Tips & Ideas For Naming A Restaurant

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Last Updated on October 11, 2020

There are more than 190,000 single location restaurants in the United States alone. So, it’s no surprise settling on a creative restaurant name when starting a new restaurant can be a daunting task.

Picking the right name gives new 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 names already taken? How do you come up with something fresh? 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 finding the perfect name of your restaurant and how to make sure your favorite choices are available to use.

Let’s dive in!

Tips for Choosing the Perfect Restaurant Name

If you’re struggling to choose a catchy name for your restaurant, one of the best things to do is just to start a brainstorming session. 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 Cuisine You Plan to Offer

There are several cuisine types, so it may be worth considering using the cuisines you plan to offer in the name. Maybe you want to focus on Mexican food, or pizza, or steak.

Add the different types of foods 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

Many restaurants 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 restaurant 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 catchy restaurant 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 Divine Dining or C for Carver’s Cut 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 names for a small business. 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 or signage. For instance, a restaurant could use an image of a chef’s hat or fork 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 name of family names. 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 Restaurants

Here is a list of some of the best restaurant names of existing businesses that may help give you some creative 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!

101 Pizzaria
211 Cafe
2nd & 13th Sports Bar & Grill
3rd Avenue Grill
Adams Mobile BBQ & Catering
Alabama Bliss Bistro & Boutique
Alabama Fish & Chicken
Alabama Grill
Albatross Bar & Grill
Ameka’s Cafe
American Deli
Andy’s Restaurant
Anna’s Place
Antaks Deli
Artisan Grille
Ash Restaurant
Asia Bar & Grill
Asian Bistro
Asian Cafe
August House
Ay Chihuahua Mexican Restaurant
B & B Taco Garage
Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar
Baja California Grill
Bama Nutrition
Bamboo Cafe
Banja’s Thai & Sushi
Beach 2 Bay Cafe
Beaver Lake Bistro
Becca’s Bistro
Big Daddy’s Fish & More
Big John’s Diner
Big Mike’s Sport Grill
Big Potato Co
Big Shake’s Hot Chicken
Bistro 1307
Blue Dolphins Fish & Chicken
Bobbie D’s Southern Cuisine
Brash Pizza
Brewhas Pub & Grub
Brick Oven
Broadway Pizzeria
Bubbles Wings & Cream
Buenos Aires Grill & Cafe
Buster’s Southern Pit BBQ
Buttered Biscuit
Cafe 7181
Calhoun Steak House
Capriccio Ristorante
Carlos Street Tacos
Casa Fiesta Grill
Catalina Bayou Restaraunt
Cedar House American Grill
Char
Charley’s Philly Steaks
Cheesy Bob Grilled Cheese
Chicken Fried Birmingham
China Taste
Chronic Tacos
Cook Out
Cotton Patch Cafe
Country Garden
Cozy Brown’s Kitchen
Craft Bar & Grill
Crave Cafe
Croked Cow
Crosseyed Catfish
Cutters Pizza & Wings
Daddy’s Kitchen
Daisy’s Mexican Grill
Debra’s Southern Buffet
Delta Biscuits
Delta Blues Hot Tamales
Delta Grill
Diablo’s Southwest Grill
Dickey’s Barbecue Pit
Dinky Diner
Dixie Chicken
Downtown Cafe
Downtown Diner
Dragon’s Den Cafe
Dreamland Bar-B-Que
El Potrillo Mexican Restaurant
El Ranchito Grill
Excellent Burgers & Steak
Express Cafe
Fahrenheit 425
Fancy’s On Fifth
Fat Cow
Fat Man Cafe
Filling Station
Finns & Hooves
Fire & Spice
Fish On The Fly
Flying Biscuit Cafe
Foghorn’s Burgers & Wings
Foodies Cafe & Catering
Four Four Pell City
Frozen Rooster
Fry Daddy’s
Funky Monkey Eats & Sweets
Fuqua Southern Soul Food
Gameday Sports Grill
Garden Asian Fusion
Garden Cafe & Coffee Shop
Garry’s Sling Blade
Gavin’s Downtown
Geogeo’s Grill
Golden Dragon
Golden Rooster
Good Dog Cafe
Grady’s Pizza & Subs
Grampa’s Catfish & Seafood
Granny Pooh’s Kitchen
Grateful Bread
Great American Pizza
Green River Express
Groovy Grub Cafe
G’s Country Kitchen
Gulf Shores Diner
Gumbo To Geaux At The Grill
Gus’s Chicken
Gusto Grill
Hancocks Country Bar-B Que
Heart Of Dixie Grill
Heat Pizza Bar
Hector’s Kitchen
Highway 51 Burgers & More
Holy Smokes Barbecue
Homegirls Jamaican Grill
Horseshoe Grill
Hot Diggity Dog
Hot Stone
Hyde Park Cafe
India Cafe
Island Dog
It’s All Greek To Me!
Joe’s Italian Grill
J’s Wings & Things
Juicy Seafood
Kat’s Kitchen
Kelly’s Burger Shack
King Buffet
King Burrito
Krispy Krunchy Chicken
LA Fiesta Grill
Lab Bar & Kitchen
Lake Martin Pizza Co
Landing At Parker Creek
Levee Bar & Grill
Light House Cafe
Lin’s Bamboo Garden
Little Tokyo
Lobba’s Burger
Lotta Bull BBQ
Lox Stock & Bagels
Lulu’s Crab Boil
Main Street Grill
Main Street Kitchen
Major League Hot Wings
Mama’s Place
Mangos Cafe
Metro Diner
Mi Casa Mexicana
Miguel’s Beach’n Baja
Moore’s Country Kitchen
Mr. Chen’s Authentic Chinese
Nana’s Deli
Nelchie’s Cajun Cuisine
No 1 Chinese Restaurant
Nothing But Noodles
O Sushi Express
Off The Hook Marina & Grill
Paw Paw’s Catfish N More
Picknic Basket Cafe
Poppy’s Smokehouse
Pop’s Restaurant
Pour Chop & Roll
Rock N Roll Sushi
Rocks The House Cafe
Roosters
Roots & Revelry
Roux Bayou Cafe & Catering
Sapporo Japanese Steakhouse
Shrimp Basket Gardendale
Simple Greek
Simply Southern Cafe
Sneaky Pete’s Hotdogs
Soul Food Take Out
Soups On
Station 31 Kitchen
Steakhouse 231
Sunny’s Kitchen To Go
Taco Mama
Thai Fusion
Thai One On Gadsden
Thai Tanic
Thai Town
Tiny B’s Bistro
Toki Hibachi & Sushi
Touch Of Soul Cafe
University Mexican Grill
Urban Smoke Bar & Grill
Valentino’s Italian Restaurant
Vintage Cafe
Wayback Burgers
Weaver’s Restaurant
West End Diner
What The Cluck Wings
Wildcat Cafe
Yoshi Sushi Fusion

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, 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 restaurant 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 restaurant 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.

Hopefully, you now have great restaurant 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 restaurant name!