Last Updated on October 10, 2020
There are more than 212,000 photography businesses in the United States alone. So, it’s no surprise settling that many people have a tough time coming up with a unique name when starting your own photography business.
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.
Are all the good photography business names already taken? What is the best strategy for coming up with something fresh? And can you even use the names you find?
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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 to use.
Let’s dive in!
Tips for Choosing a Catchy Photography Business Name
If you’re struggling to choose the perfect name for your photography 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 photography business can offer, so it may be worth considering the services you plan to offer in the name. Maybe you want to focus on portraits or weddings or school portraits. 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
Most photography businesses are specific to a geographic service area. So, if that’s true for your business, consider adding a location-specific term to your photography company 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 photography 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 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 C” to come up with a name like Candid Clicks or Camera Crew 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. 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
When brainstorming creative name ideas, industry-related words could also be a brand name for a logo. For instance, a photography business could use a camera or tripod image 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 business owner’s last name or the name of an important family member. 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 Photography Businesses
Here is a list of photography business names from existing businesses that may help give you some creative ideas for a catchy business name. 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!
- 1005 Photography
- 11 Photo
- 1st Generation Photography
- A Step Beyond Imaging
- A Thing Called Love Photo
- A Wrinkle In Time Photography
- Above & Beyond Photography
- Adorned Photography
- Adventure Photography
- Affect Photographic
- All Things Beautiful Photo
- Always & Forever Photo
- Apex Product Photography
- Art & Images Photography
- Art Of Light Photography
- Artisan Photography
- Austin T Photography
- Autoshots Photography
- AZ Photography
- Baby Steps Photography
- Backroads Photography
- Bang Images
- Behind The Lens Nature Photos
- Bella Pictures Wedding Photographer
- Bells & Whistles Photography
- Blue Bike Photography
- Blue Lite Photography
- Blue Stream Photography
- Brightside Photography Studio
- Candid Captures Photo
- Captured Instantly Photo
- Captured Moments By Brandi
- Creative Concepts Photo
- Creative Exposures
- Crystal River Photography
- Dandy Photography
- Darling Memories Photo
- Dauphin Tales Photography
- Daydream Photography
- Dream Photography
- Dreamscape Photography
- Drone Solutions
- Eagles Eye Photography
- Embellished Simplicity Photo
- Emerald Coast School Photo
- Firebrand Photography
- Flitterflies Photography
- For The Moment Photography
- Forever Treasured Photography
- Glow & Joy Photography
- Gold Border Photos
- Greenwood Photography
- Gulf South Photography
- Halfstop Photography
- Hart2hart Photography
- Holiday Photography
- Hooked Up Photography
- Imagine Photo Studio
- Jax Photographer
- Kamila’s Photography
- Keene Eye Photography
- Kevin’s Outdoor Photography
- Knight Visions Photography
- Lens Art Photography
- Lucky Girl Photography
- Majestic Soul Photography
- Memories From A Photo
- Miami Lights Photography Corp
- Modern Moose Studios
- Moonloop Photography
- Mountain To Sea Photography
- My Corporate Photography
- Nature Coast Photo
- Once Upon A Time Fashion Photo
- One Big Happy Photo
- Paradise Photography
- Photo Stories
- Photoday
- Photos Like This
- Pipas Imagery
- Portraits By Ashley
- Pride Photography & Design
- Purple Pride Photography
- R&B Photo Works
- Rainbow River Photos
- Tammy Klein Professional Photographer
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 your business’s name 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, someone can’t open a business at a basic level and name it the same or similar name as a competing small 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 photography 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, which can be checked on the Secretary of State’s official state page. 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 photography business names on social media accounts. 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
A successful marketing technique to make your business stick out, and is also inexpensive, is to get a custom phone number with your business name. A number like 33P-ICT-URES would be an easy number for potential customers to find you. 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 see if a local or toll-free number is available quickly.
Hopefully, you now have some good name ideas for your photography 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 photography business name!
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