There are more than 152,000 convenience stores in the United States alone. So, it’s no surprise settling on a unique name when starting a convenience store feels challenging.
Picking the right name gives potential customers an idea about the services your business provides, creates a good first impression, and helps you stand out from the competition.
Have all the good convenience store business names already been taken? How do you come up with something fresh? And what about knowing when a name is available to use?
Related: How to start a convenience store
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 a catchy name and how to make sure your favorite choices are available across the board.
Learn more about the convenience store industry
Tips for Choosing the Perfect Convenience Store Name
If you’re struggling to choose a company name for your convenience store, 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 you 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. Location-Specific Terms
Most convenience stores are specific to a geographic service area. So, if that’s true for your business, consider adding a location-specific term to your store 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.
2. Avoid Business Names That Are Hard to Pronounce, Hear, or Spell
Despite the technological advances in 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) searches 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 convenience store name is good, being too unique may not be so good.
Keep your business name as simple and easy to remember as possible so your target market can easily find you.
3. Consider Alliterations and Rhyming Words
Alliterations and rhymes are catchy and easy to remember. Because of that, they make for great small business names.
That said, it’s not always easy to come up with them. Start by choosing a few of your favorite words from your master brainstorming list.
Then, you can Google “words that start with C” to come up with a name like Corner Convenience or E for Easy Eats 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 in this stage. Just write them all down, as some of the more interesting ones may spark better ideas later.
4. 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.
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.
5. 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. For instance, a convenience store could use a shopping cart or a shopping bag and focus the name around the image.
Related: How to create a logo for your business.
6. 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 plans to be the face behind the business.
Something to keep in mind is that using the owner’s name (or even the name of a family member) as the business name can make it more challenging to sell the business in the future.
What is another word for convenience store?
– Bodega
– C-Store
– Corner Store
– Corner Market
– Country Store
– Food Mart
– General Store
– Market
– Mini Market
– Trading Post
List of Catchy Convenience Store Business Name Ideas
Here is a list of existing convenience store 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!
- 10th Street Convenience Store
- 1340 Mini Market
- 158 West Gate Food Corp
- 16 General Store
- 24 Hour Store
- 54th Street Convenience Store
- 789 Mini Market
- A & A Stop & Shop
- A.M. Convenience Store
- A Quick Stop
- A To Z Mini Mart
- A1A Convenience Store
- All American Snack Shack
- Alltown Fresh
- Ana Snack Bar
- Andy’s Mini Market
- Annie J’s Snack Shack
- Apopka Quick Mart
- At Ur Convenience
- Avenue D Convenience Mart
- B & J’s Mini Mart
- B & M Off Leesburg
- B & P’s Community Store
- Beaver Quick Mart
- Big Apple Convenience Market
- Boundless Snacks
- Bradley Mini Mart
- Brian’s Discount Market
- Bristol Convenience & Deli
- Bros Mini Mart
- Brothers Convenient Store
- B’s Family Mart
- Bubba’s Stop N Go
- Budget Food Store
- BZ Food Mart
- Campbell Snacks National
- Carlie Convenience Store
- Caroline’s Pantry
- Carroll’s Corner Market
- Convenience To Go
- Cooper’s Country Creations
- Corner Pantry
- Corner Store Convenience
- Crescent Street Convenience
- Crossway Foodmart
- C-Store 616
- Da Kurve One Stop
- Dade City Go Mart
- Discount Convenience Store
- Discount Food Mart
- Discount KWIK Shop
- Dollar & Up Convenience Store
- Duval’s Urban Pantry
- Eagle Market
- Eastside Food Store
- Easy Shop
- Econo Mart
- Elemental Mini Market
- Empire Mini Mart
- Express Mart
- Fair Haven Mini Market
- Fast Track
- Feel Good Shop
- Felo Man Mini Market
- First Snack Stop
- Five Points Convenience Store
- Flagler Quick Stop Corp
- Flamingo Mini Mart
- Food Emporium
- Food Mart
- Foodie Express
- Fresh 2 Go Market
- Fresh Market
- Friendly Mart Beer & Wine
- Get N Go
- Go Market
- Go Mart
- Grab ‘n Go Mart
- Grabin-Go
- Green Cove Food Store
- Green Grocers
- Guilford Food Stop
- Hall’s Minit Mart
- Happy Food Mart
- Happy Snacky
- Healthy Always 365 Food Pantry
- Healthy Snacks & More
- High Falls Market
- High Score Marketplace
- Highway Mini Mart
- Hot Box Food Shop
- Hourglass Munchies
- I Got The Juice
- In & Out Food Mart
- Indian River Snacks
- J & J Quick Stop
- Jax Mini Mart
- Jax Quick Stop
- Jet Food Store
- Joe’s Grocery
- Jojo Mini Market
- Kangaroo Express
- King’s Mini Mart
- Kwick Stop
- Kwik Save
- L A Guadalupe Stop & Shop
- Las Americas Mini Market
- Latinos Mini Market
- Lawn Convenience Store
- Laybranko Grocery Store
- Liberty Go
- Lily’s One Stop Mini Market
- Loaf ‘N Jug
- Lozano’s Mini Mart
- Lucky Food Mart
- Lucy Mini Market
- Luigi’s Convenience Shop
- Lulu’s Mini Market
- Mango Food Mart
- Maxwell’s Corner
- Mid Way Mini Mart
- Midway Qwik Stop
- Mike’s Convenience
- Millennium Mini Mart
- Miller Foodmart
- Mini Mart
- Neighborhood Food Store
- Neighborhood Market
- North Beach Mini Mart
- North Main Corner Store
- North Port Qwik Stop
- Olustee General Store
- One Food Stop
- One Place Foodmart
- One Stop
- One-Stop Market
- One-Stop Mini Market
- One Stop Supply
- Orient Mini Market
- Paradise Convenience Store
- Parker’s 24 Hour Convenience
- Pecan Park Express Mart
- Plaza Market
- Prime Stop Food Mart
- Princess Convenience
- Project Road Trip
- Queen’s Qwik Stop
- Quick Food Mart
- Quick Grab N Go
- Quick N E Z Corner Store
- Quick Stop
- Rooster On 50th
- Sensational Snacks
- Seven Star Food Mart
- Seymour Food Mart
- Shift N Drive
- Shop & Go Express
- Shop N Go
- Shop N Save Mini Mart
- Six Star Snackbar
- Smiles Per Gallon
- Smith Quick Shop
- Snack Box
- Snack Sack
- Snacks & Supplies
- Snacks & Sweets
- Snacks Delight
- Snacks For All
- Snacks R Us
- Snak Shak
- Snoopy’s Quick Stop
- Snowy Mini Mart
- Sophie’s Mini Mart
- South Main Convenient Store
- South Sanderson One Stop
- Southside General Store
- Speedee Market
- Speedy Mini Mart
- Sports Corner
- Springer Stop & Go
- Stop & Shop
- Stop N Go
- Stop N Save
- Stop N Shop
- Stop-N-Save Mart
- Tru Family Korner Store
- Venice Convenience
- Village Grocery Store
- Willow Convenience Store
- Xpress Food
- Xtra Convenience Store
- Your Convenience
- Z Man Mini Mart
Is Your Name Available to Use?
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 helpful 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.
Can the business name be registered in your state?
If you plan to use a specific business name, you may be required by the state to verify it’s available to use.
Related: How to check business name availability in your state
Is your name already trademarked?
When searching for a name for your new business, you should check that your new name isn’t trademarked by someone else. If it is, you may not be allowed to use it legally.
Thankfully, the United States Patent Trademark Office (USPTO) makes trademark searching a breeze through their Trademark Database.
A name isn’t necessarily available if it doesn’t appear in this search. Every business has some limited protection through a common law trademark. This means another business can’t open up down the street with the same name, as this creates confusion for customers. Also, check local competitors by doing a Google search and looking through the Yellow Pages.
If your name is available and you want to protect it from being used by anyone else, you can register it with the USPTO.
Related: How to check for a trademark
Hopefully, you now have some ideas for the name of your convenience store. Once you have narrowed this list 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 convenience store name!
