Tips For Naming A Convenience Store

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Last Updated on October 2, 2020

There are more than 40,000 convenience stores in the United States alone. So, it’s no surprise settling on a unique name when starting a convenience store feels impossible.

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

Are all the good convenience store business names already taken? How do you come up with something fresh? And what about knowing when a name is available 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 a catchy name and how to make sure your favorite choices are available across the board.

Let’s dive in!

Tips for Choosing the Perfect Convenience Store Name

If you’re struggling to choose a company name for your convenience store, 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. Location-Specific Terms

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

2. 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 convenience 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 your target market can easily find you.

3. Consider Alliterations and Rhyming Words

Alliterations and rhymes are catchy and easy to remember. Because of that, they make for great small 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 C” to come up with a name like Corner Convenience or E for Easy Eats 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 in this stage. Just write them all down as some of the more interesting ones may spark better ideas later.

4. 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.

5. Imagery Words

Another consideration when brainstorming name ideas is whether there are industry related words that could also lend themselves to also be used in a logo. For instance, a convenience store could use shopping cart or a shopping bag and focus the name around the image

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6. 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 (or even the name of a family member) 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 convenience 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 is after the list of names!

10th Street Convenience Store
1340 Mini Market
158 West Gate Food Corp
16 General Store
24 Hour Store
54th Street Convenience Store
789 Mini Market
A & A Stop & Shop
A M Convenience Store
A Quick Stop
A To Z Mini Mart
A1A Convenience Store
All American Snack Shack
Alltown Fresh
Ana Snack Bar
Andy’s Mini Market
Annie J’s Snack Shack
Apopka Quick Mart
At Ur Convenience
Avenue D Convenience Mart
B & J’s Mini Mart
B & M Off Leesbrrg
B & P’s Community Store
Beaver Quick Mart
Big Apple Convenience Market
Boundless Snacks
Bradley Mini Mart
Brian’s Discount Market
Bristol Convenience & Deli
Bros Mini Mart
Brothers Convenient Store
B’s Family Mart
Bubba’s Stop N Go
Budget Food Store
BZ Food Mart
Campbell Snacks National
Carlie Convenience Store
Caroline’s Pantry
Carroll’s Corner Market
Convenience To Go
Cooper’s Country Creations
Corner Pantry
Corner Store Convenience
Crossway Foodmart
C-Store 616
Da Kurve One Stop
Dade City Go Mart
Discount Convenience Store
Discount Food Mart
Discount KWIK Shop
Dollar & Up Convenience Store
Duval’s Urban Pantry
Eagle Market
Eastside Food Store
Easy Shop
Econo Mart
Elemental Mini Market
Empire Mini Mart
Express Mart
Fair Haven Mini Market
Fast Track
Feel Good Shop
Felo Man Mini Market
First Snack Stop
Five Points Convenience Store
Flagler Quick Stop Corp
Flamingo Mini Mart
Food Mart
Foodie Express
Fresh 2 Go Market
Friendly Mart Beer & Wine
Get N Go
Go Market
Grab ‘n Go Mart
Grabin-Go
Green Cove Food Store
Guilford Food Stop
Hall’s Minit Mart
Happy Food Mart
Happy Snacky
Healthy Always 365 Food Pantry
Healthy Snacks & More
High Falls Market
High Score Marketplace
Highway Mini Mart
Hot Box Food Shop
Hourglass Munchies
I Got The Juice
In & Out Food Mart
Indian River Snacks
J & J Quick Stop
Jax Mini Mart
Jax Quick Stop
Jet Food Store
Joe’s Grocery
Jojo Mini Market
Kangaroo Express
King’s Mini Mart
Kwick Stop
L A Guadalupe Stop & Shop
Las Americas Mini Market
Latinos Mini Market
Lawn Convenience Store
Laybranko Grocery Store
Liberty Go
Lily’s One Stop Mini Mkt
Lozanos Mini Mart
Lucky Food Mart
Lucy Mini Market
Luigi’s Convenience Shop
Lulu’s Mini Market
Mango Food Mart
Maxwell’s Corner
Mid Way Mini Mart
Midway Qwik Stop
Mike’s Convenience
Millennium Mini Mart
Miller Foodmart
Mini Mart
Neighborhood Food Store
Neighborhood Market
North Beach Mini Mart
North Main Corner Store
North Port Qwik Stop
Olustee General Store
One Food Stop
One Place Foodmart
One Stop Market
One Stop Mini Market
Orient Mini Market
Paradise Convenience Store
Pecan Park Express Mart
Plaza Market
Prime Stop Food Mart
Princess Convenience
Project Road Trip
Queen’s Qwik Stop
Quick Food Mart
Quick Grab N Go
Quick N E Z Corner Store
Quick Stop
Rooster On 50th
Sensational Snacks
Seven Star Food Mart
Seymour Food Mart
Shift N Drive
Shop & Go Express
Shop N Go
Shop N Save Mini Mart
Six Star Snackbar
Smiles Per Gallon
Smith Quick Shop
Snack Box
Snack Sack
Snacks & Sweets
Snacks Delight
Snacks For All
Snacks R Us
Snak Shak
Snoopy’s Quick Stop
Snowy Mini Mart
Sophie’s Mini Mart
South Main Convenient Store
South Sanderson One Stop
Southside General Store
Speedee Market
Speedy Mini Mart
Sports Corner
Springer Stop & Go
Stop N Go
Stop N Save
Stop N Shop
Stop-N-Save Mart
Tru Family Korner Store
Venice Convenience
Village Grocery Store
Willow Convenience Store
Xpress Food
Xtra Convenience Store
Your Convenience
Z Man Mini Mart

Is Your Name Available to Use?

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.

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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 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 convenience store as a corporation or LLC, you have to register with a unique business name with the state. 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 convenience store 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 ideas to name your convenience 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 convenience store name!