“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” said William Shakespeare. Then should we really bother about the name of a blog, any name for that matter.
But then, the name is an extension of our personalities. We try to find similarities between the name of the person and the person himself. Like how we expect a girl called ‘Sunaina’ to have beautiful eyes, or someone named ‘Suhasini’ to have a beautiful smile.
That also goes in for our online babies, our blogs. The name of the blog should resonate with the blog contents. Putting in some initial efforts to think up a blogname is advisable. Like your own name, you may be stuck with it for the rest of your lives. The blog name will definitely become a brand name sooner or later.
We can follow some rules similar to creating a brand name for naming our blogs. The list below is created by me based on my experience as a blogger.
When choosing a blog name, remember the following –
- Recall Value
The blog name should have good recall value. It shouldn’t be too common, and neither too complex. Through your blog, you may be writing exactly your musings, but why not give it a creative twist. Like –
- Ifs, buts and etc. – Life is a journey through our ‘ifs’, ‘buts’ and so many more things.
- Living my Imperfect Life – The word ‘Imperfect’ touches a chord. Don’t we all lead imperfect lives?
- Differentiation
Ideally giving your name to your blog name is a good way to differentiate yourself and stand up in the crowd. This is famously followed by renowned authors. Or if you have a product which is to be marketed online, then let the blog name be the product name. The readers will identify the blog name and the person.
- Battered Hope – relates to book by the same name owned by the author.
- Rachna Says – Here the author, Rachna, posts all her writings
- Emotional Connect
If the name will connect emotionally with the reader, you can be sure the reader will go ahead and click that link and read your blog. Mostly used in parenting blogs like
- Kuchh Khatta Kuchh Meetha – which literally translates to ‘Some sour, some sweet’. Reminds me of pani puris and other chaats which I love to eat.
- Tale of two tomatoes – The take on the ‘tomatoes’ is so simple, but unique. Tomatoes being as common as people and the tales are of these two particular tomatoes. Imagine them walking hand in hand through a crowded tomato place.
Last thoughts –
- When creating the name, ensure that it is web friendly. You can google your intended name to see where does it land. If it is going to land in a very famous page, you can be assured to never reach anywhere to the top in searches. Check that it is unique.
- Using acronyms and numbers in your name will also backfire. People will not remember numbers. Giving names like Memories123, Or acronyms like TTYL, etc will not help as the search engines will not be able to pick your name.
Let’s see if using these tips you can come up with a unique blog name as unique as yourself and your writing.
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Blogger Bio: Lata Sunil
Hello Everyone, I am Lata. I am new to blogging and I want to try out writing for myself and for others.
There, I have said it. I have been planning to do this for ages now. I must have written and published a hundred blogs in my mind. But never got around to actually doing anything about it. But, taking cues from some twitter handles and reading the blogs of others, I decided I should try it to. No point thinking about it and doing nothing. So, here I am.
Before starting off online, I made few posts and got my husband and sons to read about it. And they liked it, not because they had to. They are my loudest critics anyways on everything be it my dress, my cooking, my driving and now my writing! Thanks hubby dear, and my sons.
I am based out of Mumbai, India. I hold a very demanding full-time job (yes! very hectic). Despite this, I want to write.
I plan to write about life, Mumbai, places, seasons, books I read, movies in India, and a whole lot of things I think about.
So, bear with me, as I find my bearings here. Follow me here and on my twitter handle @lsunil.
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That is some real sound advice, I agree about the name. I have named my blog after my name Inderpreet Kaur but still want to change it to either indywrites or eloquent articulation so many times but just can’t decide. I loved your clear thought process and the cool examples.
Keep writing.
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Thanks Inderpreet. I like the name Indywrites. It could mean different things like – India writes, or Independent writes or Indepth writes.. 🙂 But now we all know you with your blog name.. so why bother to change.
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Hi! Some good advice there. When I started out, I didn’t do so well with the name of my personal blog, but fortunately chose well for the pop culture blog I run.
Anyway, hope you find your bearings. It takes awhile, but it gets easier with experience.
Happy A to Z, and keep blogging!
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Definitely some good advice here on blog naming. I know it took us a long time to come up with Comparative Geeks, as all of our ideas kept coming up taken and not unique. However, that led us to keep trying, and I think we came up with a very good name in the end!
One of the hardest parts is that it is recommended that your name match your web address – so you have to have the name sorted before you can even start, if you want to do it right! I know you ran into trouble with that on your personal blog, and I had to remap my own personal blog to land where I wanted to be! It can be a challenge, for sure.
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Yeah. And I just got lucky with Sourcerer. People seem to enjoy the joke, and the header image is pretty unmistakable. That would not fly outside WP dot com, because Sourcerer is a popular name for database technology, apparently.
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Whoops! Awkward. I know we often abbreviate (like with our Twitters) to “Comp Geeks” which ends up a lot like “Computer Geeks” I have found, so it’s our abbreviation which has gotten us in trouble! So many angles to consider 🙂
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Thanks for visiting. Many times we realise quite late that the name part should have been the first step to creating a blog. But better sooner than later. I loved your blog name too and I clicked on it just because it was intriguing and that header is awesome.
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Thank you 🙂 my wife set that up to be a rotating header so there are a few different ones. It was a lot of work at first, but we haven’t changed our design or layout much since. Well, I change the Widgets on occasion. But getting the initial setup right can give you a solid foundation, and readers a consistent experience!
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Very good advice. I like the name of my blog but also can see the drawbacks. It’s called Angels Bark and is perfect for a lot of what I write about (dogs, animals) and for what I am (an Animal Chaplain) but then for those (frequent) times when I write about other things (prime example:
my A-Z challenge is about music of the 60s/70s!) the name has nothing to do with the topics. I tried to offset the issue with my tagline (“a blog about dogs and life”) so that can encompass just about anything, right? Or so I think…
In any case, your advice is spot-on! Happy A-Zing…
Michele at Angels Bark
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Thanks Michele and glad you found it useful.
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Well written Lata, with some very good examples. I recently went through the process of finding names for not 1 but 2 blogs, so I know this is extremely sound advice. Keep writing. 🙂
*Shantala @ ShanayaTales*
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Thanks Shanaya.
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Great tips there on choosing a blog name. Thanks for using mine as an example! 😉 I must admit, it took a while to come up with the name…I remember bombarding my sister with suggestions and asking her what she thought. I knew I wanted something to do with my tattoo that is a hummingbird and has the quote ‘Live your Life’. I’d also been reading a lot about imperfection in the 6 months before that and finally after days of brainstorming, I came up with this.
Prior to this though, for 6 years, my blog was named ‘Over cups of coffee’. Not much thought went into it as I just love coffee and it was easy! 🙂
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Its a lovely name. And its the word ‘Imperfect’ that pulls you.
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Good advice there. I found it real tough to find names when I started blogging. I named mine after a song that I was listening to and it seemed just right. Nice to know a little more about you.
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Thanks Suzy. I love your blog name Someday Somewhere.. it sounds very hopeful actually.
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Great tips you offer here Lata! I wonder about my blog name, especially since the ‘e’ in ‘Express’ was taken so I changed it to ‘Xpress’ (as in Xpress Your Essence). However, not 100% sure if it is ideal/best for me…. ❤
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Xpress is just unique and makes it individual. I love it.
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Valuable advice! As a content writer, I know how important a blog name and / or the title of an article / blog post can be.
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Thanks Devika.
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It’s a relevant topic when it comes to blogging! More than relevance I guess it’s the first thing that any one who aspires to start a blog should look into.
Thanks for the mention, Lata! I started my blog as a food blog where I tried to present the recipes along with snippets from my life. Hence chose the name Tale of two tomatoes. As the blog evolved to poetry and fiction, and when readers fondly started calling me “Tomato Girl”, I knew if in case I make it big,this would be my brand name! 🙂
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I love the blog name Shalini.
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I loved reading this post Lata and you have shared some real good advice. Choosing a name that a best combination of recall value, uniqueness and a reflection of the content is not an easy task and should be thoughtfully taken care of! 🙂
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thanks Parul.. love your blog name. it has a positive twist..both things I love – Happiness and Food.
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Hi, a blog name matters tons to connect and strike a bond with readers, a bit like love at first sight. The advice doled out is priceless. Btw, do you think changing a name after readers know you would affect the blog?
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You can start a new one.. and direct the folks from the old one to the new one.. eventually it will change. Remember brands like Vodafone, Hutch, Orange.
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Well written, Lata. Agree with all the points you have given here. Both my blogs names were randomly chosen without much thought to it. I like the name Void thoughts because it stays close to my heart for some unknown reason. I might change Reflections to something else someday. 🙂 Loved reading this post , Lata. 🙂
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Thanks Vinitha. I simply love the idea of ‘Void’. Its a good name.
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I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t give any thought to naming my blog. How naive is that. I just took the name that WordPress suggested. Still, it does what it says, it’s “Kimberley Cooper’s Blog” so I think I’ll stick with it now, but if ever I create another one, I’ll remember this advice!
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Now you have made the blog a Brand.. and an identifiable one. Thanks Kimberly for visiting.
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Relevant topic and good examples. And please, keep writing!
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thank you Nisha for the encouraging words.
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Very sound advice. WHen I had to name my blog I was so confused and ended up naming it Scribblings. And actually that’s what is happening in my blog. Scribblings and ramblings. 🙂
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Thanks Sheethal.
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Lata, I wish I had read your post before naming my blog 🙂 I was at a vulnerable place when I started writing and just went with my heart, Memoirs. It felt right to me 🙂 You have mentioned some great points in your post about blog names.
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Its your baby Sulekha.. whatever you wish.. you name it.
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Good pointers. A blog name which is memorable and unforgettable is simply great. Since a blog name has long term implications so it should certainly be chosen with care!
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Definitely worth the initial effort. Thanks Shilpa
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Good points. When I started blogging I hadn’t chosen a name for my blog. I tried two, which were taken already. Then I tried adding my name to one of them and it worked! Now I have three blogs with names beginning with Sue. Sue’s Trifles is my A to Z blog – and I used the Shakespeare quotation in my Theme reveal! Sue
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Thats another good idea.. similar to IPad, Iphone 😉 Love the blog name.
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Oh yes, a good name for a blog is a definite attention getter! Well said, Lata. 🙂
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Thanks Debbie. I like your blog name.. its an attention grabber with the double D.
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I agree with you, Lata. I did give a lot of thought to what would be the name of my blog. I finally settled for ‘feelings’, as feelings are what I give most importance to, mine as well as others . So, that is how ‘feelings’ was born. Or, rather, that is how I named my blog. 🙂
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Thanks Shilpa.
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Great advice here, Lata. I like the way you make your point with some good examples.
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Thanks Beloo
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This post means so much to me personally. I named my blog Baby Diaries first that was about six years ago as a new biological parent, then I realised I had second thoughts about the name now my blog is called SECOND THOUGHTS FIRST.
Will keep coming here for more insights on blogging and life.
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Some great tips here, Lata. You have put it very well when you say that blog names should be an extension of their personalities.
Keep writing!
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Latha, I had read your post over the phone but couldn’t comment then due to the same reason: cannot type out lengthy comments on the phone 😦
I remember the discussion we had at the BAR regarding this and I’m delighted to read such a nicely done up post on that. A wonderful idea to link up other blogs too. I truly wish I had given more thought while naming my blog!
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