When you are first deciding on your Etsy Shop Name, there are a number of things to consider to make sure that the name you choose is the best name for your Etsy business.
Because of course you need to think about more than just “is my Etsy shop name actually available” — you need to pick a name that will attract potential customers and is also a name that you can grow into as your business grows and changes.
I’ve actually got an article that breaks Naming Your Handmade Business or Etsy Shop into 3 easy steps, so if you are just starting to create your Etsy store name you will want to check that out!
Once you have chosen your favorite Etsy shop name you will need to check to be sure it’s available on Etsy — but there are a few other details you should check as well.
So, ready? Let’s dive in.
The first detail I want to cover is actually something you DON’T need to do.
Something I’m asked quite often about Etsy shop names is
“Should I worry about my Etsy shop name being SEO friendly?”
And the simple answer is “no, no need to worry about that”
Etsy doesn’t use your name in their search algorithm, so the name you pick will have no impact on your Etsy SEO.
So definitely don’t pick a name that says, for example, “handmade pottery from Canada” because that’s just not going to make or break your SEO results. You don’t even need to have what you sell in your name like “Julia’s ceramics” – I promise it’s ok.
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Once you have chosen a shop name, the first step will obviously be checking your Etsy shop name availability to be sure that no one else on Etsy has a shop with that name, or a name too similar to yours.
I’ll give you a quick example: Let’s say you want to name your Etsy shop “The Blue Whale Boutique.”
You will want to go to the search bar and type in “blue whale” to find other shops with names containing those words, and then take a look at the results.
You can see that there will be one other shop containing “blue whale” – which is OK – but you want to make sure that none of those names are too close to your name.
If another shop already has your name or a very similar name (especially if the similar name is a competitor), you will want to choose a new name so you can differentiate yourself, and also so that you don’t have someone file a complaint against you.
Next let’s talk about domain names.
Now I know some of you don’t plan to have a website or a web store, but hear me out on this one!
Even if you don’t want to open your own online shop, I would strongly recommend that you register your domain name so that no one else does. This allows you to redirect anyone visiting that domain to your Etsy shop.
This way, when you print your business cards or you want to share your website with people, you can actually give them a “website.com” address and have your domain redirect them to your Etsy shop!
So that is definitely something you’ll want to consider.
When you choose your domain name, the days where it was important to have keywords in your URL for Google to rank it are long gone, because there’s way too many websites now.
The same goes for having a “.com” vs. a “.co” or “.<businessname>” — these days you can rank very high with any “.XXX” ending for your business.
So when choosing your domain name you don’t need to worry about it having the right keywords or being SEO-friendly, what’s important is that you have the domain name – even if it’s just to redirect people to your Etsy shop.
Social media handles are similar to domain names; you really want to consider locking them in.
Even if you aren’t planning to use social media right away, or use it at all, it’s worth making sure they’re not taken and creating an account for your Etsy shop name.
Even if you don’t know which platform you’re going to use, just register your name on each one.
It’s okay if someone has a very similar name already (unless it’s a direct competitor); just play with dots and punctuation in your name to create yours if the one you want is already taken.
So, for example, let’s say I make clay pots and vases and have a handmade shop named “Deb’s Clay Creations.”
When I check Instagram I see that someone already has taken the debsclaycreations handle, but they make clay miniatures so they aren’t a direct competitor.
In this case I could choose the Instagram handle “Debs.Clay.Creations” or “Debs_Clay_Creations” – I just use punctuation to make it a bit different from the other one.
Another thing you will want to check is if your name has any negative connotations that you might be missing.
Many of these don’t jump out at you until you put all the letters of your shop name together and look at how they will appear when they are all together with no spaces in the Google search bar.
You might not think this is a big deal, but I’m serious – when you put letters together it’s amazing – and sometimes quite funny – what will happen!
I put together a list of the “cleanest” ones for us to enjoy in today’s article, but if you’re up for a bit of fun you can check out the full list for a good giggle.
Now most of these websites have since fixed their errant names, but let’s take a look at what can happen:
In Switzerland the official domain ending is “.ch”. This didn’t work so well for the company Swissbit!
This tourist site’s goal is all about getting you to “Choose Spain” when you travel, but as you can see it reads “chooses pain!”
When you put together the words Teachers Talking I don’t understand why our brains do this but what pops out at you is “teacher stalking!”
Selling children’s wear? How many of you saw that and read “children swear?”
And of course there is the IT Scrap website, and what does your brain turn it into? It’s crap. Definitely not going to impress their customers!
Now in addition to putting all the letters of your website name together you will also want to consider what the words in your shop name may mean in another language.
Here are a few examples of how this can cause problems:
Pee Cola is a very popular soda in Ghana which means “a very popular cola”, but in the English language it generates a whole different meaning – and probably isn’t going to get many sales!
Barf is a detergent manufactured in Iran which means “snow”. But . . . if you leave Iran, it refers to something most people don’t care to think about, let alone wash their clothes in!
These kinds of name blunders happen more than you think, so as you can see in these quite funny examples, checking to make sure your Etsy shop name doesn’t have a negative connotation is important.
The final thing I want to talk about is intellectual property rights— so checking your Etsy shop name to be sure that someone else hasn’t filed a trademark for that name, or has a trademark on a word that is in your shop name.
Search and find your country’s trademark office (such as United States Patent and Trademark Office trademark search system or the Australia Securities and Investment Commission) and use their search system to check your Etsy shop name.
Of course get proper legal advice if you have any questions about your shop name, but best practices include doing at least these quick checks — it’s a good start to making sure you aren’t taking a name that is already registered to someone else.
It’s well worth your time: the last thing you want to do is open your shop, start developing a customer base, then find out your shop name is trademarked and have to change the name of your business and essentially start over again on Etsy.
Taking each of these easy steps is a great way to ensure that your Etsy business avoids future issues, and sets you up for success as your business grows and changes.
Now . . . if you are just beginning to choose your Etsy business name I would highly recommend you read Naming Your Handmade Business or Etsy Shop into 3 easy steps. It will show you how to use what I call my “3x5x7 Method” to choose the perfect name for your business – I hope you enjoy it!
Thanks for reading, and until next time, aurevoir!
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