By Any Other Name // 5 Steps That Will Help You Choose An Awesome Blog Name (ft. A Free Worksheet!)

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✨CLICK HERE TO SEE A COMPLETE LIST OF THE BLOGIFUL DESIGN POSTS.✨

→ Introducing The Blogiful Blog Design Event

→ 5 Steps That Will Help You Choose An Awesome Blog Name (ft. A Free Worksheet!)

→ How to Choose the Right Font for Your Blog

→ How in the World I Make My Graphics: A Step-By-Step Tutorial

→ My Branding Journey + Four Questions To Ask Yourself While Rebranding (ft. A Free Downloadable Checklist)

→ 4 Ways To Make Your Free WordPress.com Theme Look Different From Everybody Else’s

→ An Interview with Web Designer, Hazel From Stay Bookish

→ Q & A Session + A Secret Reveal

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When I got pregnant with my son, my husband and I had a problem. And no, it wasn’t the fact that I was pregnant – we were very happy about that – it was that now we had to choose a name. DUH DUH DUUUUUUUHHH.

Names are hard.

Picking a name for my son was sooooOOOOOoooo difficult, because HECK HE’S GONNA BE STUCK WITH THAT THING FOREVER. NO TAKE-BACKS. I can’t call the hospital three years down the road and say, “Oop, we changed our minds. Is there still time to change his birth certificate or will that involve too much paperwork?”  

So yeah. Choosing the right name is important, and not only when it comes to babies. It’s also vital when it comes to your blog. Your blog name (or your Instagram/Twitter handle) is one of the first things that potential readers see and that your followers notice; if it’s not memorable there’s a greater chance you’ll be lost in the vast, oversaturated sea of bloggers. And someone as wonderful as yourself doesn’t deserve that. Additionally, your blog name becomes your brand and will determine the entire visual theme of your website.

But it’s not all just about gaining recognition, followers, or even your aesthetic – it’s also about you. Your blog is this little piece of your soul that lives out there in the endless nebula of the internet, floating around for all to see. You could make this special space pink. You could make it blue. Make it whatever color you want, but make sure that you love it like your OTP because it is yours. And it is special.

Step One: Research

Start off your search for that ever-elusive, perfect blog name by conducting some reconnaissance, preferably with the Mission Impossible theme song playing in the background. Don’t forget to channel your inner Tom Cruise. Look around the blogosphere, or even just the internet in general, and see what blog names you can dig up. Which ones do you like? Which ones do you not? Take notes on what you discover in a cute little notebook (because everything is better when you write it in a cute little notebook). Here are some names of blogs/Instagram handles that personally appeal to me:

• Forever and Everly
• A Court of Crowns and Quills
• Novel Knight
• Out of the Bex
• That’s What She Read

After you scramble together a list of your own, analyze what you like about each name. When I did this, I discovered that I prefer blog names that are clever, have alliteration or rhyme, and include puns. With this in mind, I decided that my own blog name should have at least one of those things in it as well. I’m not an inherently funny or clever person, so coming up with a funny or clever blog name was a pretty tall order. A great resource for this was the Pun Generator. This online generator is far from perfect, but it helped me brainstorm some creative blog names, such as:

• Read Hot Chili Peppers
• Caught Read-Handed
• Between a Blog and a Hard Place
• Beat Around the Books
• This Isn’t What It Books Like

Aren’t these all so pun-derful? As a connoisseur of puns, I take great satisfaction from these. Sure, having a punny blog name might not be for everyone, but that’s the point. Take the time to figure out what you like and what you don’t and then cater to that.

Step Two: Brainstorm

Okay, so now you know that you want a blog name that is classy and sassy. Or maybe you want something short and sweet. Whatever it is you want, you’ve taken the time to figure it out and now it’s time for the next step – brainstorming. You’re probably thinking, “Okay, that’s great Kat, but how do I brainstorm?”

Well, Dear Reader, let me tell you. I did it by setting a timer for three minutes and during that time, listing everything and I do mean everything that I like or that describes me as a person. This gave me a rather extensive list with bullet points ranging from the obvious “I have red hair” to the more strange “I grow carrots in my garden.” Some other (less weird) things that were on that list were:

Next, I pounded the return bar, set the timer again, and listed out as many words that had to do with books I could think of (the Thesaurus is your friend). This second list included words such as:

You get the idea. To round up this little exercise, I smashed together one point from each list and the result was a nice collection of some potential blog names:

Anyways, this method helped to generate ideas that felt like me and showed my personality. It stuck to my interests and represented me as a person. There was flavor and color and none of the names on the resulting list were bland.

Don’t get me wrong, not all of the results were great. Heck, most of them weren’t even halfway good. But one super important thing about choosing a blog name is this: JUST WRITE EVERY IDEA DOWN. Even the bad ones. Even if it sounds stupid and you know you would never use that blog name in a million doboshes. Just write it down because it could spark an idea later on.

Step Three: Cull The List

At this point in the process, you (hopefully) have a pretty sizable list of potential blog names in front of you. If you’re a brilliant and super creative person, maybe that list is a mile long and you are currently up to your eyeballs in ideas. Maybe culling your list and picking out just one name sounds about as impossible as herding cats. Or maybe, if you’re anything like me, your list is comprised of mostly stupid names with only one or two keepers sprinkled in among them. Maybe this part of the process will be easy for you.

In any case, Step Three is all about going through that list of potentials and deciding which ones are trash and which ones might be the diamond in the rough.

PRO TIP: Make sure that you do a nice and thorough Google search on any names you might like, because wouldn’t it just be THE WORST to discover that your chosen url is not available? Plus, you wouldn’t want to accidentally choose the same name as an already very established blogger. You could even use this website to easily check and see what social media accounts are available for a certain name.

I’m not saying that you should abandon a name completely if somebody out there has already thought of something similar – with the internet being as vast as it is, it’s hard to be truly original. If you’ve thought of it, chances are somebody else has too. But it is something to keep in mind.

Step Four: Sit On It

When I first decided to start a book blog, I was so impatient to get going that I didn’t want to wait for inspiration to strike. I just picked the first semi-decent blog name I could think of and went with that. This led to dissatisfaction with my blog and many time-consuming rebranding sessions (more to come on this later).

I quickly found out that a name which sounded so clever and so perfect at one o’clock in the morning, sounded less so when I woke up. Having said that, my fourth step for choosing an awesome blog name is this: wait. Even after you think you’ve found the most perfectly perfect blog name, even if you think that you’ve found THE ONE (you’ve put a ring on it and everything), wait a bit before you bite the bullet and start your blog. Wait a couple of days, a week, maybe even two. I know what you are thinking: “GASP! BUT WAITING IS THE WORST, KAT! WHY WOULD YOU WANT ME TO SUBJECT MYSELF TO THIS TORTURE??”

Well, that’s because sometimes, during this Purgatory Waiting Period, you’ll fall out of love with your chosen blog name or you’ll realize that Ami Reads (Amireads.com) could be read as A Mire Ads. Sometimes you’ll get an EVEN BETTER idea, and you’ll be so glad that you didn’t immediately go with your first choice. But, if the end of that week comes and you still like the blog name you’ve chosen, then scream, “BINGO!” because you’ve got a winner, folks.

Step Five: Ding, Ding! We Have A Winner!

Houston, we’ve successfully reached Step Five and we are GO FOR LAUNCH. I REPEAT WE ARE GO FOR LAUNCH.

Congratulate yourself, Dear Reader, because you now hold in your hands an awesome blog name that you love as much as your ten-year-old cat or your favorite ice cream flavor. Now you can start your blog with a clear conscience knowing that you put the proper effort into choosing a blog name and that it will fit this little digital piece of your soul just right.

Additional Reading:

• How to Choose a Good Blog Name by Nosegraze
• Tips for Choosing the Perfect Blog Name + Free Worksheet also by Nosegraze, because she has awesome content.

Want to try your luck at winning a complete blog design makeover from either me or Tracy? There will be two lucky winners – one will receive a blog makeover from me, and the other will receive a blog makeover from Tracy. That’s two prizes, two winners, and double the chance to win!

The Blogiful Blog Design Makeover includes:

• A blog header
• A blog button
• Customized social media buttons
• A post signature
• Two different post dividers

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✨Don’t forget to check out my lovely Co-Host’s corresponding Blogiful post for today, where she talks about blog design trends and web design principles you should know.✨

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What’s your blog name how did you come up with it?

What tricks did you use to think of your blog name?

Thinking of starting a blog/ rebranding? Which of these tips sound most helpful to you?