Tips & Ideas For Naming A Bar

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Last Updated on October 11, 2020

Considering there are more than 59,000 bars in the United States alone, it’s no surprise settling on a unique name when starting a bar business is no easy task.

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

What bar names are you allowed to use? How do you come up with a creative name that represents your brand best? And what about effective business name best practices?

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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 best bar name and how to make sure your favorite choices are available to use.

Let’s dive in!

Tips for Choosing the Perfect Bar Name

If you’re struggling to choose a catchy name for your bar, 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. Location-Specific Terms

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

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 bar 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.

3. Consider Alliterations and Rhyming Words

Alliterations and rhymes are catchy and easy to remember. Because of that, they make for great bar 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 Draft Depot or B for Boogie Bar or whatever letter you’re using to create an alliteration. Alternatively, you can search “words that rhyme with _____” like Star Bar.

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.

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 be used in a logo. For instance, a bar could use an image of a beer stein or wine glass and focus the name around the image.

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6. 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.

7. Look at the Names of Other Dog Grooming Businesses

Here is a list of common bar names of existing bars that may help give you some creative bar name 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!

007 Pub
2 Ladys & A Pub
210 Tavern
24th Street Bar
40 Thieves San Jose
Alchemy Tavern
Ale House Pub
Alibi Bar
Alpha Bar
Authentic Cocktails
Avery Saloon
AZ Karaoke & Bar
Babe’s Lounge
Back Corner Bar & Grill
Badfish Bar
Bar 17
Bar Bodega
Bar Life
Bar On Delores
Bar Works
Bark Bar
Barrels Saloon
Black Thorn Pub
Blades & Bottles
Boiler Room
Bottle & Barlow
Bottomless Pit
Bright Bar Co
Broken Drum Bar
Bug Out Bar
Buzz Works Sports Tavern
Cajun Pub
Cancun Bar & Lounge
Capitola Tap House
Casual Pint Central Phoenix
Cat House
Challenger Tap House
Chantilly’s
Clayton’s Public House
Copper City Saloon
Corner Bar At 352
Corner Tavern
Cosmic Shift Bar
Cowboy Palace Saloon
Cowtown Tavern
Crazy Harry’s Bar
Crossroads Tavern
Crow Bar
Cycle Bar
Dirtbag Bar
Dirty Blonde Tavern
Double D’s Sports Bar
Double Deuces Sports Lounge
Drink Houz
El Gringo Kanteen
El Patron Bar
Electric Sports Lounge
Empire Tavern
End Zone
Essence Tavern
Far From Folsom
Farmer’s Union Pour House
Father Paddy’s Local Irish Pub
Fire By The Lake
Firehouse Hookah Lounge
First Round Sports Bar
First Seat Bar & Grill
Flight Line Tap Room
Freezer’s Ice House
French Rooster’s Honky Tonk
Gander Taphouse
Geartooth Alewerks
Glen Bar & Billiards
Good Time Bar
Grandma’s Sports Bar & Grill
Green Room Bar
Gym Sports Bar & Grill
Hangar
Happy Hour Saloon
Harry’s Sports Bar & Grill
Hello Penny Bar
Heroes Pub & Grub
Hideaway Bar
High Dive Bar
Hole In The Wall
Hometown Heroes
Hop Social Tavern
Hop Street Lounge
Hopper’s Corner Saloon
House Of Bards
Hundred Proof
Ice House
J J’s Bar & Billiards
Jimmy’s Famous American Tavern
Johns Place
Karma Brew Pub
Keg Sluggers
Las Vegas Bar & Billiards
Local Publichouse
Lockwood Sport Saloon
Lucky Strikes
Mia’s Martini
Michelada Factory Sports Bar
Mission Bar
Monkey Bar
Mr. Brews Taphouse
Mule Creek Saloon
Nautilus Tavern
Number One On Fifth
Oasis Sports Bar
O’Connor’s Twisted Tavern
Old Fashioned Social Drinkery
Open Bar Tavern
Our Place
Outlaw Tavern
Pacific Libations
Pacific Pourhouse
Pink Bunny’s
Plan B Taphouse
Pour Co
Pour House
Press Wine Bar
Pub At The Creamery
Rebel Republic Social House
Red Moon Ale House
Rewined Beer & Wine Bar
River Rock Taproom
Roadhouse 95 Grill
Rock N Ronnies
Rooster Tavern
Rusty Horn Saloon
Savannah’s Old Town Saloon
Shamrocks Irish Pub
Six Pak Sports Bar
Six Shooter Saloon
Sly Fox Irish Pub
Space Saloon
Splash Wine Bar
Splitrock Tap & Wheel
Starfish Lounge
Str8 Ball Sports Bar
Street Side Ale House
Symmetry Bar
Tahoe Tavern
Tavern At The Vogue
Tavern Project
Three Canyon Beer & Wine Garden
Three Twenty Three
Tipsy Cactus
True Grit Tavern
Whiskey Roads

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.

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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 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 bar 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.

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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 bar 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 name ideas for naming your bar. 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 bar name!