ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Tips & Ideas For Naming An Clothing Boutique

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Last Updated on October 8, 2020

There are more than 74,000 clothing boutiques in the United States alone. So, it’s no surprise, settling on a unique name when starting a clothing boutique feels impossible. 

Picking the right name gives potential customers an idea about the products and services your clothing boutique provides, creates a good first impression, and helps you stand out from the competition.

Are all the catchy boutique names already taken? How do you come up with something fresh? And what about legally using a name? 

Related: 

If you’re not sure how to answer those questions, you’re in the right place. Keep reading to learn my top tips for choosing the perfect business name and how to make sure your favorite choices are available across the board. 

Let’s dive in!

Tips for Choosing the Perfect Clothing Boutique Name

If you’re struggling to come up with some clothing boutique name ideas, one of the best things to do is start brainstorming. As you go through the tips outlined below, make a list of words, phrases, and terms associated with your business. 

From there, you can narrow down the list and cross off ideas you don’t like. 

Once you have several top considerations, we’ll walk through how to make sure you’re allowed to use them. This last step helps you narrow down your list even more so you can make a final decision. 

1. Consider the Products and Services You Plan to Offer

There are countless types of fashion to focus on with a clothing business, so it’s essential to consider the services you plan to offer. Maybe you want to focus on women’s clothing, men’s clothing, or footwear. Add the different types of services you want to offer to your brainstorming list. 

Remember to avoid anything limiting your business’s future growth if you decide to go in another direction down the road. 

2. Location-Specific Terms

Most clothing boutiques are specific to a geographic service area. So, if that’s true for your business, consider adding a location-specific term to your business name. 

You can consider things like:

  • City nicknames
  • Neighborhoods
  • Regions or states
  • And descriptive terms

However, consider what happens if you expand outside your intended service area. Does the name become limiting? If so, it’s best to avoid it if you plan to expand or change directions later. 

3. Avoid Business Names That Are Hard to Pronounce, Hear, or Spell

Despite the technological advances of voice search, assistants like Siri and Alexa struggle to understand slang and other confusing words. 

This could limit how often your business shows up in voice (and text-based) search if your name is hard to spell, pronounce, or hear. Because of that, it’s important to avoid complicated words, industry jargon, and using numbers in place of letters.  While having a creative name is good, being too creative may not be so good. 

Keep your business name as simple and easy to remember as possible so potential customers can easily find you. 

4. Consider Alliterations and Rhyming Words

Alliterations and rhymes are catchy and easy to remember. Because of that, they make for a memorable business name. 

That said, it’s not always easy to come up with them. Start with choosing a few of your favorite words from your master brainstorm list. 

Then, you can Google “words that start with P” to come up with names like Perfectly Posh or F for Forever Fashion or whatever letter you’re using to create an alliteration. Alternatively, you can search “words that rhyme with _____.” 

It can be time-consuming, but it’s an excellent place to start. 

And don’t forget to add any exciting finds to your brainstorm list while you’re at it. Try not to overthink the names you come up with during this stage.  Just write them all down as some of the more interesting ones may spark better ideas later.

5. Steer Clear of Initials or Obscure Acronyms

Initials and unusual acronyms are hard to remember, so they typically don’t make great business names. They can also be challenging to pronounce and confusing for voice search as well. 

Furthermore, there are 325 different two-letter combination possibilities in the English language. And the odds of your customers remembering the specific letters you chose are pretty small. 

6. Imagery Words

Another consideration when brainstorming brand name ideas is whether there are industry-related words that could also lend themselves to be used in a logo. For instance, a clothing boutique could use a clothing hanger or a dress and focus the name around the image

Related: How to create a logo for your business

7. Still Struggling? Try the Owner’s Name

If you’ve made it this far and are still struggling to find the best name, you can always consider using the business owner’s name. Doing so works well if the owner also plans to be the face behind the business. 

Something to keep in mind is that using the owner’s name as the business name can make it more challenging to sell the business in the future. 

8. See Names Other Clothing Boutiques are Using

Here is a list of existing clothing boutique names that may help give you some creative ideas.  While many of these names may be available for you to use, be sure to check first to be sure it can be used.

Tips on how to check business name availability are after the list of names!

  • 1 Stop Fashion
  • 24/7 Clothing 
  • 3 Knuckleheads Kustom Clothing
  • 461 Veteran Clothing Co
  • 5 Stars Jeans 
  • A & S Diva Fashion 
  • A Better Closet
  • A Hard Place Clothing
  • A Touch Of Fun Fashion 
  • Angelic Threads
  • Above Royalty Clothing 
  • Absolute Fashion Co
  • Ace Custom Wear
  • Ace Fashion 
  • Action Fashion Clothing
  • Active Chick 
  • Adela’s Fashion
  • Adore The Couture 
  • Adriano Jeans
  • Advent Global Clothing 
  • African Attire Fashion
  • Aileen’s Fashion
  • Akima Kouture
  • Alegria’s Closet
  • Alibi Jeans Collection 
  • All Around Fashion 
  • Always Fit Clothing
  • Ana’s Wardrobe
  • Angel Fashions 
  • Angels Closet 
  • Animal Flight Clothing 
  • Archipelago Bay Clothing Co
  • Armcandy Couture
  • Back 2 Basics Clothing
  • Bad Girls Couture
  • Baja San Diego Clothing Co
  • Bare Bones Work Wear
  • Basics Clothing Store
  • Be Easy Clothes 
  • Be Fierce Clothing
  • Beachnik Surf Designs
  • Beautiful Boutique
  • Been Trendy
  • Benny’s Aloha Shirts
  • Beverly Hills Fashionista
  • Big Rig Athletic Wear
  • Bit Gal Fashion 
  • Black Fashion
  • Blanca’s Fashion
  • Bling Fashion 
  • Blossom Dress
  • Board Life Clothing Co
  • Bohemian Corner
  • Boo Boo Fashion 
  • Boss Style
  • Bottom’s Up Fashion 
  • Brittany’s Closet
  • Cabanna Fashion 
  • Cabi Addiction
  • Cafe Racer Style
  • Caliber Clothing
  • Canyon Lake Clothing Co
  • Caroline’s Fashion Boutique
  • Carriage House Closet
  • Catatius Peachy Threads
  • Cats Fashion Alley 
  • Cecilia’s Funky Glamour Wear
  • Chic Girl Fashion
  • Chill Out Relaxing Clothes
  • Cinfully Chic Fashionista
  • City Light Fashions
  • Classic Fashions
  • Classic Rock Couture
  • Classy Missy
  • Clothing 4 Less
  • Clutch Threads 
  • Comfy Shorts 
  • Compression Clothing Co
  • Contemporary Fashions 
  • Cooking With Fashion
  • Cootiebug Clothing
  • Corner Clothing Outlet Corp
  • Creative Fashion 
  • Cruiser Lifestyle Clothing
  • Cutie’s Clothing Co
  • D Boy Clothing 
  • Delilah’s Divine Designs
  • Denim Boulevard 
  • Designer Fashions
  • Diamond D Ranch Wear
  • Dirty Street Wear 
  • Dissident Gym Wear
  • District 48 Clothing
  • Diva’s Fashion
  • Dollhouse Dress Shop
  • Dood Clothing Co 
  • Double Clutch Clothing
  • Downtown L A Fashion 
  • Doyenne Active Wear
  • Dreams Come True Boutique
  • Dreamers Rule Clothing
  • Dusty D Work Wear
  • Eagle’s Eye Fashion 
  • Edge Clothing
  • Elegante Suits 
  • Elf Fashion
  • Exclusives Clothing 
  • Exquisite Fashion 
  • Factory Connection
  • Foot Fetish
  • Fringe Clothing
  • Fun Box Clothing 
  • Glaze Clothing Boutique
  • Good Vibes Clothing & Apparel
  • Hilltop Fashion II
  • Holbrook Merchantile Co
  • Hubbard Clothing Co
  • Impulse Clothing 
  • Jeans & Java Boutique
  • Just Kidding
  • Lawley & Co 
  • Little Lady Boutique
  • Little Shop of Dresses
  • Livespire Apparel
  • Loud Mouf Clothing Co 
  • Luxe Rich Clothing 
  • Miles High Design Clothing Co
  • Most Unique Fashions Boutique
  • Next Generation Fashions
  • Over The Top Trading Co
  • Paisley’s & Grace
  • Perfect Couture 
  • Pixie Dust
  • Pretty in Pink
  • Salt Of The Earth Fashion 
  • Shade Of Lilac
  • Sky Fashion 
  • Sunny Skirts
  • Thistle & Clover
  • Too Hot Mamas
  • Top Crown Collections
  • True Religion Brand Jeans
  • Turquoise Threads
  • Wagon Dust Clothing Co

Checking the Availability of Your Top Considerations

At this point, you should have several top considerations to choose from. And the best way to narrow it down further is to check each one for availability. 

This step is vital because using a name that someone else is using could be very costly, time-consuming to rebrand your business, and possibly embarrassing. There are several places to look to check whether a name is available to use, so let’s walk through each one. 

Trademark Search

Trademarks are the most critical, so we’ll start here. 

If a name or phrase is trademarked, you’re not allowed to use it in a similar capacity. So, run a trademark search for each business name you’re considering and cross off those that aren’t available. 

Learn more about how to do a trademark search before choosing a business name

Local Search

Just because there isn’t a federal trademark on a name doesn’t mean the name you want is available.  That’s because there is a trademark known as a common law trademark. A common law trademark isn’t filed anywhere but provides someone who uses that name in commerce some limited rights in their geographical area to use the name.  It can be hard to define how far geographically these rights extend as each industry is different. Still, at a basic level, someone can’t open a business and name it the same or similar name as a competing business in town. If you think the name could potentially create confusion with customers, it is usually best to just find another one to use to avoid potential legal issues down the road. 

To do a local search, open up the phone book (if you still have one), and do a Google search to see if there are any local competitors with a similar business name to the one you want to use. 

Cross off any similar names from your list and take the rest and let’s keep checking.  

State Entity Search (If Applicable)

If you plan to register your clothing boutique as a corporation or LLC, you must register with a unique business name. Each state requires every corporation or LLC to register a unique name for their entity.  This doesn’t necessarily protect your name from anyone else using it, but nobody can register a corporation or LLC under the same name in your state.

Related: Is your business name available?

If you find the name is in use, cross it off your list and move on.

Domain Name Availability

Website addresses aren’t as critical as the first three searches unless you plan to have an online store or blog. Either way, it’s still worth checking domain availability. Typically, you want your domain name to be “yourbusinessname.com” without any numbers, dashes, etc.

It’s easiest for customers to remember, but these are hard to come by.

However, you can explore other configurations and extensions if your preferred domain name isn’t available. Just remember your customers may have a more difficult time finding you online.

You can start with . Type in the domain name you want to use to see if it’s available. The tool also returns other possibilities you may want to consider.

Social Media Profiles

Next, especially if you are stuck between a couple of names, check and see if anyone is already using your potential clothing boutique names on social media. Consider which platforms you plan to use and start with those. 

Keep in mind you may have to shorten your company name for some platforms. Twitter only allows 15 characters, for example. 

Start with your preferred platforms and do a quick search for your name. If nothing pops up, that likely means no one is using it, and you’re good to go. 

Example: Someone is using startingyourbusiness on Instagram, so I would have to choose a different handle, making it more difficult for customers to find me.

Hopefully, you now have some good name ideas for your clothing boutique. Once you have this list narrowed down to just a few and researched that they are all available, start asking friends, family, and potential customers their thoughts to get feedback and then the perfect name for your clothing boutique name! 

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