Back in late December or early January, my fiance Andi decided she wanted to start a fashion blog. Fashion has always been a major part of her life, and it seemed a logical step to take it to the next level and write about it.
Since this decision, we’ve been struggling to name the blog. After a few months of occasional brainstorming, we decided that enough was enough. We needed to find a name, and we needed to do so right away.
Here are three steps we took to name her new fashion blog. If you’re in the same predicament we were, hopefully they’ll provide you some words of wisdom (or at least encouragement).
1. Brainstorm
I love the photo above (by Flickr user jakecaptive) entited “Brainstorm” as that’s almost always the first place to start. Andi and I began by brainstorming.
While we didn’t use sticky notes, any and all ideas went onto a text document and we weeded them down to a small handful.
Unfortunately, the ones we liked best were already taken, and as time passed it became harder to think up new options. We needed to look elsewhere for inspiration. By taken, I’m referring to unavailable URLs.
Though it failed to yield the desired result, brainstorming is a great starting point. Generating the free flow of ideas will get you thinking about what you want to write about, why you want to write about it, and how you can carve a niche for yourself in the blogosphere.
I cover a few more questions to ask yourself during all three of these options in the conclusion.
2. Search and Research
Being that it will be a fashion blog, when brainstorming failed to yield desired results, we turned to Google. The first order of business was to do a few quick searches and see what popped up. Here are a few search strings we entered into Google:
• How to Name A Fashion Blog
• Blog Name Generator
• Blog Name Ideas
We landed on an article on the Independent Fashion Bloggers website called The Blog Name Generator: 9 easy Ways to Name Your Blog.
While many of the recommendations were cheesy, it gave us some ideas that ultimately led to us naming her new blog.
But before I go further, one stood out as relevant to me:
4. Give yourself a quirky nickname. Go ahead, give it to yourself. Isn’t that how cool nicknames really start?
This is precisely how I started my music blog of more than six years, FensePost. As a DJ at KZUU while in graduate school, I chose the name “Fense” to represent my on-air personality (a name I use to this day on my Friday night show on KSVR). This naturally progressed into the blog name FensePost.
Back to the case study. In searching for a name for Andi’s new fashion blog, we didn’t find any of the ideas in the previous link (or any of the other articles we checked out) worthy of name generation. But it gave us an idea, which leads to number three.
3. Think Outside the Box
Making abstract connections is a great way to name a blog. Brainstorming failed to yield a name. Searching for ideas didn’t work either. But it gave us an idea that worked:
Our favorite collective band is Belle & Sebastian. What about marrying something fashion related with a lyric or song name by the band?
A-ha! We landed on the perfect name shortly thereafter. Like Denim in the Movies, a play off Belle & Sebastian’s “Like Dylan in the Movies” off their 1996 sophomore LP If You’re Feeling Sinister.
Thinking outside the box is vague. In our case, it meant drawing upon inspiration in the IFB link noted above, making abstract connections about seemingly unrelated items. In our case, it was music, film and fashion. Her blog will likely encapsulate a little of all three, with the main focal point being, of course, fashion.
Conclusion
Naming your new blog can be among the harder tasks of starting a blog. Approaching the problem creatively and strategically can help you land on that perfect name. Here are a few questions to ask yourself if you’re looking to enter the blogosphere:
• What is your purpose behind starting a blog?
• What do you hope to accomplish with your blog?
• What, specifically, will your blog cover?
• What other blogs fit your niche or category?
• What will differentiate your blog within its niche?
Think about these questions and write down the answers. I recommend doing this before you launch into the initial brainstorm, then revisit them frequently as you go.
The answers will get you thinking about how best to move forward and create a strategy around your blog and generate blog post ideas, if not assist you on the way to finding a solid gold blog name. And they’ll provide footing for developing your overall blog goals and the strategy to help you achieve them.
