How to Choose the Perfect Coffee Shop Name: A Guide for New Owners

How to Choose the Best Coffee Shop Name:

A Guide for New Owners

Choosing the right name for your coffee shop is among the most important steps to building a relationship with your customers and brand.

Choosing the right name for your coffee shop could lead to great brand awareness, higher affinity towards your coffee shop, and higher profits.

For many new coffee shop owners, they struggle with settling on the best way name for their coffee business, only to have to start over when they realize their chosen name can't be used.

Today, I’m going to help you choose the perfect name for your coffee shop business by detailing some key things you’ll need to consider.

More Than Just a Coffee Shop Name

Your coffee shop’s name should be more than just a name on a sign. Rather, your coffee shop name is expression of your coffee shop brand's personality, mission, and values. No doubt, choosing the right name for your coffee shop sets the tone for how customers perceive and connect with your coffee business, even before they walk in your doors.

Whether you realize it or not, your chosen coffee shop concept reflects your values, mission, and values. For example, you might want to develop a cozy space where students can relax, or you might want to start a coffee shop dedicated to sustainability or adopting pets. These ultimately reflect your values; your coffee shop name should also reflect that.

On the flip side is your coffee shop customer. The name of the coffee shop you choose should resonate with them and entice them to open your doors and try your coffee. Put yourself in your potential customer’s shoes – would your name motivate them?

Research Your Competition: Avoid Common Mistakes

Choosing the best coffee shop name requires a bit of research. After all, you don’t want to copy someone’s name and get into trademark trouble unintentionally. You also don’t want to sound too familiar to your local competition, which will confuse your customers.  

• Violating Trademarks
• Investing in unavailable name

For starters, do a Goggle search using the name of the coffee shop you are considering. If nothing pops up, then things will look promising. Continue researching and looking up state and national trademarks (State, Federal, and International Trademarks exist) through various data bases.

• Google search
• Trademarks 
• Domain Search

Doing this basic research first can help prevent headaches if you violate another coffee shop’s name and brand. You will have to change your name, marketing, and any printable materials, and you may also be hit with attorney fees and judgments.

How to Choose a Coffee Shop Name

Coffee Shop Name Ideas: Keeping It Simple

Ideas for coffee shop names can come from anywhere and anywhere. Whatever coffee shop name you choose, my advice has always been to keep it easy to spell, pronounce, and remember.

• Easy to spell
• Easy to say
• Easy to Remember

The best coffee shop name often emphasizes or highlights your local region, city, or street.  Choosing a name that makes sense from a local perspective often makes sense to your customers. It helps to establish your coffee shop as part of the community and is even familiar to new customers.

Consider A Coffee Shop Name That Highlights Culture

Coffee is also a cultural drink, with a deep history and meaning in various places in the world. From Ethiopia and Yemen to Guatemala and Brazil, Coffee inherently reflects those regions where it is grown and produced.

Additionally, your chosen coffee shop name may consider elements from coffee-growing countries or other countries such as Italy and France to give it a unique flair.

Get a Coffee Shop Name That Grows With You

Consider coffee shop business names that will grow with you. For example,
“Eddie’s Coffee Truck” may not be able to expand if it is expanded to a brick-and-mortar or drive-thru coffee stand.

Test Your Coffee Shop Name – Get Feedback

I strongly recommend getting feedback on your name with your friends, family, and even local customers. Take those coffee shop names you’re considering and test them on others. It would also be fun to see what resonates with your potential customers.

Before finalizing your choice, make sure that your domain is available. Your domain, of course, is your website address. If you do, you’ll want to get your coffee shop domain right away.

Establishing Up Your Online Presence

Consider logo mockups and various fonts. How will your name look with various logo designs and fonts? Have fun and utilize places like Canva to design your unique coffee shop font.

Register Your Domain (EASY)

Register your website domain: You’ll want to see if your domain is available. If so, buy it and start working on your website. It's pretty easy – all you have to do is type in some potential names and see if they are available.

Check domain availability here.

Coffee Shop Name – Simple and Balanced

I love my espresso; full-bodied and balanced. No fancy extras. No sugar, milk, or syrups. Just espresso. Consider the impact that a similar coffee shop name provides your business. Overly creative, hard to pronounce, read, or spell can lead to customers creating their name for your coffee shop.

Consider the Emotions Your Coffee Shop Name Gives

Your branding and coffee shop name can trigger emotions in your coffee customers. Consider the feelings you want your coffee shop name and brand to deliver, especially regarding quality, service, and consistency.

Consider how your coffee shop name will influence your potential customer's expectations of your coffee service, atmosphere, and the overall experience they can expect each visit.

Coffee Shop Name Checklist 

• Reflect values of your brand in your coffee shop name
• Choose a coffee shop name that resonates with customers
• Research competition to avoid similar coffee shop names
• Keep your name simple, easy to spell and remember
• Consider local, cultural, or coffee heritage elements
• Pick a coffee shop name that can grow with your business
• Test coffee shop name ideas with friends and customers
• Ensure domain availability for online presence
• Design logo mockups to visualize branding
• Choose a coffee shop name that evokes desired emotions

Coffee Shop Name Ideas

Here are a few coffee shop names that might inspire you. Consider local, cultural, fun, and memorable coffee shop names.

Coffee Shop Names Examples:

Coffee Shop Startups

Based in Seattle, Washington, USA, Coffee Shop Startups is dedicated to providing you with the most relevant information on how to start a coffee shop business successfully. Over the last 11 years, we've helped thousands of aspiring coffee business owners worldwide. We harness the experience, wisdom, and knowledge of many successful coffee shop owners to help you increase your chances of success and profits. We support business owners who want to start a coffee business by providing them with valuable information on starting their coffee business successfully.