How to name your donut business
Hey, I’m Ashley (Branding Expert) and I’m going to guide you through our four steps to name your donut business. Below you’ll find twenty example names I created in this process and next, I’ll show you how you can create your own. To get started try our donut business name generator above and then scroll below to find the first step in the naming process.
- Donuty Time
- Yummy Jelly Donuts
- Donut Family
- Donut Daily
- Do Eat Donut
- Nutty Donuts
- Honey Donuts
- Donut Chef
- Dreamland Donut
- Donnutia
- The Donutteria
- The Happy Baker
- The Donut Hole
- Donut Place
- Fresh Glazed Donuts
- Donut Kingdom
- Donut Empire
- Dronut
- Glazed Donut Shop
- Happy Glazed Donut Place
Four steps to naming your donut business
This four-step process will help you name your donut business. In this example, I’m creating a name for a Donut business that conveys the delicious, enjoyable, and sweet taste of its product. Here’s each step I took in crafting these business names.
#1) Brainstorm your name ideas
Start by brainstorming what words could fit into your business name. In my name ideas, I used words like “Yummy”, “Glazed”, “Happy” and “Fresh”, you can see that while these words can be related to donuts, they also depict the delightful flavor you can get from the products. Your goal here is to create a list of words or names that come to mind when thinking about your business.
If you’re stuck on words to use, try our business name generator.
Here are my name ideas after brainstorming:
- Donuty Time
- Yummy Jelly Donuts
- Donut Family
- Donut Daily
- Do Eat Donut
- Nutty Donuts
- Honey Donuts
- Donut Chef
- Dreamland Donut
- Donnutia
- The Donutteria
- The Happy Baker
- The Donut Hole
- Donut Place
- Fresh Glazed Donuts
- Donut Kingdom
- Donut Empire
- Dronut
- Glazed Donut Shop
- Happy Glazed Donut Place
#2) Shortlist your ideas
Once you’ve developed a list of possible names, do an analysis of your ideas. Remove any names that could be hard to remember, spell or speak aloud. Keep names that are brandable, sound great, are memorable, and communicate your brand values, product, or service to your target audience.
Here’s a quick checklist you can run your ideas through to help shorten your list of names:
- Is the name simple and easy to remember?
- Is the name easy to read and say aloud?
- Is the name different from competitors?
- Does the name convey a relevant meaning?
- Does the name avoid overused words or cliches?
My Shortlist:
- Dreamland Donut
- Yummy Jelly Donuts
- Donut Kingdom
- The Happy Baker
Removed Ideas:
- Donuty Time
- Donut Family
- Donut Daily
- Do Eat Donut
- Nutty Donuts
- Honey Donuts
- Donut Chef
- Donnutia
- The Donutteria
- The Donut Hole
- Donut Place
- Fresh Glazed Donuts
- Donut Empire
- Dronut
- Glazed Donut Shop
- Happy Glazed Donut Place
#3) Get some feedback
You’ll now have a list of 3-6 great donut business names and you can start to ask potential customers or people working in the industry for feedback (your target audience). Avoid feedback from family and friends, are more likely to praise all your ideas and they aren’t your customer.
Be sure to ask questions like:
- What first comes to mind when you first hear the name?
- How would you spell it?
With you’re customer feedback you can now ask yourself is the name still relevant? and did it represent your business how you intended?
My customer feedback:
Yummy Jelly Donuts
This name conveys a specific kind of delicious donut.
Dreamland Donut
This name conveys donuts that are simply dreamy.
The Happy Baker
This name conveys that the person making the donuts is just as happy to make them as you are to eat them.
Donut Kingdom
This name conveys a multitude of delicious donuts to choose from.
#4) Check It’s available
At this point, it’s good to have at least three great donut business names on your list, in case any of your names are already taken. You can do a quick Business Name Search online to find out if you’re name is available within your country/state, also be sure to search if the name is also available for Trademark and Domain name Registration.
Competitor Name Analysis
To help you brainstorm potential business names, let’s take a look at three successful donut businesses and break down why and how they’ve chosen to name their business and why it works for them.
Voodoo Doughnut is a name that works fantastically for a themed donut shop. If you’re looking for donuts that come in unique shapes and styles, this is the place to go. It’s always fun to add a theme to your shop.
A Baker’s Wife is a name that feels much more local than many of the standard donut shop names out there. It’s also a name that is likely to have a story behind it.
The Holy Donut is a name that shows customers just how heavenly good donuts can be. It’s also a name with some great repetitive sounds, making it a catchy name.
5 Tips for naming your donut business
The ideal business name should be simple, memorable, and convey a meaning all at the same time. Here are my 5 tips to keep in mind when developing your business names.
1. Do a Competitor Analysis
Doing a competitor analysis as your first step will save you a lot of time in the future, knowing what names to avoid and understanding why and how your competitors’ business name words for them will help you in forming your own business names. When analyzing competitors think about:
- What business or product values are they conveying in their business name? How does that work for them?
- Is there a trend in how these businesses are naming themselves? It’s best to avoid sounding like “just another one of those businesses”.
- Who does it best? Why does it work and how can I produce a better name?
2. Focus on Naming your Business not Describing it.
A typical pitfall most businesses run into is describing their business name too literally, using overused Donut terms like bake, sweet, or glaze. A more effective business name should convey to customers your businesses and product values at a deeper level. Try to name your business in a way that has a story behind it.
Let’s take for example a real donut business named “A Baker’s Wife”.
Customers get the sense that they are buying donuts from the wife of a baker in a literal sense. Additionally, this is a name that can run more deeply and allow customers to connect with the story behind the name.
3. How to make a more memorable name
Creating a memorable business name is the first step in getting into a customer’s mind and is also a task that’s easier said than done. Your business name should aim to stop a customer in their tracks and give extra thought to your product among your wave of competitors. Some tips to create a memorable name would be:
- Use rhythmic pronunciation or alliteration (Donut Daily, Nutty Donuts
- Try using a word that wouldn’t be relevant when out of context (The Donutteria – this name can really only apply to donuts, though it does make the donut shop sound very fancy!)
- Keep it short and simple.
4. Try purchasing a Brandable business name
Brandable business names are names that are non-sensical but read and are pronounced well. They often use letter patterns of Vowel/Consonant/Vowel as these word structures are typically short, catchy, and easy to say and remember. For example, some brandable donut business names could be:
- Belara Donuts
- Fudona Donuts
- Yumado Donuts
You can find a full list of Brandable business names at Domainify.com
5. Avoid combining words just to create a unique name.
Another mistake business owners typically make is creating bad word combinations when they find out that their business name idea is already taken. For example, John names his business Daffy Donuts and finds out it’s already taken. Because he’s already decided this is what he’ll name his business he tries to opt for similar-sounding names like DaffyyDonuts, Daffonuts, or DaffyDdonuts.
You can see how these ideas are a step backward as they are not catchy, easily pronounceable, or memorable. In these situations, we suggest starting from scratch and trying the tips we mentioned previously.
Business Name Ideas
Here’s the ultimate list of related words you could use in your business name. Below is a list of trending, descriptive, and action words that are often related to.
Trending Words
Here are the top trending words used in donut company names.
- coffee
- shop
- near
- online
- gourmet
- shipped
- flavors
- donutes
- nearest
- business
- places
- nutrition
- sweet
- crispy
- maker
- glazed
- creamy
- homemade
- vanilla
- chocolate
- cake
Other Business Name Guides
Related: Bakery Business Names
Related: Dessert Business Names
Related: Cake Business Names
Related: How To Start A Bakery
Related: How to Start a Food Truck Business
Related: How To Start A Food Business
Words Donut often describes
(“donut______”)
You can use these words to create donut business names like ‘The Donut shop’ and ‘The Donut Pad’.
- shape
- shop
- shops
- sign
- hole
- pad
- crumbs
How Donut is often described
(“______ donut”)
Example donut company names using these related descriptive words ‘The Giant Jelly Donut shop’ and ‘Fresh Donut Co.’.
- jelly
- last
- second
- powdered
- filled
- stale
- big
- large
- glazed
- plain
- small
- fresh
- third
- covered
- giant
- white
- whole
- free
- frosted
- yellow
- blue
- single
- plastic
- sugary
- huge
- black
- green
- hot
- square
- flat
- double
- half
- starboard
- additional
- extra
- red
- inflatable
- front
- fat
- unfilled
- pink
- tiny
- hole
- enormous
- favorite
- sweet
- fourth
- perfect
- size
- inflated
- sturdy
- thin
Donut Adjectives
You can use an adjective in your business name to create a business name like ‘Big Donut‘ or ‘The Fresh Donut Company‘.
- last
- second
- powdered
- stale
- big
- plain
- fresh
- third
- giant
- Persian
- dingy
- kosher
- lighted
- poky
- posh
- scaphoid
Donut Verbs
You can use a verb in your donut business name to create business names like ‘Glazed Donuts‘.
- eating
- glazed
- eat
- shaped
- ate
- get
- grabbed
- want
- finished
- buy
- picked
- looked
- looks
- draw
- reached
- bet
- grab
- eaten
- tackling
- filled
- bit
- bought
- pulled
- resembles
- fritter
Combine Words
We’ve taken words from above and from our generator results and combined the words to create new donut company names.
- donutelly (Donut + Jelly)
- dreamy (Donut+ Creamy)
- freshut (Fresh + Donut)
- fresnut
- fresonut
- frest
- tastonut (Tasty+ Donut)
- glazeonut (Glazed + Donut)
Donut in Foreign Languages
Consider using foreign words in your business name to give the impression of an international or exotic brand.
Latin: noun (doughnut, gelata, contritique, vitreae, alba) adjective (integro).
French: noun (beignet, gelée, glacé, en poudre, crémeux).
Italian: noun (ciambella, gelatina, glassata).
Spanish: noun (rosquilla, gelatina).
