Considering there are more than 11,000 bakeries in the United States alone, it’s no surprise settling on a unique name when starting a new bakery 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 bakery and cake 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 perfect business name and how to make sure your favorite choices are available across the board.
Learn more about the bakery industry
Tips for Choosing the Best Name for a Bakery
If you’re struggling to choose a creative bakery name, 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. Consider the Products & Services You Plan to Offer
There are several types of bakeries, so it’s essential to consider the services you plan to offer. Maybe you want to focus on fresh bread or cupcakes. Perhaps you’re considering offering other specialty products.
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 bakeries 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) 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 bakery 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 make catchy bakery names that are easy to remember. Because of that, they make for great and memorable bakery 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 Cake Corner or D for Doughy Delights or whatever letter you’re using to create an alliteration. Alternatively, you can search “words that rhyme with _____” like Sweet Treats.
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 during this stage. 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 bakery logo. For instance, a bakery could use an image of a cake or rolling pin 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 own name or that 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 Clever Bakery Business Name Ideas
Here is a list of some of the best bakery names of existing businesses we found to help give you good business name 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.
2 Buds Bakery
A Cake For The Day
A Gift Of Taste
A Piece Of Cake & Confections
Abby’s Bakery
Alchemy Of Baking
Allison Bakes
Amelie’s French Pastries
Amour De Patisserie
Any Occasion
Apex Bakery
Apricot Rabbit Bakery
Arevalo’s Bakery
Back Porch Bakery
Bad Bakers
Bakd San Diego
Bake Me Happy
Bake Sale
Bake Shop 420
Baked By Mayra
Baked In LA
Baked On The River
Bakedazzle
Bakehouse Bakery & Cafe
Bakers Bodega Of Escondido
Bakers Kneaded
Baker’s Reserve
Baking The Dream
Bandit Bakery
Batter Up Cakery
Bella Bakery
Bentonville Baking Co
Betty Cakes Bakery
Bite Me Bakery & Coffee Shop
Black Market Bakery
Blessed By Baking
Blue Lotus Bakery
Blue Mountain Bakery & Cafe
Bonjour Bakehouse
Bread Basket
Bread Box
Bread For All
Bread Head California
Bread Republic
Breaking Bread
Brioche Lady Bakery
British Girl Bakes
Bub & Grandma’s Bread
Buffalo Baking Co
Bullseye Baker
Bump City Bakery
Burgess Baking Co
Butcher The Baker
Butta Cakes
Buttercup Bakery & Cafe
Cake Box Confection
Cake De Partie
Cake Event Co
Cake Fairy
Cake House
Cake Lair
Cake Me Away
Cake N It Up
Cake O’Clock
Cake Pops By Amber
Cake Time Bakery
Cake Whisperer
Cakeology
Cakes By Karl
California Croissant Bakehouse
Carousel Bakery
Cecelia’s Cakes N Sweets
Central Baking Co
Change Of Pace Cakes
Charm City Cakes
Choco Bakery
Chocolate Dreams
Cinderella Cakes
Clark Street Bread
Cookie Bookie
Cookie Monster
Corner Bakery Café
Cornerstone Bakery
Coronado Bread House
Crazy Good Bakery & Cafe
Creamy Sweet Dessert Parlor
Criminal Baking Co
Crumble
Cupcake Studios
Curious Fork Bakery
Custom Cake Couture
Cut The Cake
Daily Bread Co
Dangling Carrot Confections
Deep South Cake Co
Deja Vu Cakes
Delectable Desires Pastries
Delight Patisserie
Delightful Taste Bakery
Delish Tasty Treats
Desserts By Patrick
Dough Jo Bread Co
Dough Nation
Doughlicious
Dutch Girls Baking Co
East Bay Pie Co
Eighty One Bakery
Elemental Baking
Emily’s Cinnamon Rolls
Enchanted Sweet Shoppe
Esther’s German Bakery
Ever So Sweetly
Everybody Loves Cake
Everything Bakery
Fancy Wheatfield Bakery
Fat Anne’s Bakery & Bistro
Favorite Square Bakery
Femme De Cupcakes
Flour Power Cakery
Fluffy Buns Bakery
Flying Apron
Fog City Bakehouse
Fondant Cups & Cakes
For The Love Of Butter Bakery
Forget Me Not Cakes
Foundation Bakery
Four Bakers
Frannie B’s Cakes
French Oven Bakery
Fresh Baked Co
Fresh Out The Oven
Fresh Pita Bakery
Gingerbread House
Golden Bakery
Golden Sun Bakery
Goodness Cakes
Gourmet Sweet Bakeries
Grace & Honey Cakes
Grace Of Cakes
Graham Slam Bakery
Granny’s Bakery
Granny’s Got Rolls
Green Girl Bakeshop
Happy Cakes Of Orange County
Happy Sweet Bakery
Healthy Grains Bakery
Heavenly Delight Cakes
Hey Brother Baker
Home Sweet Home Dessert
Honey Bee Bakery
Hot Cakes
Hot Crossed Buns
House Of Bread Academy
House Of Bread
House Of The Rising Buns
Innovative Baking
International Pastry
Italian Brothers Bakery
Itty Bitty Bakers
Jane’s Baking Co
Joker’s Bakery
Juanita’s Polynesian Delights
Just Baked
Just Pastries
Keki Cake
Keto Dessert Co
LA Central Bakery
Licking Good Donut
Little Rock Cakes
Love + Flour
Mad Batter
Majestic Bakery & Cafe
Malta Joe’s Baked Goods
Muffin Man
My Three Girls Bakery
Nothing Bundt Cakes
Nutty Bunch
Nutty Creations
Paradise Donuts
Pie Chart
Roll’n Dough
Skippity Scones
Smallcakes Cupcakery
Sticky Buns
Sue’s Simple Bakery & Bistro
Sugarlips Bakery
Sweet Cheeks Baking Company
Sweet Dee’s Bakeshop
Sweet Lady Jane Bakery
Sweet Pies
Sweet Sensations
Sweet Spot
Sweet Thangs Bakery
Sweet Tooth
Taste of Home Bakery
Tasty Bakery
The Cake Bake Shoppe
The Cake BakeryMuffin Top
The Cake Room
The Cupcake Bakery
The Dessert Shop
Those Baker Chicks
True Loaf Bakery
Village Bakery
Wedding Cakes & More
Is Your Bakery 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 bakery. 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 bakery name!
