Considering there are close to 13,000 donut shops in the United States alone, it’s no surprise settling on a unique name when starting a donut business can be challenging.
Picking the right name gives potential customers an idea about what your business provides, creates a good first impression, and helps you stand out from the competition.
What donut 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?
Learn more about the donut shop industry.
Guidelines For Naming Your Donut Shop Business
If you’re struggling to choose a company name for your donut shop, 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 your list even more so you can make a final decision.
1. Consider the Types of Donuts You Plan to Offer
If you have a favorite flavor of donuts, it may be worth considering using these in your donut shop name. Maybe you want to focus on creme-filled or apple fritters or glazed donuts.
Add the different types of flavors you want to be known for and add them to your brainstorming list. For a boost of creativity, expand the words around what your business does by using the thesaurus from your word processor or thesaurus.com to come up with additional synonyms.
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 donut 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 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) 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 donut shop 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 by choosing a few of your favorite words from your master brainstorming list.
Then, you can Google “words that start with D” to come up with a name like Delicious Donuts or Dreamy Donuts 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. For instance, a donut shop could use an image of a donut or coffee or rolling pin 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.
List of Catchy Donut Shop Business Names
Here is a list of donut shop names from existing businesses that may help provide some inspiration. 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!
- 1 Donut Guys
- 34th Street South Donuts
- 55 Park Donuts
- 7 Days Donuts
- 911 Donuts
- A B C Donuts
- Ambrosia Donuts
- America’s Donuts Of Main St
- Angel Donuts
- Baking & Donuts
- Beach Donuts
- Best Donuts
- Better Be Donut
- Blue Star Donuts
- Boston Donuts
- California Donuts
- Central Donut
- Choco Donuts
- Chocolate Sprinkles Bakery
- Chris’s Mini Donuts
- Cinnamon Roll Donuts
- Citrus Donut Enterprises
- Clearwater Beach Donuts
- Crumpy’s Donuts
- D & D Donuts
- Dad’s Donuts
- Dairy Donuts & Sandwiches
- Dank Donuts
- Danny’s Donuts
- Dapper Doughnut
- Daughter’s Bakery
- Daylight Donuts
- Deaux Boys
- Destination Little Donuts
- Dey’s Donuts & Croissants
- Dilly Dilly Donuts
- Dirty Girl Donuts
- District Doughnut
- Dogs-N-Donuts
- Dojo Doughnuts & Coffee
- Donnie’s Donuts
- Donut & Dog
- Donut Bar
- Donut Bros
- Donut Cafe
- Donut Chef
- Donut Corner
- Donut Crazy
- Donut Daily
- Donut Daze
- Donut Experiment
- Donut Fantasy
- Donut Gang
- Donut Hole
- Donut House
- Donut Hut
- Donut Kings
- Donut Madness
- Donut Now
- Donut Palace
- Donut Parlor
- Donut Shack
- Donut Shop
- Donut Snob
- Donut Stop
- Donut Stop Believin’
- Donut Temple
- Donut Therapy
- Donut Toss
- Donut Vibe
- Donut World
- Donutlicious
- Donuts & Deli
- Donuts Donuts
- Donuts New Mesa
- Donutty
- DonutyTime
- Doughlicious Doughnuts
- Doughnut Break
- Doughnut District
- Doughnut Dollies
- Doughnut Parlor
- Doughnut Works
- Dover Donut Shops
- Downtown Donut Factory
- Downtown Donuts
- Dr. Doodles Donuts
- Dragonfly Donuts Desserts & Deli
- Duck Donuts
- Duke of Dough
- Dutch Country Donuts & Coffee
- East Palatka Donuts
- Eat My Donuts
- Emerald City Donuts
- Espanola Way Donuts
- Express Donuts
- Family Doughnuts
- Fantasy Little Donuts
- Finest Donuts of San Diego
- Five-O Donut Co
- Florida Donut Factory
- Fluffy Donuts
- Foothill Donuts
- Fort Pierce Donuts
- Frosted Donut
- Gavin’s Donuts
- Georgia Donut Bar
- Glaze Donuts
- Glaze Like A Donut
- Glazed & Confuzed Donuts
- Glazed Palace
- Go Nuts Donuts
- Golden Doughnuts
- Golden Gates Doughnuts
- Gourmet Doughnuts
- Granny’s Donuts
- Habit Doughnut Dispensary
- Happy Baker
- Happy Donuts
- Heidi’s Country Cakey Donuts
- Hidden Doughnut Shop
- High Voltage Donuts
- Hole Doughnut
- Hole In One Donuts
- Holey Donut
- Holey Grail Donuts
- Holistic Donut
- Hollow Bakery
- Hollywood Donuts
- Holy Donuts
- Hometown Donuts
- Honey Dew Donuts
- Hurts Donut Co
- I Donut Care
- I Heart Donuts
- Infinity Donuts
- Jelly Modern Doughnuts
- Jupiter Donuts Of Largo
- Kickn Doughnut
- King Mini Donuts
- Lickin Good Donuts
- Local Donut
- Louks Greek Baby Donuts
- Mag’s Donuts & Bakery
- Maynard’s Donut Co
- Mini Doh! Nuts!
- Mini Donut World
- Mini Doughnuts Rule
- Mr. Donuts & Bakery
- Nutty Donuts
- Ocala Mini Donuts
- Oh Donuts
- One Stop Donut Shop
- Paradise Donuts
- Patterson Donuts & Cafe
- Peace Love & Little Donuts
- Primo’s Donuts
- Race Track Road Donuts
- Randy’s Donuts
- Ray’s Donut Shop
- Rolling Donut
- Salty Donut
- Santa Monica Donuts
- Shaka Donuts
- Sidecar Doughuts & Coffee Shop
- Simply Done Donuts
- Sir Dippin Donuts
- Skinny Donuts
- Southern Maid Doughnuts
- Sugar and Spice
- Sunny Donut
- Sunrise Donuts
- Superfly Donuts
- Sweet Puff Donuts
- Sweet Retreat Donuts
- Swillerbee’s Craft Donuts
- Swiss Donuts
- Take The Donuts
- Tarpon Springs Donuts
- Taste of Heaven Donuts
- Tasty Donuts
- Tasty Doughnuts
- Tennessee Donut Crazy
- Texas Donut Professor
- The Baker’s Dozen
- The Donut Fairy
- The Donut Man
- The Donutery
- The Doughnut Oregon
- The Pastry Shop
- Tiger Point Donuts
- Trio Donut & Coffee
- Valkyrie Doughnuts
- Velvet Cream Doughnuts
- Victory Donuts
- Vintage Doughnut
- Voodoo Doughnut
- West Coast Donut Factory
- Westside Donuts & Croissants
- White Cup Donut
- Wongz Donutz
- World’s Fare Donut
- Yum Yum Donuts
- Yummy Jelly Donuts
Is Your Donut Shop 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 good donut shop name ideas. 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 donut shop name!
