Hi:
I am trying to come up with a business name and I can't think of anything. How did you guys think of your business names? Any hints? Thanks.
I find a thesaurus helps a great deal when trying to think of something different. My name came from something my mom used to call me when I was little..."Sade Jane" and my favorite flower is a daisy. So I combined the two and came up with "Daisy Jayne's". I use it for my florist and cake business. What's really funny is my customers think my name is either Daisy or Jayne, but it's neither. 
I am a huge fantasy, royal, princess, fairy etc fan. I was torn between The Cake Castle and Enchanted Sweets. Since I want to do cookies and cupcakes also, I though Enchanted Sweets would cover it all.
I would say just think of what describes you the best, or something that is meaningful to you and go from there.
When I was picking mine, I was trying to think of the image I wanted people to get just from reading my business name. I was thinking "homemade", so I started playing with the word 'home' and then of course it wasn't too far to jump to Home Sweet Home.
I find a thesaurus helps a great deal when trying to think of something different. My name came from something my mom used to call me when I was little..."Sade Jane" and my favorite flower is a daisy. So I combined the two and came up with "Daisy Jayne's". I use it for my florist and cake business. What's really funny is my customers think my name is either Daisy or Jayne, but it's neither.
Well, my business is called 'Queenie's Cakes', so most people presume that's my name too. It's not! Queenie was my grandmother's name and she was the one who began my love of baking as a child, and I thought it was a fitting tribute to her (she died in 2002). I also thought that it sounded very British, which I'm very proud to be, even if I have lived (under protest), in a foreign country for the last 5 years!
Well, I call my business "All Occasion Baking" because that's what I like to do: baking for any occasion. I really do a lot of weddings and birthdays, but I also have done lots of graduations, silent auctions, baking for the local high school's French classes, etc. My motto, though, is "Your 'I Do' cake specialist", which is on my brochures and business cards. This really helps to key people in to my love for wedding cakes.
Hope this helps you out,
Odessa
My husband is a pastry chef, thus... My Pastry Chef Bakery. However since we don't do pastries any longer I would like to change the name, but after 11 years I am afraid to change it to something that more suits who we are as business. So I have added Bakery to My Pastry Chef.
mpc
I'm also having a hard time with a business name. Not because I can't think of any but the ones I come up with are all taken in the .com I need a matching dot com to go with the name. I hate to be Tina's Cakes or Cakes by Tina. I have one name that I absolutely want and when I searched for the dot com some chick had it and she wasn't even a bakery! ARRGG!
When people ask me if I can do a certain design or something, I would always say, "Sure, piece of cake." Then I would get groans from people who thought I was trying to make a pun, when it's really just a figure of speech I use all the time. So my husband told me I should name the business Piece of Cake. Now when I tell people a design is a piece of cake, the light bulb goes on and they think it's really clever.
Growing up I always loved fairy tales the Grimm's kind and sci fi..still love sci fi..I wanted to evoke a fairy tale like feeling so I picked Once Upon A Cake
Did you have any nicknames as a kid? Did your grandma have a pet name for you? I came up with my business name (Schatzie's Old World Cakery) because my great aunt used to call me Schatzie when I was a little girl. It's a German slang word for "sweetheart". I did struggle with it for a while because people seemed to be confused about how to pronounce it. But I tried on different names and nothing fit as well as Schatzie's. Whatever you end up with, you have to feel good about it! Good luck.
I just ran into a similar problem as a previous poster. I came up with a name I love and the .com is taken by another cake decorator in the SAME city!!! I'm currently crushed and searching for something I love as much.
When I came up with the first name ( well, really a friend did ) we were talking about what words would describe my cakes and that's how we arrived at a name!
Ill be working on my permits next week and need a "name" for my business, I'm bad with words and such... I came with these names... please HELP ME!!!!!!
CLAUDIA'S CAKES
CLAUDIA'S CAKE DREAMS
CAKE DREAMS BY CLAUDIA...
I dont love any of them, they are just ok...
Claudia's Confections
Claudia's Creative Confections
Confectionary Dreams by Claudia
Are there any words from your home country - I assume spanish that could work? Bonita Cakes by Claudia - Sorry my spanish is very poor! What is cake or confection or sweet in spanish?
Sorry best I could come up with!
well I call my little projects Southern Suzie's Sweets (cc made me drop the symbol)... because my great grandmother was Mama Suzie and my name as well as my little girls middle names are suzzanne, so my grandmother called me suzie as well growing up.... then being from AL I threw in Southern and since I am concentrating on cakes, cookies, and chocolates... I just sweets..... I use a pic of my little girl from 2 years back in pigtails and the photo logo and I my saying is sweets for all of your sweet occassions.... pretty corny huh? But both of my children are named after my grandparents so I decided to keep the tradition alive in my hobby of baking 
what about claudia's cake castle and use a castle as your logo with a big C in the middle of it.... or
claudia's creative cake-house
just a thought!
OMG Thanks for all the answers, each one of them mean a lot to me...!!!
love the idea of using my spanish, Im very proud of my heritage and my roots...
The idea of
"Suenos dulces by Claudia" or "Dulce Suenos" is very cute... but will the people who does not know any spanish be able to identify the type of bussiness as a bakery or relate it to cakes?
I changed my name I don't know how many times, my webhoster was getting tired of having to change my website each time too!
I finally decided that it had to be something, in my case, that meant something to me personally. My mother, who passed away when I was 7, loved to bake, and I wanted something that would always remind me of her as she is why I am now baking. So I came up with Everlasting Sweets.
Take your time! Play with words! Think about how you want to come off to people, if you are trying for that fun and whimsy type, then pick something fun! More contemporary, a classic name and so on...I had ideas like My Little Bake Shoppe and The Pink Cupcake, which maybe will get your creative juices flowin'
The idea of
"Suenos dulces by Claudia" or "Dulce Suenos" is very cute... but will the people who does not know any spanish be able to identify the type of bussiness as a bakery or relate it to cakes?
You could get a little cake logo or something to go with it. Or use the "Sweet Dreams" in English in a slogan. "Dreamy sweets for any occasion" or something like that. Kind of sounds like a fairy tale--which is the kind of wedding someone could have if they get their cake from you. You could use "what dreams are made of" along with a pretty wedding picture for an advertisement.
I remember not so long ago when I was doing my paperwork. I think coming up with a name was the hardest part for me. You just want it to be perfect, and it's a VERY stressful decision!!!
Thanks to all for the wonderful ideas, Doug the idea of using english and spanish words crossed is very good! love it too!!! I wil be going next week to my local bussiness registration office to file a name for me... I know what I will be dreaming of for the next 3 days!
Try to think of a saying, then adapt it. You know how people say 'pie hole' or 'cake hole' instead of mouth, well there's a shop called 'The Cake Whole'. You could also try creations or delicacies as part of the name - they sound yummy. It seems you want to include your name, but how about getting a nice sounding business name and putting 'by Claudia' there somewhere. My business name is 'Cakes n Stuff' but on all my business cards and other stuff I always put 'by Jessica' in smaller lettering right underneath the main name, so it looks like its all part of it.
Good luck!!
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