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How to Name Your Blog: 26 Methods for Crafting the Perfect Name

by sngriffiths@outlook.com | Jan 29, 2025 | Blogging | 0 comments

Table of Contents
  1. Creating a Brand
  2. What’s in a Name?
  3. Content Is Still King, But…
  4. What Is a Blog?
  5. Before You Start
  6. General Guidelines
  7. 26 Approaches on How to Name Your Blog
  8. More Great Blog Names

Learn how to name your blog with 26 creative methods. Discover tips and tricks for crafting the perfect blog name that stands out and attracts readers

Picking the perfect blog name can feel like an uphill battle. If you’ve hit a few snags or ventured down one too many rabbit holes trying to figure out how to name your blog, you’re most certainly not alone!

Sure, sometimes things click and a standout name emerges. However, for many would-be and experienced bloggers alike it’s a long, arduous, and painstaking journey to… meh…

…scouring the internet for inspiration, scrutinizing blogs, agonizing over misspellings or alternative gTLDs because the .com was purchased last century!

…you’ve juggled nouns, verbs, and adjectives, become best friends with a thesaurus, and made long lists of the ridiculous to the nearly-but-not-quite-right… you’ve cogitated, deliberated, ruminated in all manner of places from the shower to the supermarket.

Many hours of toil and wordsmithing but… sigh… close, but no cigar.

Sound familiar? I understand your pain and sympathize completely.

Did I spend more time researching names for either of my children or this very blog?

In this post…

  • Key factors to consider before commencing the naming process
  • 26 methods, tactics, and techniques for finding and crafting the ideal name
  • 150+ examples scattered throughout and a bumper selection at the end too, which I’ll keep adding to as I find more

Right, enough chit chat, let’s get into it…

Creating a Brand

Coming up with a name is hard because depending on what your blogging goals are, it can be a little bit more than simply a domain name.

Your blog name creates an impression. Before any content is consumed, on some level the name begins to shape perception, consciously or otherwise.

  • How does your name stack up against the competition?
  • What does it say about your content offer?
  • Does it resonate with your target audience?
  • Will it encourage a click through?
  • Is it memorable?
  • Does it sound like something your target audience would be happy to be publicly associated with?

Let’s assume you’re doing this to turn a profit. In which case, this is less a casual name selection game and more a branding exercise for your online publication business.

The naming process, in general is a challenge and is discussed on this MarketingProfs Podcast where they include discussion on the issues of brand name and domain name availability.

What’s in a Name?

Think about where people might first engage with your blog – likely in search engine results where your listing is in fierce competition for a clickthrough. It is your URL and brand name that sit atop several lines of metadata and snippets. It’s not just blogs you’re competing with, it’s every result that’s relevant to a keyword on the search page – large brand name websites, site links, adverts, videos, images, social media, reviews, questions, the list goes on…

The SEO piece is another set of posts altogether, but your blog name will have a bearing on SERP performance. Social channels offer another chance to be discovered and again, your blog will be in amongst it with other relevant results and listings.

Consider some numbers:

  • Globally, there are 600 million live blogs in 2022
  • There are 1.9 billion websites competing for visits
  • Yearly, 3 billion blog posts are published

Those numbers are big but don’t let them deter you, there’s a raft of strategies and tactics available that will allow you to build a profitable blog. Instead, the takeaways from the data are that i) choosing a blog name is a serious exercise, and 2) if so many other people are blogging, why can’t you?!

Content Is Still King, But…

Content quality and the value that your visitors perceive they’re getting is ultimately going to be the most important factor in whether they choose to return to your blog.

For the best brands, being memorable and encouraging repeat business means not only providing a great product or service that meets people’s needs, but also delivering an exceptional customer experience at multiple touch points. They go above and beyond, from marketing to after sales care. You might not be running a multinational corporation, but the experience delivered to your blog visitors is still crucially important.

All that said, you don’t want to run the risk of a poorly chosen brand name holding you back. Would Amazon be what it is today if it had stayed as Cadabra? There are plenty more interesting examples, just go to BackRub, sorry, I mean Google, and search for “what famous brands have changed their name”.

What Is a Blog?

To paraphrase Hubspot, a blog is a whole website, or section of a website that is updated with content on a regular basis. That covers a very broad range of sites and the examples included in this post reflect that, from personal travel blogs to large niche sites with publishing teams behind them. I would also make the distinction between and regularly updated websites or blogs and news media websites, which will be mentioned in this post but are a different beast altogether.

In a nutshell, this article will examine niche focused websites that are monetized and where a major component of the site is a blog, with posts of various types. Perhaps they started out life as a passion project by an individual (as is the case for many travel blogs for example), began as a forum, are backed by a larger company, it might be a collaboration of independent bloggers, or maybe a social media influencer is expanding their brand – blog startup stories are wide and varied. Other examples used are where the website exists for a business, which for a range of reasons has added a blog.

These sites will be monetized in a variety of ways including affiliate programs, selling online courses, selling coaching or consulting services, the sale of physical products, eBook sales, publishing sponsored posts or reviews, banner advertising and more…

Before You Start

Naming and niche targeting

Broad niches such as lifestyle, travel, personal finance, health and fitness, gaming, and marketing consist of sub-niches.

For example, some gaming sub-niches include cloud gaming, gameplay, Esports, reviews, PvP, MMO, tutorials, or reactions. Lifestyle sub-niches could include food, motherhood, travel, mindset, beauty, travel, fashion, style etc. Niches and segments can be combined, so a website might cover motherhood, wellness, and healthy eating for women in their 20s-30s.

Even if you have experience in blogging or growing websites, with so many factors at play it can be difficult to know where your new enterprise will be in 2-5 years’ time. Nevertheless, it’s important to consider targeting in relation to naming, because rebranding and redirecting a large site can be avoided if this is thought through at the outset. [Reword]

Scope

Broad

Broad niches are great because they offer an incredible amount of scope for content development across a range of topics. There are more products and services to review, more affiliate programs to offer, and the revenue potential is higher than one targeted at a small niche such as a particular type of hobby. But it’s a much longer-term project with some important content development and SEO considerations – content pillars and silos for starters. When do you hope to start turning a profit? Broad sites can take a while, depending on your approach.

Some examples include:

Specific

Targeting

You might be set on a niche but what about your target audience? Concentrating on a certain segment is a great way to laser focus your efforts and speak directly to a group of people. That can start with the blog name itself. A fitness blog aimed at over 50s might have a completely different name to one aimed at young professionals, for example. Notwithstanding the different tone of voice, style, and look/feel; the whole package.

Entering such a broad area such as personal finance is a resource intensive venture. Youngadultmoney.com is a blog that focuses on personal finance for young adults. Sticking with the finance theme, Womenwhomoney.com is a large website run by women for women (Their founders and contributors also run their own blogs; the links to those and a handy list of similar personal finance bloggers is here…)

Naming, growth examples, food for thought

The name you start with is niche…

(thepointsguy.com)

If you’re starting with a specific sub-niche, in say travel, and your blog name reflects that; does that name still fit if the blog grows by adding content about other travel sub-niches? An interesting example is thepointsguy.com, which started out with a focus on traveling and points/air miles usage. It has grown into a lifestyle and media brand with the slogan “Maximize your travel.”

  • It’s a genuine success story with a great name that probably resonated with its early readership cohort…
  • Does it reflect the brand’s mission and goals today?
  • Does it still hit the mark with a new audience?
  • With a stated 10 million unique website visitors per month and a colossal social media following, the brand is strong and performing incredibly well – would an alternative offer any improvement?
The name you start with is broad…

Example #1 – (lifehack.org)

Started as a small blog in 2005, sharing an approach to achieving goals and living a better life. The site has grown into global platform with 10s of thousands of articles and a suite of courses for sale.

  • The site has used an alternative domain (.org) and is a perfect example of how the blog’s original offering has grown and reflects its broad name.
  • In other words, there was a clear vision, and the brand name and offering are aligned.

Example #2 – (delishknowledge.com)

A plant-based cooking blog, it’s a delightful site with some phenomenal content and at over 10 years old it’s very well established. There’s a decent social following (45k on IG) and Semrush is showing over 100k monthly site visitors, so perhaps there’s room for growth there.

  • The name is broad and perhaps doesn’t reflect its sub-niche, but it allows for growth into other recipe types and cooking styles.
  • Considering scenarios like it’s appearance in search results, would the blog have been better served by a more niche specific name?

Research Your Niche

Some effective reconnaissance is fundamental to the naming process.

By this point, you’ve at least partially investigated your chosen niche. That said, it’s quite possible that you’re not as far along in your research as needed. Not a problem.

A full niche and competitive research exercise aside for now (the subject of a future post on this blog), the aim now is to determine what website names or trends you might take inspiration from.

Note – it might be the case that your blog idea/focus evolves through this process – where you start to notice a gaps, neglected sub-niches or demographics for example. Again, that’s OK, it’s part of the fun during this stage.

You want to get to the point where you can easily answer questions such as:

  • Who are the main players, personalities, and thought leaders in the industry, niche, and relevant sub-niches?
  • Are there any website and blog naming and branding trends?
  • Are there any names or naming trends from outside of your chosen niche that might work well?

How to Find Similar Websites

Curated Lists

A great place to start. Articles abound containing curated lists of blogs by niche…

  • Try a search for “top lifestyle blogs”, for example.
  • Scanning these articles, you’ll also begin to see which blogs are most frequently mentioned.

Some of these lists might be based on hard data that can be found using tools such as Ahrefs, or it might be that the author has their finger on the pulse and knows what’s on trend (or what was on trend when published), or a bit of both.

Google Search Operator

Using a reference blog to begin with, taken from the curated lists above or something else… through a range of search operators, Google makes it possible to tailor results and gain more specific insights into its listings. A quick and easy way to discover similar websites is to use the “related” command. Note, not all the results will be blogs, so some manual filtering is required.

Free Search Tools

Another way to unearth relevant websites is to use a tool or service that’s freely available. Again, it’s a catch all set of results so manual filtering is required to distinguish blogs from any other types of websites that aren’t relevant.

  • Visit SimilarSites, or just download their Google browser extension (they’ll direct you there anyway). It’s by SimilarWeb and the extension includes a nice feature that allows results to be ordered by visits, category rank and country rank, which are useful in helping to understand how establish the site is.
  • Google’s Similar Pages extension provides a list of comparable pages to the one you’re on. Results are similar to using the ‘related’ search operator described above but you might want to give it a try.
  • Use a search service website such as topsimilarsites.com or sitelike.org, where you’ll enter a URL to get a list of similar websites.
  • Try the handy SEO Web Checker similar websites tool to search for websites by niche. The results aren’t ordered but there are both copy/paste and CSV export options, which gives lists that can be scanned quickly for naming ideas.

There are some powerful tools available to assist with niche site search, for example Semrush, Ahrefs, Alexa and SimilarWeb. However, for compiling a list of blogs and other websites in your niche, they’re not required and we won’t cover those functions here.

Create a List of Niche-Specific Seed Words

The aim here is to find out what key terms, phrases, sayings, jargon, actions, routines, rituals, beliefs, equipment, colloquialisms, products, services, slang, acronyms, abbreviations, processes, and anything else relevant or related. Find as many terms as you’re happy with; personally, I like to find as much as I can. You never know what might be the term that inspires or that you can put a spin on.

General Guidelines

Before we jump into the approaches and examples, here are some general pointers to crafting a great domain name…

Length

Bear in mind that shorter names are easier to remember. It’s likely to stand out more and be easier to type. Aim for 2-3 words and a character length of up to 14 (excluding the TLD); there aren’t many, if any meaningful .com names under 6 left, but you might find an alternative TLD. 15-20 is acceptable, here are eight quality .com websites to illustrate the point:

  • businessinsider.com (15 characters)
  • psychologytoday.com (15)
  • medicalnewstoday.com (16)
  • hollywoodreporter.com (17)
  • searchenginewatch.com (17)
  • nationalgeographic.com (18)
  • scientificamerican.com (18)
  • searchenginejournal.com (19)
  • timeshighereducation.com (20)

In terms of the average domain name length, research by Gaebler revealed that of the top 5,000 website domains, it’s 7.7 characters, top 25,000 (8.4), top 100,000 (9.1), and top 1,000,000 (10.1). That’s the average, so some will be longer and others shorter.

Fun fact… here’s the longest genuine domain name (57 characters), i.e. it’s a real place in beautiful north Wales, there’s a purpose to the domain existing. As opposed to this, which was established only to reach the domain character limit of 63.

Keep it Simple

To aid recall and sharing, and to ensure people can type it easily, go for simplicity. Complex, hard to spell, or unusual words should be avoided.

Be Original

Easy to say but sometimes not so easy in practice. If you can come up with something truly unique, relevant and not too similar to something else in the niche, your blog stands a far better chance of being remembered.

Create a List of Niche-Specific Seed Words

While perfectly feasible, changing your blog name later wouldn’t be top of my list of fun activities. There website redirection, design changes, your socials, recognition could be a factor.

Some things to bear in mind…

  • If the vision is a broad authority site covering multiple niches or sub-niches, leave some wiggle room by choosing a broad name. Start with one or two niches and build from there.
  • If you go too narrow, you run the risk of being penned in by your own name.
  • If your purpose is solely to be niche and not grow beyond that, then by all means name with that single niche in mind.
  • An obvious one, but if your plan is to sell the blog, using your own name or part of it might not be wise.

Avoid trendy words that might be popular right now but may go out of fashion later.

Match the Brand and URL

There should be alignment between the domain and brand name. It doesn’t have to be exact, but it shouldn’t confuse visitors or inhibit the building of a brand. Imagine a user typing a brand name into a search engine and seeing a listing with metadata matching the brand, but a domain that’s different, it would look spammy.

Read It Without Spaces

Just do a search for “worst domain names” …

A Few Words on Hyphen Usage

Some very well-known websites use hyphens, as well as some less notable ones. Nevertheless, there’s some debate about whether it’s advisable.

Here are some blog examples: baby-chick.com; shanty-2-chic.com; the-atlantic-pacific.com; the-fit-foodie.com. For the first two at least, a cursory look shows substantial metrics relating to domain level data (using Semrush), and Facebook and Insta followings. So, there’s clear evidence a mere hyphen or two hasn’t inhibited their success.

Although not blogs, some famous examples include: Coca-cola.com; Link-assistant.com; Mercedes-benz.com; Merriam-webster.com; The-sun.com; Ultimate-guitar.com. It’s only in the case of Mercedes Benz and The US Sun that the non-hyphen version doesn’t redirect to the primary hyphenated URL. The others have made a choice to continue with hyphens.

Hyphens can work but perhaps the advice is to think of a way round it…

  • They can look a bit spammy, especially when using exact match domains.
  • Potential trademark issues using the hyphen version when the actual brand is using the non-hyphen version. That said, that could happen using any other TLD.
  • People may forget the hyphen and end up at a completely different website altogether, possibly a competitor. Same case for misspellings.
  • It can seem a bit lazy, not thinking of something original.
  • As with numbers, hyphens can be more of an issue where the brand name is verbally communicated through, for example, offline marketing activity such as radio, or in-person word-of-mouth. However, that may not be relevant in this context as your blog URL is most likely only going to be shared online.

It’s not a blanket ‘no’ but in terms of naming your blog, but perhaps try to come up with something original first.

Check the Trademark

To do this, visit the United States Patent and Trademark Office and search their database. Enter some variations of your chosen name to ensure there’s nothing similar. And check the trademark in your own country too.

Are the Social Profiles Available?

Social media channels offer more than just another avenue to connect with your audience. They play an important role in bolstering your blog’s credibility and can influence search ranking.

The social profile names don’t have to be an exact match for the domain name, many won’t even be available, so it’s fine to keep it as close as you can. That means including numbers, hyphens, underscores and other characters.

KnowEm is a good place to start your search >

Avoid Breaking the Bank

Building a new blog is exciting. Except, the domain name is either available and costs a fortune, or someone owns it and wants to cash in. Pause for thought, tweak your idea somehow, or go for something completely different, perhaps consider a .com alternative. There are plenty of ideas below. Don’t cause yourself financial hardship or let price prevent you from getting things off the ground.

Say It Out Loud

“I’ve thought this through so many times, how can I possibly be wrong?”, so says that internal voice. Sometimes it’s best to say it loud, even better, to someone else who can offer some informed and honest feedback. Ensure it rolls off the tongue and is easy to pronounce.

Get Started

The most important thing about a blog is its content. A domain name doesn’t have to be forever so you’re better off putting your efforts towards content creation and getting those pages live and indexed. If a better domain becomes available once you’re already up and running, you can always swap, as long as it’s done properly with redirection.

26 Approaches on How to Name Your Blog

1) Use Your Name

If you’re big on developing your personal brand then using your own name is the way to go. There are several ways to do this. If you’re keen to get your full name in that browser address bar, front and center, and the dotcom version is available, snap it up before someone else does. Here are some examples, including a UK specific site:

2) A Variation of Your Name

Combine your name, or part of it, with niche specific words to create a unique brand that gives readers an idea of what your content is about before they’ve even visited. It’s also a more feasible naming option if you’re set on a dotcom TLD.

  • Annielytics.com (Analytics, SEO and data)
    Quite possibly my favorite example! As a blog owner, you should certainly make a point of visiting Annie’s site.
  • Deliciouslyella.com (Diet and recipes)
    Much more than a blog but a great example combining a relevant word and name to creating an enticing title.
  • Colormecourtney.com (Fashion, lifestyle, and travel)
    The name doesn’t mislead – lots of color.
  • Gatesnotes.com (Climate, education, social, medical)
    He needs no introduction, it’s the blogging home of the world’s original tech billionaire.
  • Gigaom.com (Technology and innovation)
    Founded by Om Malik. ‘Giga’ meaning 1,000,000,000 times the stated unit. I.e. gigawatt.
  • Huffpost.com (News, current affairs, personal stories, entertainment)
    Named after co-founder and editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington, ‘Post’ being an oft used newspaper name suffix. It started out as The Huffington Post.
  • Nomadicmatt.com (Travel)
    His first name ‘Matt’ combined with ‘Nomadic’, for a traveling/wandering/budget vibe.
  • Theannaedit.com (Lifestyle and fashion)
    ‘Edit’ being a common term used in fashion, like a collection.

3) One Name

If you want to take the ‘McLovin’ route (a Superbad reference), it’s possible, with the tradeoff being the TLD. Some examples are:

  • Tim.blog
    Tim Ferriss – Author, blogger, podcaster
  • Yaro.blog
    Yaro Starak – Blogging, online learning, coaching, entrepreneurship
  • Kaushik.net
    Avinash Kaushik is a digital marketing evangelist with Google, an entrepreneur, and author. Someone to check out as a blog owner.

4) Use a Pen Name

Examples abound in the entertainment industry and book publishing, and some bloggers don’t use their real names either. Perezhilton.com (Celebrity news, entertainment, gossip) is one such example. It’s one of the most successful blogs around and he hasn’t tried to hide himself as the face of the brand.

5) Use a Nickname

The award winning thebloggess.com is a fun and clever play on the word ‘blog’. The author behind the site, Jenny Lawson, publishes in her own name but the blog’s title (and URL) has been created by adding ‘ess’ and working it into a feminine noun; like actress, countess, duchess, sourceress, heiress.

6) Incorporate Keywords

Keyword rich domain names as an SEO ranking tactic has long since had its heyday, but while it’s ceased being a ranking factor, it might help with click throughs from search results and other places where the link appears.

The rest of this post is full of examples where the URL contains a relevant keyword; these are particularly good examples of the keyword usage and clarity about what the blog is.

7) Incorporate a Recognized Term

Slightly different to incorporating a keyword term, this method of naming will certainly help to convey what the website is about, is recognizable to audiences and provides a strong hook.

  • Photofocus.com (Photography)
    Won’t explain.
  • Fstoppers.com (Photography)
    Will explain – the f-stop indicates the size of the aperture and is displayed as a number on the camera.
  • Spotmebro.com (Health, fitness, bodybuilding)
    To ‘spot’ someone means to support them during a weight or resistance exercise, allowing them to lift or push more than they could do.

8) Adapt a Phrase, Saying or Idiom

If done well, this approach can impress and entertain your visitors. If the phrase/saying/idiom is well-known enough then at some point, which could be anywhere from first sighting in the SERPs or at a later stage, the original phrase/saying/idiom is realized and then the adaptation is processed; the reaction is a kind of, “ah, I see what you did there, clever.” In terms of implementation, perhaps a step up in difficulty from the previous suggestion of incorporating a recognized term.

Some more examples include:

  • Almostmakesperfect.com
    (“Practice makes perfect”)
  • Clickitupanotch.com
    (“Take/turn/kick it up a notch”) – photography site; refers to the click when taking a photo.
  • Keepitsimpelle.com
    (“Keep it simple”) – this could live under the name variation suggestion, but this is such a great example of a play on a well-known phrase
  • Paws-and-effect.com
    (“Cause and effect”) – a cat advice website. Includes hyphens but still illustrates the point well. Was active for many years but hasn’t been posted to in a while.
  • Pinchofyum.com
    (“Pinch of salt”)
  • Repeatcrafterme.com
    (“Repeat after me”) – a smart adaptation of the phrase for this blog about crafting, crocheting and crockpotting.
  • Yougrowgirl.com
    (“You go, girl) – going since 2000, a snappy and relevant URL for a great gardening website.

The Online Pie was derived from the phrase ‘a share of the pie’. The blog takes the idea that the internet is one great big growing pie, and there’s plenty of room for everyone to get their piece of its ever-expanding revenue generating possibilities. It also allows some wiggle room for strategic direction.

9) Use Similar Sounds

Assonance

This concept relates to the close proximity of words with similar sounds or syllables. Using the letter ‘i’ in two joining words, theonlinepie.com is an example of assonance. It’s a widely used technique and offers a lot more flexibility than conventional rhyming.

Alliteration

This is where consonant sounds are repeated in two or more words or syllables. It’s consonant sounds rather than words because an ‘s’ can sound like a ‘c’ for example. The budgetbytes.com blog is an example.

Rhyme

Without going too deeply, what this most commonly means is where the endings of two words sound the same. The excellent makingsenseofcents.com is an example.

10) Abbreviate

To set the scene, Dictionary.com defines an abbreviation as “any shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase”.

They classify:

  • Acronyms (said as a word, i.e. RADAR, SCUBA, NASA)
  • Initialisms (said one letter at a time, i.e. HTML) as types of abbreviations.

Once you’ve settled on a niche, have a think about what common abbreviations exist and if they can be incorporated into a brand or blog name. Alternatively, if you can make it into a relatable and memorable one, invent your own.

Acronyms

There are many instantly recognizable big brand examples including IKEA (Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd, the founder) and FIAT (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino).

Initialisms

Industry terms in the form of initialisms are great because they can instantly provide context. For example, in the world of web, tech, and digital marketing there are initialisms galore to choose from.

These are handily incorporated into brand and website names that you’ll be interested in as a blogger:

  • SEroundtable.com (SE = search engine) is a highly informative website reporting on search engine marketing threads
  • WPbeginner.com (WP = WordPress) is a fantastic resource site for the latest on the world’s favorite blogging platform.

Some more examples include:

11) Combine Words

Blend two or more words, or parts of words, together to form a new combination. The result encompasses not only some of the sounds but also meanings of the two words. Some web and tech internet related examples include podcast (iPod + broadcast), malware (malicious + software), phablet (phone + tablet), and webinar (web + seminar).

Creating an original and meaningful brand name is no mean feat. A wonderful example is kotaku.com, a combination of the Japanese word ‘ko’ meaning ‘small’, and ‘otaku’ meaning ‘geek’.

Some good big brand examples to illustrate this one (my guesses):

  • Wikipedia (wiki + encyclopedia)
  • Microsoft (microchip or microprocessor + software)
  • Quora (question + oracle)
  • Netflix (internet + flicks; the latter being an old name for a movie)

More websites and blogs (my guesses again):

12) Be Straightforward

Sometimes the best approach is to keep it simple and descriptive – no spin, no humor, nothing fancy. UK readers might remember the Ronseal ad slogan, “it does exactly what it says on the tin.”

What these lack in creativity they make up for in descriptiveness and might well benefit click through rate wherever your URL is seen.

No description needed, this list of example blogs is, well, straightforward:

13) Out of Left Field

This approach involves selecting a name that’s a little bit wacky or unexpected.

This method has the potential backfire spectacularly but if done well, the payoff can be an instantly memorable brand. And in the world of chaos and clutter that is the internet, that’s invaluable.

14) Have a Laugh

This is one of the more challenging suggestions. Nailing this could result in a wildly memorable and loved name, missing the mark might at best see the humor fall flat, and at worst cause offense or put people off. Even with a witty name, it’s almost inevitable it’ll be found less funny as time passes – just ask the ‘Be Sharps’.

Rarely is someone or something universally funny. What’s funny depends on a vast and complex range of factors. Even in the context of blog naming many things come into play such as who the author is and what/who they’re poking fun at, cultural standards, and given the reach of the internet, how your blog name might be perceived in other countries with different languages and customs to what you’re used to.

By humor, you’re not necessarily aiming for fall-off-your-chair hilarious. Something lighthearted, witty, related to the topic/niche that your audience will identify with, and that meets some other criteria in this post will suffice – because once the funny has worn off, it needs some longevity.

As I learnt the hard way… if humor needs to be explained, it’s probably not that funny. So, I’ll leave these chuckle-worthy examples here.

15) Location-Centric

Focusing on a location or region is likely to provide a never-ending stream of worthy content ideas – history, current events, food, things to do, local people, news, and anything else that makes the location unique.

With over 20 million followers on social media, the fascinating humansofnewyork.com takes an in-depth approach to location specific content – stories from the people that live there.

Hitting upon the right cultural reference can make a name instantly relatable, spark intrigue, and hopefully ensure it’s remembered by your target audience. It’s likely a challenge to achieve and there might be copyright infringement issues to consider.

Here’s the list with my best guesses at the references:

  • Bakerella.com
    (The author’s name isn’t Ella so presumably a nod to the sci-fi adventure ‘Barbarella’, starring Jane Fonda)
  • Breakingmuscle.com
    (‘Breaking Bad’ – TV series. A term relevant to the site’s content though)
  • Fitbottomedgirls.com
    (‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ – song by Queen)
  • Gimmesomeoven.com
    (‘Gimme Some Lovin’ – it’s not an unknown phrase but it’s also a great tune by The Spencer Davis Group. Maybe you’re more familiar with a cover featured in the movie, The Blues Brothers)
  • Mydarlinglemonthyme.com
    (My Darling Clementine – movie / Oh My Darling, Clementine – song)
  • Showmetheyummy.com
    (“Show me the money” – line from the movie Jerry Maguire, starring and spoken by Tom Cruise)

17) Unusual Unions

The juxtaposition of two unrelated words, where one is relevant to the subject matter and the other seemingly random can create an impactful and unforgettable brand name.

  • Barefootinvestor.com
    A world dominated by suits? Not a bit of it. Check out Scott Pape’s down to earth approach to finance.
  • Cryptopotato.com
    Crypto, yes. Potato, huh? Or am I missing something?
  • Eggcanvas.com
    Starting with the creator’s nickname translated from Korean. The word canvas is relevant to the site being a visual journal. The result is a short, fun, and delightful name that the author describes as a metaphor for life.
  • Pregnantchicken.com
    Could be filed under humor, but the unusual union here is that hens don’t get pregnant, they lay eggs. But you knew that.

18) Add a Letter [Or 2] to Make Something Better

Adding a letter as opposed to a deliberate misspelling.

  • Backlinko.com
    Just adding an ‘o’ to a key SEO term has created a brand. If you’re serious about starting a blog, make sure you head over to the superb Backlinko for the very best SEO information.
  • Rebrandly.com
    Not a blog but I love the meaning behind this one. They provide a brand focused URL shortening service, and by adding ‘ly’ to the word ‘rebrand’, have created a snappy, specific and super relevant company name.

19) Misspell It

Deliberate misspellings are par for the course these days and can result in a name that’s even better than the correct version. With the preference for .com TLDs and many domain names with correctly spelled words now unavailable, there’s no shame in taking this route if you can do it right. Try these examples on for size:

20) Add ‘Blog’ to the Name

A simple, credible, workable, and achievable way to overcome a lack of availability of .com names…

Autoblog.com
Brightbazaarblog.com
Celticsblog.com
Elementsofstyleblog.com
Eventmanagerblog.com
Hellofashionblog.com
iGeeksblog.com
Pickyeaterblog.com
Positivityblog.com
Seoblog.com
Thatvideogameblog.com

21) Begin With ‘The’

Bad for SEO? Legal issues? A cop-out? Perhaps in some cases but it depends on a few factors and in the case of using just one word after ‘the’, one might argue it’s necessary.

Here are some blog and content driven websites:

‘The’ and Media Website URLs

Prominent news outlet, The Guardian, includes ‘the’ (theguardian.com) whereas Guardian Industries (guardian.com) has the non-the version. The former dominates search results for the term ‘guardian’. Besides, ‘The Guardian’ is its brand name, as is the case with many brands in that industry.

Tech and culture site The Verge (theverge.com) is another example of a large online publication using ‘the’ in the URL and again, represents the actual brand name. The Verge is part of Vox Media Inc. and their stable is also home to thecut.com and thedodo.com (dodo.com belongs to a large telecommunications and energy company, a completely separate entity).

Not forgetting the popular satirical digital media publisher theonion.com (they own and redirect onion.com here too) and its sister sites:

Should You Use ‘The’?

The helpful answer is – it depends. It’s tempting to go this route if it transforms something unavailable or prohibitively expensive into an affordable .com name.

If you’re in the news or media business, the above examples would suggest including ‘the’ is absolutely fine. As a blog owner you’re also in the content publishing business, so using ‘the’ could result in a great domain name. It’s not spammy, which can be the case when using hyphens for example.

Precedents have been set; however, feasibility is going to depend on your circumstances. Are there trademark issues? Realistically, can your site rank for its brand name?

I’ve gone through this process with theonlinepie.com and without publicly explaining the rationale at this point, I’ve decided to go with it.

22) Incorporate Numbers

Incorporating numbers can really make a URL pop. However, standing out in the search results requires appropriate usage of numbers and refinery29.com is a perfect example. It’s a short, snappy, catchy brand name with meaning behind it – see their 29 Facts and Wikipedia.

Here are some more examples and for most of them the meaning of the number used is clear.

  • 1500days.com
    Documenting one man’s journey to retire in 1,500 days, and his life and travels.
  • 9to5mac.com
    A solo project started in a Paris apartment in 2007, 9to5Mac has grown into one of the foremost sites for Apple news. An inspiring success story, the founder, Seth Weintraub went on to build a company employing staff and now runs a family of websites, which can be accessed via the original 9to5Mac site.
  • Addicted2diy.com, Addicted2decorating.com, Addicted2success.com
    I wasn’t sure about using a ‘2’ in this way, but it seems to flow on well from the word ‘addicted’ and they’re both incredibly well-presented blogs. I’ve also seen sites replacing ‘for’ with ‘4’, which wasn’t for me.
  • Carbon38.com
    Not a blog but great brand and ecommerce website. The meaning behind 38 isn’t clear, but it flows nicely, and the company’s success is evidence it works for their market.
  • Football365.com
    I’m a huge football (soccer) fan – this popular news website incorporates a keyword with the 365 indicating daily publication and a strong passion for the game, which will resonate with the target market.
  • Moneyunder30.com
    Founded by graduate David Weliver, as a way of recording his journey to repay a large student debt, it also offers resources to help young people with financial decision making.
  • Retireby40.org
    A blog – one man’s account of his journey to retire by age 40.
  • Loop11.com
    The name is short and snappy, with ‘loop’ seemingly related to the idea of continual UX testing and improvement. The 11 isn’t explained but given their target market, it wouldn’t be a surprise if that just adds to the appeal and intrigue; a technical or company related reference perhaps.
  • Vg247.com
    Video games – 24 hours, 7 days a week. Says it all – reflects the feelings of the audience, dedicated to and passionate about gaming.

Number usage is also very common for TV channels, for example – channel4.com, 9now.com.au.

Although many websites use numbers, I have seen some commentators advise against it. In terms of blogs, the success of Refinery29 alone proves it’s a viable option. Perhaps the key here is not to use too many of them, and ensure it flows and rolls off the tongue when spoken out loud. Make the numbers are meaningful, which is then a great topic to write about.

23) Use a Website or Business Name Generator

Thinking of a blog name isn’t easy. Business/domain name generators can help by semi-automating the process, adding fresh ideas and inspiration into the mix. Whilst a name generator wouldn’t be my first port of call, I have found them incredibly useful at various points on the journey to my final choices.

All of these tools require keyword input and that forces some thought into what’s relevant for your blog. In other words, the quality of the output is dependent on the input. They’re best employed only after researching the niche and audience first.

Another plus point, these generators can also check domain and social channel availability.

BNG Business Name Generator

Offering multiple name generators, BNG will generate comprehensive lists of results including some useful filters. I tried the main business name generator, together with the brand, domain and blog name generators. Using the keywords ‘study’, ‘learn’, and ‘online’, each of those four search engines gave 3,963 results, which presumably are the same suggestions but in a different order. No matter, it’s still a very powerful tool and one I’ll return to use for future projects.

Visit Business Name Generator

DomainWheel

Brought to you by ThemeIsle, DomainWheel offers a simple search bar to enter one or multiple keywords or a mix of letters, and its AI will take it from there. The results are limited in number, but I did find its suggestions good for inspiration.

Visit DomainWheel

Looka Business Name Generator

Another powerful name generator with a comprehensive list of suggestions based off the keywords provided. The results page is easy to scan and is handily segmented by invented, compound, and multiword names. Top results are displayed, and those lists can be expanded easily. Being a business name generator rather than domain names, there’s no option to filter by extension preference, and a small gripe is that the domain availability checker was a little slow. That said, I’d have no hesitation recommending it as part of a blog name search effort.

Visit Looka Business Name Generator

Nameboy

A domain name generator, Nameboy offers a dual list of results. The first simply takes your keyword(s) and advises whether an exact match is available for various extensions. The second and third columns are the generator results where a word is added to your terms for some available.com results. It’s not as sophisticated as some other generators mentioned but it can be useful, and the domain availability is very easy to see.

Here are my results for ‘study’ and ‘online’. I found the generator results better using just one keyword.

Visit Nameboy

Namelix

Namelix creates new brand and domain names by taking users through a four-step process – i) enter relevant keywords, ii) select randomness level, iii) choose name style, and finally iv) some optional settings. The results are presented as a page of mockup logos and links to register on Namecheap.

Visit Namelix

Shopify Business Name Generator

If you’re after something super simple to use, Shopify will generate business names from a single seed word. The difference between this and a tool like Namelix or Wordoid is that the results are a straightforward sequence of English language words, rather than made-up original names.

Visit the Shopify Business Name Generator

Wordoid

This is another tool that generates made-up names for business, domains, and products etc -called Wordoids! It’s very simple to use, only requiring parameters to be set in the left column, then click the “Create Wordoids” button at the top. Worth checking out, very easy [and fun] to spend time scrolling the results in the main column.

Visit Wordoid

24) Choose a Non-dotcom Top Level Domain (TLD)

A .com is still the gold standard when it comes to TLDs. However, there are many alternatives available. In terms of credibility, .net, .org, country specific are the best, although it’s unlikely you want to be limited by borders unless it’s a location-centric blog.

Examples of blogs using other non-dotcom TLDs:

  • Mark Manson – markmanson.net
    A #1 NY Times bestselling author, Mark Manson has built a strong reputation as a self-help publisher and personality. Presumably the .com wasn’t available so opted for the .net instead, which is perfectly fine and he dominates the search results for his own name.
  • Taylor Pearson – taylorpearson.me
    Author of The End of Jobs, this is an example of the ‘me’ ccTLD for Montenegro being used to mean the word ‘me’.

These are not blog examples… But they are a demonstration of continual and successful operation of businesses with non-dotcom domain names:

25) Use the .blog TLD

If it’s not going to be a .com, as a blogger my next options would be .net or .blog. The latter has been around since the mid-noughties and a great deal of domain name availability.

Some well-known examples include:

  • Tim Ferriss – tim.blog
    Second mention for Tim, a superstar podcaster and bestselling author. Bear in mind though, his personal brand likely transcends any credibility a TLD might offer. In fact, you might say it’s a core part of his personal brand to be different, pushing the boundaries.
  • Seth Godin – seths.blog
    Seth’s .blog is outranking sethgodin.com for his exact name search. Again, h

26) Try a Domain Hack

A domain hack involves using a TLD to make a complete name. Here are some awesome examples:

  • Ma.tt
    A founding developer of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg has used the ‘tt’ ccTLD for Trinidad and Tobago to make the shortened version of his first name.
  • Martinboeh.me
    The personal website of Martin Boehme, the ‘me’ ccTLD for Montenegro is used to spell out the remainder of the owner’s surname.
  • Visual.ly
    A content creation service rather than a blog, they use the ‘ly’ ccTLD for Libya to complete the word ‘visually’.

More Great Blog Names

Abeautifulmess.com

Agirlinprogress.com

Ahealthysliceoflife.com

Athomewithnatalie.com

Awwsam.com

Cultofpretty.com

Cupofjo.com

Expertvagabond.com

Fatburningman.com

Fearfuladventurer.com

Gardenoid.com

Goodfinancialcents.com

Justagirlandherblog.com

Minimalistbaker.com

Myfashdiary.com

Nomeatathlete.com

Onedapperstreet.com

Recipetineats.com

Sayyes.com

Simplytaralynn.com

Smashingmagazine.com

Socialvinesociety.com

Southerncurlsandpearls.com

Spaghettitraveller.com

Theblondeabroad.com

Thebrokebackpacker.com

Thesartorialist.com