
Better Be Donut
Boston Donuts
Choco Donuts
Cinnamon Roll Donuts
Chris’s Mini Donuts
Chocolate Sprinkles Bakery
Citrus Donut Enterprises
Clearwater Beach Donuts
Crumpy’s Donuts
D & D Donuts
Dad’s Donuts
Dairy Donuts & Sandwiches
Dank Donuts
Danny’s Donuts
Dapper Doughnut
Daylight Donuts
Deaux Boys
Destination Little Donuts
Dey’s Donuts & Croissants
Dilly Dilly Donuts
Dirty Girl Donuts
District Doughnut
Dogs-N-Donuts
Dojo Doughnuts & Coffee
Donnie’s Donuts
Donut & Dog
Donut Bar
Donut Bros
Donut Cafe
Donut Crazy
Donut Daze
Donut Experiment
Donut Fantasy
Donut Gang
Donut Hole
Donut House
Donut Hut
Donut Kings
Donut Madness
Donut Now
Donut Palace
Donut Parlor
Donut Shack
Donut Shop
Donut Snob
Donut Stop
Donut Stop Believin’
Donut Temple
Donut Therapy
Donut Vibe
Donut World
Donutlicious
Donuts & Deli
Donuts Donuts
Donuts New Mesa
Donutty
Doughlicious Doughnuts
Doughnut Break
Doughnut District
Doughnut Dollies
Doughnut Parlor
Doughnut Works
Dover Donut Shops
Downtown Donut Factory
Downtown Donuts
Dr. Doodles Donuts
Dragonfly Donuts Desserts & Deli
Duck Donuts
Duke of Dough
Dutch Country Donuts & Coffee
East Palatka Donuts
Eat My Donuts
Emerald City Donuts
Espanola Way Donuts
Express Donuts
Family Doughnuts
Fantasy Little Donuts
Finest Donuts of San Diego
Five-O Donut Co
Florida Donut Factory
Fluffy Donuts
Foothill Donuts
Fort Pierce Donuts
Gavin’s Donuts
Glaze Donuts
Georgia Donut Bar
Glaze Like A Donut
Glazed & Confuzed Donuts
Golden Doughnuts
Golden Gates Doughnuts
Gourmet Doughnuts
Granny’s Donuts
Habit Doughnut Dispensary
Happy Baker
Happy Donuts
Heidi’s Country Cakey Donuts
Hidden Doughnut Shop
High Voltage Donuts
Hole In One Donuts
Holistic Donut
Hollywood Donuts
Holy Donuts
Hometown Donuts
Hurts Donut Co
I Donut Care
I Heart Donuts
Infinity Donuts
Jelly Modern Doughnuts
Jupiter Donuts Of Largo
Kickn Doughnut
King Mini Donuts
Lickin Good Donuts
Local Donut
Louks Greek Baby Donuts
Mag’s Donuts & Bakery
Maynard’s Donut Co
Mini Doh! Nuts!
Mini Donut World
Mini Doughnuts Rule
Mr. Donuts & Bakery
Ocala Mini Donuts
Oh Donuts
One Stop Donut Shop
Paradise Donuts
Patterson Donuts & Cafe
Peace Love & Little Donuts
Race Track Road Donuts
Ray’s Donut Shop
Rolling Donut
Salty Donut
Shaka Donuts
Simply Done Donuts
Sir Dippin Donuts
Skinny Donuts
Southern Maid Doughnuts
Sugar and Spice
Sunny Donut
Sunrise Donuts
Superfly Donuts
Sweet Puff Donuts
Sweet Retreat Donuts
Swillerbee’s Craft Donuts
Swiss Donuts
Take The Donuts
Tarpon Springs Donuts
Taste of Heaven Donuts
Tasty Donuts
Tasty Doughnuts
Tennessee Donut Crazy
Texas Donut Professor
The Baker’s Dozen
The Donut Fairy
The Doughnut Oregon
The Donutery
Tiger Point Donuts
Trio Donut & Coffee
Valkyrie Doughnuts
Velvet Cream Doughnuts
Victory Donuts
Vintage Doughnut
Voodoo Doughnut
West Coast Donut Factory
White Cup Donut
Wongz Donutz
World’s Fare Donut

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 business name you’re considering and cross off those that aren’t available.

Learn more about

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 uses 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. Still, at a basic level, someone can’t open a business 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 your donut shop as a corporation or LLC, you must 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.

Related: ?

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 donut shop names on social media. 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.

Hopefully, you now have some good donut shop name ideas. 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 donut shop name!