Considering there are more than 17,000 ice cream shops in the United States alone, it’s no surprise settling on a unique name when starting an ice cream shop can be a chilling 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 ice cream shop names are you allowed to use? How do you come up with something that represents your brand best? And what about business name best practices?
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 best ice cream business name and how to make sure your favorite choices are available.
Learn more about the ice cream shop industry
Tips for Choosing the Best Ice Cream Shop Name
If you’re struggling to develop a creative ice cream shop name, 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 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. Consider the Products You Plan to Offer
Several types of products can be sold at an ice cream parlor, so it’s worth considering incorporating those in your name. Maybe you want to focus on custard, sorbet, or gelato. Perhaps you’re considering offering other novelty treats.
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 ice cream shops 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 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 and creative name for an ice cream shop 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 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 Custard Creamery or Chilly Cones 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 brainstorming 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. For instance, an ice cream shop could use an image of an ice cream cone or a popsicle and focus the name around the image.
Related: How to create a logo for your business.
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 or the name of an important family member. 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.
List of Catchy Ice Cream Shop Names
Here is a list of our favorite ice cream shop names from existing businesses 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 they can be used.
Tips on how to check business name availability are after the list of names!
- 212 Ice Cream Studio
- 7 Star Ice Cream
- Aldos Italian Ice & Gelato
- Alexandre Family Creamery
- Alphabet Scoop
- Amy’s Wicked Slush
- Andy’s Frozen Custard
- Art Of Gelato
- Bahama Buck’s
- Baja Ice Cream
- Baltimore Snowball
- Banana Splitz
- Bango Creamery
- Beach City Creamery
- Bear Hand Ice Cream
- Bella’s Gelato Shoppe
- Belleville Ice Cream Parlor
- Below Zero Italian Ice
- Big Foot Ice Cream
- Blast Ice Cream
- Blissfully Sweet Shaved Ice
- Blossoms Creamery
- Blue Skies Ice Cream
- Blue Whale Ice Cream
- Brain Freeze
- Bruster’s Real Ice Cream
- Bubbies Ice Cream
- Cabana Boy Ice Cream
- California Frozen Treats
- Catalina Ice Cream Corp
- Cauldron Ice Cream Company
- Cheery Cherries Ice Cream Parlour and Coffee Bar
- Chilly Cow
- Choux Creme
- Churn Urban Creamery
- Churned Creamery
- Chyll Rolled Creamery & Boba
- Cold Cones Ice Cream Shoppe
- Cold Heart Ice Cream
- Cold World Ice Cream
- Cone Thugs Ice Cream
- Cookie Doh Creamery
- Cool Cream
- Cosmic Ice Cream
- Country Creamery
- Coyote Ice Cream
- Crazy Cherry
- Creambergs
- Creamery At Alkali Flat Cmnty
- Creamland Ice Cream
- Creams & Dreams
- Creme & Sugar
- Creme Frozen Custard & Drinks
- Dairy Delight
- Dave’s Gourmet Ice Cream
- Delicious Cream
- Dolce Italian Ice
- Double Scoops
- Downtown Creamery
- Downtown Dip
- Dream Cream
- Dreamery Creamery
- Farm Fresh Ice Cream
- Flavor Kingdom
- Flavors Creamery
- Float Station
- Freedom Shaved Ice
- Freezing Point
- Fresh Rolled Ice Cream
- Frost Creamery
- Frost Gelato At Del Sur
- Frosty Frills
- Frosty Queen Express
- Frozen World
- Fruityfresca
- Fruta All Natural Ice Cream
- Gelato Go
- Gelato Spot
- Golden Spoon
- G’s Creamery
- Guava Lava Frozen Dessert Bar
- Guru Ice Cream
- Gusto Italian Gelato
- Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream
- Hang Loose Hawaiian Shave Ice
- Happy Cones
- Hokey Pokey Ice Cream Parlor
- Holy Roly Ice Cream
- Hometown Creamery
- Honey Hut Ice Cream
- How We Roll Ice Cream
- I Scream For Ice Cream
- Ice Cream And More
- Ice Cream City
- Ice Cream Delight
- Ice Cream Dream
- Ice Cream Factory
- Ice Cream Giant
- Ice Cream Hut
- Ice House
- Icy Rush Co
- Igloo Ice Cream
- Inside The Scoops
- Island Creamery
- Just Chill N Ice Cream Truck
- Karma Ice Cream
- Kiddo’s Creamery
- KOOL Dayz Ice Cream
- Legacy Ice Cream
- Lepanto Dairy Freeze
- Lick Frozen Pops
- Lickety Split
- Lisa’s Rolled Ice Cream & Shakes
- Little Calf Creamery & Cafe
- Little Man Ice Cream
- Little Truckee Ice Creamery
- Locopops
- Long Beach Creamery
- Love Ice Cream
- Love It Frozen Custard
- Lucky Cat Rolled Ice Cream
- Magnolia Ice Cream & Treats
- Mallard Ice Cream
- Malt Shop
- Marble Slab Creamery
- Mardi Gras Snowball Shoppe
- Mighty Ice Cream
- Milkbomb Ice Cream
- Minions Ice Cream
- Mister Softee AZ
- Moo Gelato
- Moo Time Creamery
- Moonside Creamery
- Mr. Matcha
- Mr. Shakes
- My Scoops
- No Limit Shakes & Ice Cream
- Nova Ice Cream
- Papa Ice Cream
- Paradise Ice Cream
- Polar Bear Ice Cream
- Polar Ice Cream
- Pop Up Gelato
- Powder Shaved Snow
- Quality Ice Cream
- Queen Bee Ice Scream
- Revival Ice Cream
- Rock Salt Ice Cream
- Roll ‘n Scoop
- Roll Up Creamery & Cafe
- Rollin Deep Ice Cream
- Rustic Cow
- Safe Cone Zone
- Scoop and Joy
- Scoops Ice Cream Shop
- Scream Creamery
- Shake’s Frozen Custard
- Smitten Ice Cream
- Snow Zone
- Snow’s Creamery
- Splendid Ice Cream
- Sprinkles Ice Cream
- Street Creamery
- Stuffed Ice Cream
- Sub Zero Ice Cream & Yogurt
- Sugar Momma Desserts
- Sugar Plum Snocones
- Sundae Funday
- Sunset Sweets Ice Cream
- Sweet Puffs Ice Cream
- Sweet Republic
- Sweet Retreat
- Sweet Scoops
- Sweet Spot
- Sweet Treats
- Swirlz Creamery
- Tastee Freeze
- Thai Scream Ice Cream
- The Creamery
- The Dixie Pixie Creamery
- The Drippity Cone
- The Frozen Spoon
- The Konery
- The Twist
- The Waffle Bowl
- The Waffle Cone
- Tilt Ice Cream
- Tip Tap Ice Cream
- Top This Frozen Desserts
- Toshi’s Yogurt & Ice Cream
- U Scream 4 Ice Cream
- Udder Perfection Ice Cream
- Utterly Ice Cream
- Vanilla Bean Creamery
- Vanilla Moon Dairy
- Wrap N’ Roll
Is Your Ice Cream Shop Name Available?
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 good name ideas for naming your ice cream shop. 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 ice cream shop name!
