7 Questions to Ask Yourself When Choosing a Blog Name

Congratulations!
You’re starting a new blog.

You choose the website
to create your blog through, and then…
You stop short.

Now’s the moment when you
get to pick the name.

Sometimes this is easy. You already have one chosen and it’s available, and bam! You can get customizing and writing.

But other times, it’s more difficult than that.

What do you do if you want to start a blog,
but need some guidance
when picking a name?

We’re so glad you’ve found this post!

Thanks for being here on Living the Blogging Life! I’m Maggie, and I blog over at maggie’s doodles. Today I’m sharing my top advice for going through the process of picking a blog name!

I have a lot of experience with this, because not only have I been blogging since 2010, but I’ve also named a bunch of blogs in that span of time. So actually, I don’t have experience with naming a blog for the long haul (haha), but I do know all about really personalizing your blog name to help you flourish in the present!

The questions I pose in this post are to help get you thinking about what you really want your blog to be all about.

You don’t have to have a solid answer for every single one, and you don’t have to share your answers with anyone. This is just an exercise to help you along!

To build upon the ideas I’m sharing with you today, I’ll be using an example about a new blogger and how they work through the process of choosing their blog name by answering these questions! Our blogger’s name is Ellie, and she loves working in the kitchen (especially to bake delicious treats!), so she wants to start a baking blog. Let’s help her find a great name.

Questions to Ask Yourself When Choosing a Blog Name

#1: Will I be able to live up to it?

The first name Ellie thought of was “Baking Daily with Ellie.” She thinks it sounds catchy and fun. However, she then realized that while she may have baked every day this week, most weeks she makes one or two recipes. She would feel sad to have a blog that made her feel like she should be baking more than she does, and that she also has to post every day. She scrapped this idea and moved on to the next question.

#2: Is the name strongly associated with a particular niche?

Ellie knows that having a baking blog will group her together with other fellow cooks and bakers, and she’s content with that! Sometimes a blogger may wish to pick a name that is more generalized and then choose a descriptive tagline (which you can customize under Settings > General).

You can update a tagline more easily than having to go about changing your URL and doing an entire re-branding.

So, Ellie is fine with being part of the bakers niche.

#3: Is it easy to type and say out loud?

Another name Ellie came up with was “Convivial Baking Adventures.” She looked up synonyms for the word ‘fun’ and found that fancy word… but will everyone know how to spell it? Or even pronounce it? And they may not know what it means! That word looks to me like ‘trivial,’ which makes Ellie’s blog name (and her baking) sound questionable, haha. She’s decided to stick with names that are more recognizable and maybe shorter, as well.

#4: Will I be satisfied long-term with the content I’m signing up for?

She initially really liked the name “Ellie’s Sugar Cookies,” because that’s one of her signature recipes! However, she’s obviously going to be baking other dishes all year long. She decided to do a blog series on her sugar cookies instead of naming her blog after them, which can be a nice way to use some of the many blog names you come up with! They could make great post series, even if you don’t name your blog with them. 🙂

#5: Can you claim a WordPress domain (and later a custom one), or is it taken?

“Ellie Bakes” is another name she considered using! However, the WordPress domain has been claimed by someone else (I checked the legitimacy of this for this post haha), and the custom domain she might buy in the future is available, but since finding out she can’t use the WordPress one, it made her realize she’d rather pick a blog name with a fun adjective in it.

#6: Is the URL readable?

There are times when a blog name looks great on the blog itself, but the URL reads differently. One blog name Ellie tried out was “Lovely Ellie’s Sunday Baking,” since she considered doing a new post every Sunday. (Although after answering the first question in this post, she realized that would be quite restricting.)

So, the name looks fine on the blog, but how about the URL? It reads “lovelyelliessundaybaking.” It kind of looks like it says ‘yellie,’ and maybe ‘daybaking,’ and neither of those make sense. Sometimes a URL can even look like it spells out a crude word, so that’s something to look out for.

#7: Does the name inspire you to blog?

Finally, using this seventh and final question, Ellie arrived at the name “Ellie’s Yummy Bakes,” which perfectly meets this criteria! She’ll always enjoy baking, every post she shares will include yummy food, and her name will always be Ellie. She’s so happy she worked through possible blog names and took the time to come up with one she loved!

Hooray! You’ve finished reading through this post! I hope you found some of these ideas useful. You’re also welcome to use these questions to decide on other titles and names in blogging, from post series to paragraph headings, you name it!

In my personal experience with my latest blog, I found it helpful to pick a name I liked (Chickadee Lover Maggie) and then allow my content to shift and move around until I chose the direction I wanted to continue in. Sometimes that’s necessary to do (changing your blog name) as you discover what works for you! I’m very happy I did that and now have a blog called maggie’s doodles ❤

How do YOU come up with blog names, post titles, etc.? Do you have any advice to share? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!

On Living the Blogging Life, we’re happy to always encourage you to…

Maggie @ maggie’s doodles is a 20 year old girl who loves to sing, laugh, dance, and blog. She’s been blogging since 2010 and enjoys sharing what she’s learned with others!