Tips & Ideas For Starting An Oil Change Business

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Last Updated on October 11, 2020

Considering there are more than 29,000 oil change businesses in the United States alone, it’s no surprise settling on a unique name when starting an oil change business is no easy task.

Picking the right name gives potential customers an idea about your business’s services, creates a good first impression, and helps you stand out from the competition.

What oil change business names are you allowed to use? How do you come up with something the represents your brand best? And what about business name best practices?

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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 to use.

Let’s dive in!

Tips for Choosing the Perfect Oil Change Business Name

If you’re struggling to choose a company name for your oil change business, one of the best things to do is just to 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 What you Plan to Offer

There are several types of services an oil change service can offer, so it’s worth considering the services you plan to offer when picking a name. Maybe you want to focus on having a mobile oil change business or maybe offering auto repair, or tire rotations, or something else entirely different.

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

Many oil change businesses 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 unique oil change business name is good, being too unique 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 great business names.

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.

You can then Google “words that start with S” to come up with a name 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. 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 name ideas is whether there are industry-related words that could also lend themselves to be used in a logo and business cards. For instance, an oil change business could use an image of a bottle of oil, or an oil filter, or a wrench and focus the name around the image.

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7. 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. Look at the Names of Other Oil Change Businesses

Here is a list of existing oil change business 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!

29th St Fast Lube
A-1 Quick Oil & Tires
Acme Quick Lube
Advance KWIK Lube
All Lube Center
American Oil Changers
Auto Express Lube
Automotive Lube Service
Big Ray’s Express
Broussard Quick Lube
Buckeye Lube Express
City Lube
Copperfield Lube & Tune
Costa Oil-10 Minute Oil Change
Dad’s Quick Lube
Dipstick Oil Change
Done Right Instant Oil Change
Eagle Oil Change
East Coast Lube
Eddie’s Quick Lube
Einstein’s Oilery
Elite Oil & Lube
Express Lube & More
Famous Quick Lube
Fast Lube ‘n Go
Fast Track Oil Change
Finish Line Oil Change
Go Lube
Good Ol’ Fashioned Oil & Lube
Grease Monkey
Grease Pit
Gulf Coast Lube & Oil
Hoods Up Quick Lube
Integrity Lube & Auto
Jefferson City Rapid Lube
Jet Express Lube
Lonestar Lube & Inspection
Lubber Dubber’s
Mobil Lube Express
Mr. Oil Xpress Lube
National Auto Lube of Louisville
National Lube Express
Oil & Lube Southside
Oil Change Express
Oil Changers
On Site Mobile Lube
On The Move Lube N Go
Performance Auto Lube
Pit Crew Express
Pit Stop Oil & Lube
Pops Lube Shop
Premium Oil Change & Lube
Prompto 10 Minute Oil Change
Quality Express Lube & Smog
Quality Quick Lube & Auto Care
Quick Lube & Automotive
Quick Stop Lube & Shine
Qwik Lube Of Wakulla
Raceday Lube & Wash
Rapid Lube & Maintenance Services
Road Runner Express Oil Change
Rt 40 West Lube
Rusty’s Quick Lube
Sandusky Lube Express
Slick’s Oil Change
Snappy Lube
Speedy Mobile Lube
Speedy’s Quick Lube
Sprint Lube Auto Center
Strickland Brothers 10 Minute Oil
Supreme Quick Lube
Take 5 Oil Change
Victory Lane Quick Oil Change
Xpress Auto Lube
Your Location Lubrication

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.

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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 oil change business 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.

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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, but it’s still worth doing. 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 oil change business 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.

Vanity Phone Number

An inexpensive way to make your business stick out and is easier for your customers to remember is to get a custom phone number with your business name. Getting a number like 413-FAS-TLUB would be easy for customers to remember. These numbers are affordable, too, with pricing typically around $10-$25 per month, depending on the level of features you need.

Companies like and let you type in words to quickly see if a local or toll-free number is available.

Hopefully, you now have some ideas to name your oil change business. 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 pick your perfect oil change business name!