Do you want to find a name for your restaurant that’s just right?
It’s hard to find the perfect name that matches your vision, and when you finally do, you’ll find that someone’s beaten you to it.
But your business name can make all the difference in attracting customers, getting them to love your brand, and making your restaurant instantly recognizable.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to find a unique restaurant name so that you can stand out from the crowd and get long-term success.
How Important is the Name of Your Restaurant?
Did you know that the foodservice industry is projected to hit $898 billion in sales in 2022?
That means you can have a booming business but it also means that if you want to make it big, you’ll need to set yourself apart from the competition.
Many owners don’t realize just how important the name of the restaurant is and what a pivotal role it plays. The fact that you’re here reading this means you’re already on the right track.
What you need to keep in mind is that on one hand, the name will determine your brand identity and marketing strategy.
On the other hand, it needs to suit your restaurant’s atmosphere, cuisine, and target customers.
In a nutshell, a good restaurant name will also communicate your brand’s value to your target audience.
Steps to Find a Brandable Restaurant Name
Below, we give you 5 clear steps that you can use to find the perfect name for your food business.
1. Have a Clear Vision and Identity
Before you come up with name ideas, as an entrepreneur, you need to create a clear identity for your restaurant. For instance, do you need a fancy restaurant name for fine dining or a fast food restaurant name?
You can base your brand identity on multiple factors:
1. Your specialty or type of food (say sandwiches, BBQ, or fried snacks)
2. The cuisine you serve (Is it a Mexican, Thai, American, Indian, or Italian restaurant?)
3. The type of restaurant set up (Is it an eatery, pizzeria, deli, bistro, juice bar?)
4. The ambience (Do you want it to be cheesy, jazzy, upscale, or homely?)
5. Location (Is it in a bustling city or a quiet beach?)
6. You can even consider your customer’s appetite (Do they like giant-sized meals or a 5-course meal with smaller portions?)
Once you know what your restaurant will be, who it caters to, and why you are unique, it’ll be much easier to come up with a good restaurant name.
2. Brainstorm and Shortlist
Now that you’re clear on the vision for your restaurant, it’s time to start a brain dump of ideas.
This is the best time to be creative with puns, synonyms, alliterations, and even your own name!
No idea is too silly. The best thing to do is write all the business name ideas down.
Sometimes, one idea may go well with another and you’ll get a great name just by combining the two.
So it’s best to keep criticism aside and get your creative juices flowing. Come up with as many unique names as you can. It helps to invite friends or family that can pitch in more ideas.
Once you have a long enough list (say at least 25 ideas), then you can shortlist the ones that ring true to your brand.
Ask yourself:
Is it easy to remember?
Is it easy to spell and pronounce?
Is it unique and different from competitors?
Is it brandable and marketable?
Does it have relevant meaning to your restaurant?
A good way to find the right name is to say it out loud and say it to others. This will help you find brandable names that not only sound good but are also memorable.
If you’re having a hard time brainstorming on your own, you can use our Restaurant Name Generator.
You simply need to type in a keyword and it will generate restaurant name ideas for you.
3. Run Surveys and Get Feedback
Testing your restaurant business name in the market is one of the smartest things you can do. Real feedback from users, friends, and family can help you get different perspectives of what your company name will mean to your audience.
Because sometimes you may love a handful of catchy restaurant names but others may visualize it differently.
For example, you may like the name Indian Spice, but your users may recognize it as a store where you can buy spices rather than a restaurant.
Similarly, you may want to use a pun or a French word for a French restaurant that the majority of your audience doesn’t understand.
Now there are multiple tools and platforms like Google Forms, WPForms for WordPress, or SurveyMonkey, that you can use to create an online survey and get user feedback.
4. Be Open to Change
One of the most disheartening parts of this process is settling on a name, only to find that it doesn’t work or it’s already taken.
There may be many reasons why a particular name doesn’t work out. You need to keep an open mind and be ready to pivot at any time. This will help you find a new business name that works just as well, if not better.
With this in mind, you can move on to the next step of finding a domain name.
5. Check for Domain Name Availability
Whether you run a brick-and-mortar restaurant, cloud kitchen, or a catering/food delivery service, you need to build an online presence.
In this day and age, having your own website and social media account can make or break your business. You need to give potential customers a place they can learn more about your business, get in touch with you, and also see your reviews and ratings.
So before you decide on a business name, it’s important to see if a domain name is available to create your website.
You can quickly check if your preferred domain name is available by using our Domain Name Generator.
Simply type in the restaurant name and hit the Submit button. The generator will show you all available names and extensions along with the domain price.
You can use this tool to brainstorm creative restaurant names. It’s also super helpful to generate small business or shop names, and even brand names.
When choosing a domain name, you’ll want to keep these 3 things in mind:
- Keep it Simple: Avoid using special characters, odd spellings, and long names that are not easy to remember. You want it to be as easy as possible for visitors to remember what to type in the address bar.
- Choose the Right Extension: The extension of a domain is .com, .net, .biz, .cafe, and so on. You can also choose country-specific extensions like .us, .uk, .nz, or .ca. A .com domain is the best you can get because it’s the most recognizable one. But it could be expensive to get a .com domain, and in those cases, you might want to pick an extension like .cafe that might work better for your business.
- Know When to Improvize: Avoid improvising when it makes things complicated and doesn’t work in your favor. For instance, you wouldn’t want to spell your restaurant name as homecookedfoodss.com with a double S. It would only confuse people. Instead, if you’re catering only to the New York market, you could use homecookedfood.nyc.
Like this, if you want to get creative with domain extensions, we’ve got a list of restaurant-related extensions you can use.
Before that, you may also be interested in checking out our business name generator and Food Blog Name Generator tools as well.
Domain Extensions for Food Businesses
Domain extensions are a great way to shorten your website URL and be creative. So for instance if your restaurant is CuppaJoe Cafe, you can make your domain cuppajoe.cafe instead of cuppajoecafe.com.
Domain extensions can help you pick the best restaurant name even when the .com is taken.
Below are the top extension names that work well for restaurants and food and beverage businesses.
.bar
.cafe
.catering
.cooking
.diet
.express
.farm
.fish
.fishing
.glass
.kitchen
.kiwi
.menu
.organic
.pizza
.pub
.recipes
.rest (short for restaurant)
.restaurant
.review
.reviews
.soy
Drinks
.beer
.coffee
.vin (French for wine)
.vodka
.wine
You can use these extensions creatively to get the brand name you want for your new restaurant.
Register the Domain Name for Your Restaurant
Short and catchy domain names are hard to get, especially the brandable ones. So if you’ve found a good restaurant name with domain name availability, you should register it right away.
You can use our domain name generator to find available domain names. Then, select the name you want along with the right domain extension (TLD).
With Nameboy, you’ll get 2 options to secure your domain name:
1. Domain.com: You can register the domain in your own name on Domain.com , one of the most popular domain registrars. As a Nameboy user, you’ll get 25% off on your purchase on Domain.com.
2. Bluehost: Sign up for a web hosting plan with Bluehost and get a free domain name. Bluehost is one of the best web hosts with reliable hosting services at affordable rates. You can get started for as low as $2.75 per month and you’ll even get a free SSL certificate and CDN that will make your website more secure and faster.
Get The Exclusive Bluehost Deal
All you have to do is follow the onscreen instructions and make the payment to register the domain name.
For more detailed steps, see our guide: How to Register a Domain Name for Your Website (Beginner’s Guide).
FAQs on Restaurant Names
What should I name my restaurant?
You should find a unique business name for your restaurant that your audience will connect to and that stays true to your brand.
How do I pick a good restaurant name?
The best way to pick a good restaurant name is to use our Restaurant Name Generator above. It will generate names that are unique and catchy, and that have the domain name available.
When choosing a domain name, make sure it is:
- Unique
- Short and memorable
- Easy to pronounce and spell
- Suits your restaurant’s atmosphere, cuisine, and target customers
Does my restaurant name have to be in English?
No, your restaurant name doesn’t have to be in English. If you are catering to a global audience, then it might be helpful to have a name in English since it is the most widely used language.
However, there are many restaurants around the world with names from other languages like French, Spanish, Italian that are just as successful.
If you’re catering to a local market, then a local name might be more suitable. It’s best to pick a name that your audience will connect to.
What is a restaurant name generator?
A Restaurant Name Generator is an online tool that helps you come up with best name for your restaurant. So for instance, if you are trying to pick a cafe name, all you have to do is type in a few keywords and the tool will automatically search and combine random words, alliterations, prefixes and suffixes and generate a list of names for you.
What is the best restaurant name generator?
The best restaurant name generator is Nameboy. It’s free and so easy to use. It’s also based on a smart AI algorithm that can take your keywords and turn it into useful ideas for the best restaurant name.
We hope this guide helped you find a really good restaurant business name. Remember, to pick a name that’s easy to remember and spread the word about.
