naming etsy store

9 Essential Tips For Naming An Etsy Shop In 2023

Naming an Etsy shop is probably one of the most important things you will do if you have decided to start a business on this wonderful platform for crafts.  

Marketing and leadership expert Seth Godin once said:

“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories, and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”

This beautiful sentiment is the main reason why it is so important to choose a good Etsy shop name.

It effectively reflects your brand and is one of the first things that will tell customers why they should buy your products. 

If you have been pondering on how to name your Etsy shop, then I’m going to give you all the necessary details you need to consider. 

In this article, we take a deep dive into:

  • The importance of a good Etsy shop name
  • The criteria you need to follow for naming your Etsy shop
  • Factors that go into a good Etsy shop name
  • Key tools that will help you generate an Etsy shop name 

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This article contains some affiliate links which means that I may earn a small commission when you click on them, at no additional cost to you. I do hope you find the information in this article helpful!

Note- If  you are super busy and you want to start making money selling digital products  on Etsy ASAP, you can check out this and this Etsy course, that will step up your Etsy game and start earning within 3 months! 

Alternatively, you can also check out this free Etsy Ebook that will share a list of best-selling products by month and teach you how to capitalize on seasonal trends to skyrocket your Etsy sales.

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What Is Etsy All About?

Etsy is an Ecommerce platform that caters specifically to products that are uniquely handmade or vintage

Its primary objective is to create a global marketplace that will allow small businesses with limited resources an avenue to sell their products to potential customers all over the world. 

Etsy prides itself on maintaining a human connection and close-knit community at a time where almost everything is done by a machine!

If you are a new entrepreneur who is creative and crafty, then Etsy is a wonderful place to start to sell your products. 

The Importance Of A Good Etsy Shop Name

As you embark upon your Etsy journey, one of the first things you will be required to do is to name your Etsy shop. 

This is not something that you should rush to decide on. 

The name of your Etsy shop will effectively reflect your brand and the identity of your shop and business as a whole. 

Your Etsy shop name is how potential customers will identify and perceive your business and your products. 

It tells the customers about the story behind your business and over time, it has the potential to create a relationship of trust and loyalty. 

As such, it is important to decide on an Etsy shop name that truly creates a long-lasting impression, and more importantly, one that is memorable. 

Criteria for Naming Your Etsy Shop

When you start setting up your Etsy store, you will be asked to create your shop name. 

Etsy has a few basic criteria that you must follow when deciding this. These are:

  • Your shop name cannot be more than than 20 characters long
  • You cannot have any spaces or any punctuation marks  in your shop name

Other than that, you are free to name your Etsy shop in a way that you think works well for your brand and business model. 

That being said, it is also good to think about whether the name you decide on can be used universally across multiple social media platforms. 

When creating a brand, you want to be consistent with the names that you use. 

When you are thinking about how to come up with an Etsy shop name, it is useful to check out what the limits or criteria are for these other platforms. 

The limits of some common social media platforms that are usually linked to marketing an Etsy business are as follows:

  • Pinterest – up to 30 characters
  • Instagram – up to 30 characters
  • Facebook – up to 50 characters

As you can see, as long as you can satisfy the Etsy criteria, you are likely to be able to use your Etsy shop name across the board. 

The other thing to look into for the purposes of branding and consistency is to check whether the Etsy shop name that you have decided upon can be registered as a domain for the purposes of any business website that you may want to build in the future. This can be done on Bluehost

What Makes A Good Etsy Shop Name?

Let’s get down to the details about what are the factors that go into creating an Etsy shop name and how you can come up with the best Etsy shop name for your Etsy store.

1.Use Your Product in Your Name

A descriptive store name is one of the easiest ways to start on deciding what your Etsy shop name should be. 

Descriptive in this sense refers to the ability of your Etsy shop name to relate directly to the nature of the products that you are selling on your Etsy store. 

One of the biggest benefits of this is that potential customers will immediately be able to identify what kind of products you sell and what your Etsy store is all about. 

For example, if you are selling handmade jewelry, then ideally, your store name should have the word “jewelry” in it. 

If you were to name it “Debra’s Little Things’, people looking for jewelry are unlikely to be directed to your Etsy shop. This is because it is not clear right off the bat that you are actually in fact selling jewelry. 

Some examples of Etsy shop names that immediately reflect what they sell are:

As you can see, just from the shop’s name alone, you are likely to have an idea of the kind of products that they sell. This will make it easy for potential customers to find your Etsy store. 

2.Keep It Short and Simple

With Etsy’s pre-existing shop naming criteria, you may have no choice but to keep it short!

That being said, it is just as important to keep it simple!

It is extremely tempting (and easy) to put a twist on your name by spelling regular words in a slightly different way. 

For example, if you were selling craft supplies on your Etsy store, you may think about naming your Etsy shop “Kayra’s Kraft Suppliez.”

While that is creative to a certain extent, when people are looking for craft supplies on Etsy, they are unlikely to spell it that way. This will in turn reduce the chances of your store showing up on Etsy’s search results page. 

As such, it is always important to use the proper spelling of words to ensure that your Etsy store is easily identifiable. 

3.SEO That Name!

Ah SEO – the king that runs the internet! 

If you are just starting out, you may be a little intimidated by the concept of SEO. But fret not! It is actually a very simple mechanism. 

Essentially, when you are naming your Etsy shop, you want to include certain keywords in the name. 

The idea is for your Etsy shop name to match any searches that potential customers may carry out on the Etsy platform when they are looking to purchase products. 

To find out what keywords are being used by these potential customers, you will need to do some Etsy keyword research. This is by using an Etsy keyword tool

One of the best (and most user-friendly) Etsy keyword tools is Sale Samurai

With just one search of your main keyword, it will give you a list of all related keywords and you can use these as options to consider for your Etsy shop name!

Some examples where of Etsy shops that have effectively used SEO in the name of their shop are:

  • Luxury Sterling Silver – if someone searches for “sterling silver”, this may be one of the first shops they may be directed to.
  • The Suffolk Soap Co – this works well because it sets out what is being sold and where it is from. So if someone were to search “buy soap in suffolk”, or “handmade soap”, this may be one of the first results to show up.
  • Exotic Garden Co – if you were looking for “plants” or “exotic plants” on Etsy, then this shop with beautiful pictures shows up on one of the first few results

4.Be Creative

Etsy is a marketplace for the creatives of the world after all! A creative Etsy shop name is likely to have the element of being memorable. 

You can even go for cute Etsy shop names like “Fluffy’s Fluffy Cat Toys” if you are selling soft toys for cats on your Etsy store. 

It is something that is going to stick in the minds of your customers. And that’s what branding is all about! 

5.Be Unique

This probably goes without saying but with all the competition on Etsy, you need to be able to stand out. 

Creating a unique Etsy shop name is one of the ways you can do this. 

Try to avoid using names that are even remotely similar to ones that already exist. People will just get confused and you may end up driving potential customers to your competitor’s store!

If you are not sure whether some of the ideas you are considering for naming your Etsy shop have already been taken, you can always check this when you are typing your proposed shop name into the bar when setting up your shop. 

This is a great way to check the Etsy shop name availability

Once you have typed it in, all you need to do is click “Check Availability” and voila! You can decide whether you want to go through with that Etsy shop name or not on the spot! 

6.Read Books On Building Your Brand

There are some great books that teach you the basics of branding and how to name your store so that your brand stands out. 

Some of these include:

  • Building A Brand Story by A.J. Garcia

Among other things, this book teaches you how to build a strong brand identity and how to use social media to market this brand. 

This branding book is a straightforward guide to creating and building your brand. More importantly, it teaches you how to use your brand to keep your customers coming back for more!

If you have been avoiding branding or marketing books because of all the technicalities that go into it, then this book is a great place to start if you are thinking of how to name your Etsy shop. It offers first-hand insights on creating your brand identity and has easy-to-implement tips and tricks to get you started.

7.Use Pinterest To Find Your Etsy Shop Name

Let’s face it, Pinterest is the ultimate app for inspiration. No matter what kind of inspiration you are looking for! 

Look around various Pinterest boards to see how others are naming their shops.

You will also find plenty of pins shared by branding experts on Pinterest. Their articles and insights will give you the best tips and tricks on what to name your Etsy store. 

8.Make it Memorable

When your Etsy shop name is easy to remember, it increases the chances of returning customers. 

This is whether they have previously purchased a product from your store or not. Perhaps they were browsing and decided to come back later. If they can remember the name of your shop, they can directly enter it into the Etsy search bar. 

It also makes it easy for customers to recommend your Etsy store to others through word of mouth. 

Additionally, it makes it easier for people who see your ads on Etsy or other social media platforms to remember your Etsy store name. 

9.Use Your Own Name

This is a great branding strategy, especially if you want your name to be associated with your product. With this strategy, you will have a shop name that is likely to be more unique. 

One major advantage of this is that you will not be restricted by the type of products that you sell. This gives you room to expand your business in any way you see fit without having to change your brand or Etsy shop name

That being said, you may have to put in more effort to create that association and this may take some time. It may also be difficult for people to identify exactly what it is that your Etsy store sells. 

However, in the long run, using your name is wonderful for creating a strong brand identity. 

Tools To Help You Generate An Etsy Shop Name

If you are stuck for ideas on how to name your Etsy shop, then there are several online tools that are available. You can turn to them for inspiration or even use the very names that they suggest!

As mentioned above, this is an excellent keyword research tool. The keywords that the tool gives you can also be used as a way for you to generate the best Etsy shop names.

As a bonus, you will be guaranteed an Etsy shop name that comes readily optimized! This substantially increases the chances of your Etsy store being found easily by customers who may be looking for the products that your store sells! 

Volusion’s Etsy Shop Name Generator is one of the easiest tools to use if you are unable to think up an Etsy shop name on your own. 

All you need to do is enter a description of the product that you are selling on your Etsy store and Volusion does the rest of the work for you on the spot. 

As you can see below, a quick search for “jewelry” in the search box yielded a total of 50 Etsy shop name ideas with the touch of the Enter key! These are just some of them! 

This Etsy shop name generator also effectively helps to build your brand.

Similar to Volusion, all you would need to do is to enter a word that describes what you are selling and the generator will give you dozens of Etsy shop name ideas to help you with the process of naming your Etsy shop. 

If all else fails and you find yourself in need of some serious inspiration, you can always Google a list of Etsy shop names! 

Can I Change My Shop Name on Etsy?

While it is important to choose the best Etsy shop name that you possibly can from the get-go, if you do happen to change the direction of your Etsy store, it is indeed possible to change your shop name on Etsy. 

That being said, there are certain limits on this. 

According to Etsy’s Help Centre, if you haven’t officially opened your Etsy shop on the platform yet, then you can change your Etsy shop name as many times as you want.

However, once your shop has already been opened and is in active operation, you can only change the name of your shop up to 5 times. 

If you need to change for the 6th time, then you will need to put in a special request to Etsy Support and the request will need to be reviewed. There is no guarantee that the request to change the name of the shop this time will be approved.

For a quick step-by-step guide on how to change your shop name on Etsy, check out this tutorial by Etsy seller, Cayce Anne

Should I Trademark My Etsy Shop Name?

One of the benefits of registering a trademark for your Etsy shop is to ensure that others will not use the name of your Etsy shop for their own business. 

This is a great legal way to protect your intellectual property rights in the name, as well as to legitimize your brand. 

That being said, it will really depend on your business and of course your budget. 

Intellectual property laws are extremely territorial in nature. This means that the laws will depend on which country your shop name is registered in. 

With Etsy being a global marketplace, this may be difficult to enforce. As such, you will need to get the appropriate legal advice from a qualified lawyer. 

However, Etsy does have a mechanism in place in the event that you find that someone else is using your Etsy shop name. 

Essentially, you can lodge an intellectual property infringement report and Etsy will proceed to investigate and review the situation.  

If I haven’t said it already, naming your Etsy shop properly is one of the most vital aspects of building your brand and reputation on the Etsy platform. 

It is the starting point of a successful business and it should be taken seriously. 

As such, take your time in deciding your Etsy shop name but don’t put too much pressure on yourself. People grow and businesses can change direction and expand. If you feel you need to change your Etsy shop name accordingly, then this can be done. 

The most important thing when naming your Etsy shop is to ensure that it builds a relationship with your customers. If you have a strong relationship with them, they will stick with you throughout all the ups and downs of running your Etsy business. 

And with that, I wish you happy Etsy-ing! 

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