It seems like escape rooms are popping up almost everywhere these days, and one thing many people are going to struggle with when starting their escape room is choosing a name.
How do you find the perfect name that represents your brand and speaks to your target audience?
If you’re struggling to name your escape room, don’t worry. You’re in the right place. In this article, I cover some of the top tips for naming your new business, as well as how to make sure the name is legally available for you to use.
Learn more about the escape room industry
Tips For Naming An Escape Room
Naming a business is hard, especially if you don’t have any ideas or a place to start. So, before you dive in, grab a piece of paper and a pen or open up a blank spreadsheet.
Then, use it as a place to brainstorm ideas and write down words or phrases that come to mind as you go through the tips below.
From there, we’ll talk about how to narrow things down and land on the perfect name.
1. Keep It as Short as Possible
Short business names are usually snappier, catchier, and easier to remember. Ideally, you want to stick to two to five syllables and hopefully no more than 25 characters total.
However, the shorter the name, the better.
That said, there are exceptions to this, and it’s not a hard rule. But when you think about huge, notable brands, which ones come to mind?
Nike. Apple. Ikea. Febreeze. Target. Honeywell.
They’re easy to remember because they’re short, simple, and brandable.
Obviously, there are exceptions to these rules. But typically, the shorter and simpler your name, the easier it is for everyone to remember.
2. Avoid Words That Are Hard to Say or Spell
Voice-to-text and voice search are more popular now than ever before. So, it’s important to consider making your name easy to pronounce and hear.
To do this, avoid using:
- Commonly misspelled words
- Complex terms that are hard to spell
- Words that have several pronunciations
- Homophones like to, too, and two
Try to keep things as concise and simple as possible.
3. Consider Escape Room Related Terms
Since you’re opening an escape room, it might make sense to use specific escape room-related words. It may help to start brainstorming terms, phrases, and words to get all your ideas down on paper.
Examples include Mind Trap, Solve the Mystery, Escape Artists, Clue Hunters, or The Great Escape.
For a boost of creativity, expand use the thesaurus to find synonyms around the words of what your business does. You can either use the thesaurus function from your word processor or thesaurus.com to develop additional synonyms.
From there, you can cross off bad ideas or any terms you don’t like.
4. Phrases Your Audience and Competition Uses
Your business exists for your target audience, so it’s important to consider phrases and terms they use when talking about escape rooms.
There are quite a few places you can look to see what your customers (and competitors) are saying, including:
- Facebook groups, posts, and stories
- Forums related to escape rooms
- Competitor websites, brochures, and flyers
- Trade journals
- Magazines or blogs
Alternatively, you can ask friends or relatives in your target audience. Hearing it directly from them may help you brainstorm and narrow down your choices.
Remember to avoid anything limiting your business’s future growth if you decide to go in another direction down the road.
5. Neighborhoods, Cities, and Nicknames
Including the name of your city, street, or neighborhood is an excellent way to encourage local shopping and create a strong sense of community in your area.
You can also think about nicknames for your city or neighborhood, as well. Here are some examples to use as inspiration:
- Music City Escape Room
- Escape Room Pensacola
- Escape Rooms of St. Louis
- Midtown Escape Rooms
With that said, make sure the name you choose isn’t limiting if you decide to move or expand your escape room down the road.
List of Catchy Escape Room Business Names
Here is a list of existing escape room names that may help you come up with 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!
- 11th Hour Escape
- 13 Locks Escape Rooms
- 417 Escape Artist
- 5th Street Escape Room
- A Maze Room Escapes
- Ace Of Escape
- Adventure Island
- All In Adventures Greensboro
- Alternate Reality Escape Room
- Amazing Escape Room
- Amelia Island Escape Rentals
- Arkansas Adventure Rooms
- Baffled Escape Rooms
- Baltimaze Escape
- Bates Motel Escape Rooms
- Bayou Escape Rooms
- Beat The Clock Escape Rooms
- Black Hills Escape Rooms
- Blissful Escape
- Brainstorm Escape Games
- Break Free 603
- Bull City Escape
- Can You Escape
- Castle Rock Escape
- Challenge Accepted
- Clueless Escape Rooms
- Code Escape
- Code Stat Escape Rooms
- Confundrum Escape Rooms
- Conquer Escape Rooms
- Contraptions Escape Rooms
- Conundrum Escape Adventures
- Crack The Code
- Create Escape Studio
- Cryptix Escape Rooms
- Curious Escape Rooms
- Cyber Raccoon Escape Room
- Delray Escape
- Dreamcatcher Escape
- Elite Escape Room
- Enchambered Sacramento Escape
- Epic Escape Rooms
- Escape 605
- Escape Adventures
- Escape Artist DC
- Escape Countdown
- Escape Folsom
- Escape In Time
- Escape My Room
- Escape Mystery Rooms
- Escape Of A Lifetime
- Escape Out
- Escape Quest
- Escape Reality
- Escape Room Adventure
- Escape Room Challenge
- Escape Room Downtown
- Escape Room Louisiana
- Escape The Cabin
- Escape The Classroom
- Escape Time
- Escapeology Escape Rooms
- Exit 2 Escape
- Exit Santa Cruz
- Exitology Escape Room
- Game On Escape Rooms
- Get Out! Live Action Escape
- Golden Puzzle Room
- Great Escape Of Central Texas
- Hint Hunter Puzzle Rooms
- Industrial Escape Rooms
- Into The Vortex Escape Rooms
- Just Escape
- Key To Escape
- Know Way Out
- Let Me Out Escape Rooms
- Let Us Go Escape Room
- Lock & Key Escape Rooms
- Locked Escape Adventures
- Lost & Locked In
- Lost Escape Room
- Lost Key Escape Rooms
- Mansion Escape Room
- Mastermind Room Escape
- Mind Bender Escape Rooms
- Monkey Mayhem Escape Rooms
- Mountain Time Escape Rooms
- Mystery Mansion Escape Room
- Mystery Room
- No Idea Escape Room
- No Way Out Escape Room Adventures
- Nut House Escape Rooms
- Operation Escape
- Paradox Escape Rooms
- Passcode Escape
- Philly Street Escape Room
- Prison Break
- Puzzlescape
- Race To Escape
- Red Door Escape Room
- Relax Escape & Renew
- Riddlers Escape
- Rocky Mountain Escape Rooms
- Safe Harbor Escape Rooms
- Secret Lab Escape Room
- Secrets Escape Rooms
- Skeleton Key
- Somewhere Secret Escape Game
- The Escape Game San Francisco
- Tick Tock Escape Room
- Time To Escape
- Trap Door Escape Room
- Twisted Key Escape Room
- Ultimate Escape
- Unreal Escape
- Vault
- West Palm Beach Escape Rooms
- Worlds Away Escape
- Xscape Quest
- Zero Hour Escape Rooms
Finding the Perfect Name: Putting It All Together
By now, you should have a lengthy list of words, phrases, and terms you can use in your business name. At this point, I highly recommend going through and removing any that are hard to spell or pronounce.
Now, you can start combining pieces together until something stands out. It may help to create a list of potential names you can use. From there, you can narrow things down to your favorites.
But before you make your final decision, it’s important that your new name passes a few tests.
Say It Out Loud
Make sure you say your new name out loud. It may look great as a logo, domain name, and on a business card. But it also needs to sound good when you say it out loud.
You can also sit down with someone and talk about your business. Does saying the name in casual conversation sound natural? If not, you may want to consider something simpler or easier to say.
Logo Design
Lastly, think about how to incorporate your new name into a logo. Logos should be simple, memorable, and indicative of your brand.
Take Apple, for example. Their business name is easily incorporated into a logo. And today, it’s a household symbol that everyone immediately recognizes.
A logo is an important part of your brand identity, so don’t forget to consider turning your name into a memorable logo as you make your final decision.
Related: How to create a logo for your business.
Is Your Escape Room Business 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 vital 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 your escape room. 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 escape room name!
