There are more than 568,000 daycares in the United States alone. So, it’s no surprise settling on a unique name when starting a new daycare business feels impossible.
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.
Have all the good daycare names already been taken? How do you come up with something fresh? 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 a catchy daycare name and how to make sure your favorite choices are available to use.
Learn more about the daycare industry
Tips for Choosing the Best Daycare Name
If you’re struggling to choose a company name for your daycare, 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 small 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 Services You Plan to Offer
There are several types of services a daycare can offer, so it’s essential to consider the services you plan to offer. Maybe you want to focus on child and infant care, preschool programs, or after-school programs.
Perhaps you’re considering offering other specialty services.
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
Most daycares 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. Try Toy or Animal Names
Toys and animals are always popular with children and can make great names for your daycare.
4. 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 daycare name is good, being too creative may not be so good.
Keep your business name as simple and easy to remember as possible so potential customers can easily find you.
5. Consider Alliterations and Rhyming Words
Alliterations and rhymes are catchy and easy to remember. Because of that, they make for a cute name.
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 T” to come up with a name, like Toddler Time or S for Sweet Smiles 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 during this stage. Just write them all down, as some of the more interesting ones may spark better ideas later.
6. 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.
7. 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 daycare could use playing children or a heart and focus the name around the image.
Related: How to create a logo for your business.
8. 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 Daycare Names
Here is a list of existing daycare names that may help give you some daycare 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.
Tips on how to check business name availability are after the list of names!
- 24/7 Child Care
- A B C Academy
- A B C Daycare
- A Mother Of Three Childcare
- A Mother’s Love
- A Place To Grow
- ABC Kids Academy
- ABC Learning Center
- Academy 4 Kids
- Advanced Early Learning
- Adventure Kinderland
- Afterschool Village
- All 4 Kids
- All About Children
- All Stars Afterschool
- Alley-Oop Kids
- Alma Family Daycare
- Aloha Playhouse
- Amazing Toddlers
- American Kiddo Academy
- Angel Academy
- Angelic Daycare Center
- Angels Day Care
- Apple Grow Daycare
- Apple Tree Daycare
- Aspire Kids
- Atlas Child Care
- Auntie Kim’s Day Care
- Baby Angel Care
- Babybean Kinderhaus
- Bambi Day Care
- Bay Area Kidcare
- Big house
- Blooming Buddies Childcare
- Brainiac Kids Academy
- Bright Beginnings
- Bright Light Family Child Care
- Bright Minds
- Bright Moments Family Center
- Bright Star Child Care Center
- Bright Start Family Day Care
- Brighter Horizons
- Brown’s Teddy Bear Child Care
- Buttaflly’s Playcare
- Buzy Kidz Daycare
- By His Grace Daycare Learning
- California Family Child Care
- Care A Lot Daycare
- Carousel Day Care Center
- Child Development Center
- Child Play Daycare
- Children’s Bundles Of Care
- Children’s World
- Country Kids Daycare
- Cozy Nest Daycare
- Cre8tive Kids Campus
- Creative Child Care
- Creative Minds Child Care
- Cutie Pie’s Childcare
- Desert Dreams Daycare
- Developing Leaders Child Care
- Dino Land Christian Daycare
- Divinity Childcare
- Donna’s Little Angels
- Dream Kids
- Dreamland Daycare
- Earth Day Nursery
- Elephant Family Daycare
- Ellas Little Bees Daycare
- Enrich Play Learn
- Everyday Sunshine
- Fairy Tale House
- Farmhouse Kidz
- Feeling Good Day Care
- Fifteenth Street Child Care
- First Steps Childcare
- Flower Patches Daycare
- Footsteps Child Care
- Fountain Kids Academy
- Fun House
- Future Scholars
- Galaxy Kids Academy
- Genius Kids Club Livermore
- Gentle Heart Daycare Center
- Giggles In-Da Gardenz Daycare
- Giving Tree Daycare
- Gold Star Kids
- Golden Heart Child Care Service
- Grace Infant Care Center
- Gramma Sue’s Adventure Daycare
- Grow With Us Childcare
- Growing Hearts Home Daycare
- Gummi Bear Daycare
- Hands On Early Learning Center
- Happy Children Home Daycare
- Happy Day Care
- Happy Faces Child Center
- Happy Faces Daycare
- Happy Hearts Family Daycare
- Happy Kids Family Childcare
- Happy Kidz Childcare
- Happy Little Munchkins
- Happy Time Learning Academy
- Happy Trails Childcare
- Harmonee Childcare Center
- Hearts Of The Desert
- Here For Kids
- Home Grown Childcare
- Home Sweet Home Child Care
- Hunny Bees Family Child Care
- Imagination Play School
- In Loving Hands Family Daycare
- Jamie’s Tiny Tots
- Jasmine’s Family Child Care
- Jellybean Daycare
- Josie’s Day Care
- Joyful Beginnings Family Daycare
- Jr Explorers
- Jump Start Hero
- Jungle Of Fun Daycare
- Just Kids Daycare
- Just Play Adventure Park
- Kerri’s Corner
- Kid In Me Childcare
- Kid Zone
- Kidopia Daycare
- Kids & Co
- Kids & Krayons
- Kids Are 1st
- Kids Campus
- Kids Country
- Kids Discovery Station
- Kids First East
- Kid’s Kingdom
- Kid’s Korner Childcare
- Kids Land Child Care Center
- Kids Learning Center
- Kids Town Academy
- Kidspot
- Kidstart Nation
- Kidtowne
- Kidz Childcare & Preschool
- Kidz Zone
- Kinder Buddies Daycare
- Kingdom Kids
- King’s Corner Childcare
- Knowledge Is Power Family Day
- Kreative Kids
- Laceys Lil’ Learners Child Center
- Lacy’s Baby Boop Child Care
- Ladders 4 Learning Child Care
- Ladybuggies Child Care
- Lallipop Day Care
- Las Vegas Rainbow Center
- Laugh & Learn Childcare
- Lavonda’s Crayon Box Childcare
- Learn & Grow Academy
- Learn Laugh-Play Family Day Care
- Learning Steps Home Daycare
- Learning Tree
- Lemon Tree Family Daycare
- Life Tree Learning
- Lil Einsteins Academy
- Lil Fishers Learning Center
- Lil Sprouts Daycare & Learning
- Lisa’s Little Garden
- Little Acorns Academy
- Little Angels Daycare
- Little Bee Daycare
- Little Big Childcare Center
- Little Blessings Daycare
- Little Blue House Home Child Care
- Little Bright Stars
- Little Clubhouse Long Beach
- Little Cookies
- Little Ducklings
- Little Elephants Kids Place
- Little Feet Day Care
- Little Flower Day Care
- Little Foot Daycare
- Little Hands
- Little Heart & Soul Daycare
- Little Kids On The Block
- Little Kings & Queens Daycare
- Little Lamb’s Day Care
- Little Learners Developmental
- Little Love Family Child Care
- Little Munchkins Daycare
- Little Panda Daycare
- Little People Preschool
- Little Pioneers Day Care Center
- Little Rascals
- Little Sprouts
- Little Stars Child Care
- Little Treasures Child Care
- Living Spring Day Care
- Lizzie’s Learning World
- Love & Care Family Daycare
- Love & Patience Child Care Center
- Love Childcare
- Loving Kids Academy
- Luving My Kids Learning Center
- Miracle Kids Success Academy
- Nana Ruth’s Daycare
- New Beginnings Child Care Center
- New Journeys Daycare
- Noah’s Rainbow
- Patty Pat’s Daycare
- Rainbow Child Care Center
- Rock After School Program
- Small People Preschool
- Smart Start Daycare
- Smiles Daycare
- Star Daycare
- Sugar Plum Child Development
- Sunshine Child Care
- Tender Hearts Learning Center
- Tera’s Tots Childcare
- The Learning Experience
- Tiny Steps Daycare
- Tinytown Daycare
- Toddler Town Daycare
- Treetop Daycare
- Whizkidz Preschool
- Word Of Faith Day Care
- You Are My Sunshine Daycare
Is Your Daycare 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 great name ideas for your daycare. 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 daycare name!
