Last Updated on October 15, 2020
Considering there are more than 297,000 bookkeeping businesses in the United States alone, it’s no surprise settling on a unique name when starting your own bookkeeping business can be challenging.
Picking the right name gives potential customers an idea about your business’s services, creates a good first impression, and helps you stand out from the competition.
What bookkeeping business 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?
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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 bookkeeping business name and how to make sure your favorite choices are available to use.
Let’s dive in!
Tips for Choosing the Perfect Bookkeeping Business Name
If you’re struggling to choose a creative name for your bookkeeping business, 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 Services You Plan to Offer
There are several types of services a bookkeeping business can offer, so it’s worth considering the services you plan to offer when picking a name. Maybe you want to start a virtual bookkeeping business, offer payroll filing, tax preparation, or financial statement services.
Perhaps you’re considering offering other specialty services.
Add the different types of services you want to offer 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
Some bookkeeping businesses 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 bookkeeping business 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 clients 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 A” to come up with a name like Accurate Accounting or B for Best Bookkeeping 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 bookkeeping business could use an image of a calculator or bar chart and focus the name around the image.
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7. 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 small 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 the Names of Other Bookkeeping Services
Here is a list of existing bookkeeping business 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!
- 5 Star Accounting & Business Solutions
- A B C Bookkeeping
- A Bookkeeper’s Corner
- A Bookkeeping & Tax
- Accountable Bookkeeping
- Accounting Solutions
- Accurate Bookkeeping
- Affordable Accounting
- Arcadia Bookkeeping
- ASAP Bookkeeping
- Astute Bookkeeping Service
- Balance The Books
- Balanced Bookkeeping
- Balanced Bookkeeping & Tax Service
- Balancewise Bookkeeping
- Balancing The Books
- Barrett Bookkeeping
- Bay Park Bookkeeping
- Best Practices Bookkeeping
- Better Bookkeeping Business Solutions
- Better Books Bookkeeping Service
- Bookkeepers Office
- Bookkeeping & Taxes
- Bookkeeping Betties
- Bookkeeping Boutique
- Bookkeeping Brainery
- Bookkeeping Etcetera
- Bookkeeping Solutions
- Bookkeeping That Counts
- Books & Balances
- Bottomline Bookkeeping
- Buck Stops Here Accounting
- Buzzy Bookkeepers
- California Bookkeeping
- Central Cost Bookkeeping Service
- Common Cents Bookkeeping
- Crystal Clear Accounting
- Dash Accounting
- Dataman Bookkeeping Service
- Desert Accounting Solution
- Digits Bookkeeping Service
- Elite Bookkeeping Service
- Every Penny Counts
- Extraordinary Number Cruncher
- Financial Foundations
- Freedom Bookkeeping
- Girl Friday Bookkeeping
- Heidi’s Bookkeeping & Payroll
- Helping Hand Accounting
- Impeccable Bookkeeping
- Integrity Accounting Solutions
- Integrity Financial Services
- Laurie’s Personalized Bookkeeping
- Lighthouse Bookkeeping
- Lotus Bookkeeping Service
- Ms. Accounting Service
- My Bookkeeper
- My Outsourced Bookkeeping
- OCA Bookkeeping
- Ochoa’s Bookkeeping & Tax Service
- On Time Bookkeeping
- Optimum Accounting
- Orange Tree Bookkeeping
- Penny Lane’s Quickbooks Now
- Personal Touch Bookkeeping Service
- Pocket Protector Bookkeeping
- Powers Bookkeeping & Accounting Service
- Practical Bookkeeping
- Precise Accounting Solutions
- Precision Bookkeeping
- Premier Bookkeeping
- Prestige Accounting Service
- Priority Accounting Service
- Quickbooks Accounting Help
- Ready Bookkeeping
- Rolling Hills Bookkeeping
- Santa Cruz Bookkeeping & Tax
- Sensible Accounting Service
- Shoebox Bookkeeping
- Simply Bookkeeping
- Small Business Bookkeeping Service
- Solve Your Books
- Stampede Bookkeeping Service
- Star Bookkeeping Service
- Summit Accounting & Admin Service
- Top Bookkeeping
- True Integrity Accounting
- Twin City Bookkeeping
- West Coast Bookkeeping
- Your Balanced Bookkeeper
- Your Books In Balance
- Your Virtual Bookkeeper
- Zen Accounting Solutions
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 bookkeeping business 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 bookkeeping business 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.
Vanity Phone Number
An inexpensive way to make your business stick out and is easier for your customers to remember is to get a custom phone number with your business name. Vanity phones are pretty 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 good name ideas for your bookkeeping business. 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 bookkeeping company name!
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