Considering there are more than 29,000 oil change businesses in the United States alone, it’s no surprise settling on a unique name when starting an oil change business 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 oil change business names are you allowed to use? How do you come up with something that best represents your brand? 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 to use.
Learn more about the oil change industry
Tips for Choosing the Perfect Oil Change Business Name
If you’re struggling to choose a company name for your oil change business, 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 What you Plan to Offer
An oil change service can offer several types of services, so it’s worth considering the services you plan to offer when picking a name. Maybe you want to focus on a mobile oil change business or offer auto repair, tire rotations, or something else entirely different.
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 oil change businesses 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 Say 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 oil change 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 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.
You can then Google “words that start with S” to come up with a name or whatever letter you’re using to create an alliteration. Alternatively, you can search for “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 and business cards. For instance, an oil change business could use an image of a bottle of oil, an oil filter, or a wrench 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. 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 Oil Change Business Names
Here is a list of existing oil change business 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 they can be used.
Tips on how to check business name availability are after the list of names!
- 29th St Fast Lube
- A-1 Quick Oil & Tires
- Acme Quick Lube
- Advance KWIK Lube
- All Lube Center
- American Oil Changers
- At Your Location Lubrication
- Auto Express Lube
- Automotive Lube Service
- Big Ray’s Express
- Broussard Quick Lube
- Buckeye Lube Express
- Central Park Auto Lube
- City Lube
- Copperfield Lube & Tune
- Costa Oil-10 Minute Oil Change
- Dad’s Quick Lube
- Dipstick Oil Change
- Done Right Instant Oil Change
- Eagle Oil Change
- East Coast Lube
- Eddie’s Quick Lube
- Einstein’s Oilery
- Elite Oil & Lube
- Express Lube & More
- Famous Quick Lube
- Fast Lube ‘n Go
- Fast Track Oil Change
- Finish Line Oil Change
- Go Lube
- Good Ol’ Fashioned Oil & Lube
- Grease Monkey
- Grease Pit
- Gulf Coast Lube & Oil
- Hoods Up Quick Lube
- Integrity Lube & Auto
- Jefferson City Rapid Lube
- Jet Express Lube
- Kwik Kar Oil & Lube
- Lonestar Lube & Inspection
- Lubber Dubber’s
- Mobil Lube Express
- Mr. Oil Xpress Lube
- National Auto Lube of Louisville
- National Lube Express
- Oil & Lube Southside
- Oil Change Express
- Oil Changers
- On Site Mobile Lube
- On The Move Lube N Go
- Performance Auto Lube
- Pit Crew Express
- Pit Stop Oil & Lube
- Pops Lube Shop
- Premium Oil Change & Lube
- Prompto 10 Minute Oil Change
- Quality Express Lube & Smog
- Quality Quick Lube & Auto Care
- Queen City Rocket Lube
- Quick Fix Auto Service Center
- Quick Lube & Automotive
- Quick Stop Lube & Shine
- Qwik Lube Of Wakulla
- Raceday Lube & Wash
- Rapid Lube & Maintenance Services
- Road Runner Express Oil Change
- Rt 40 West Lube
- Rusty’s Quick Lube
- Sandusky Lube Express
- Slick’s Oil Change
- Snappy Lube
- SpeeDee Oil Change
- Speedy Mobile Lube
- Speedy’s Quick Lube
- Sprint Lube Auto Center
- Strickland Brothers 10 Minute Oil
- Supreme Quick Lube
- Take 5 Oil Change
- Texas Auto Lube
- Victory Lane Quick Oil Change
- Xpress Auto Lube
Is Your Oil Change Business 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 ideas for naming your oil change business. 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 oil change business name!
