A good business name is easy to say, easy to spell after hearing it once, and available — at Companies House, as a domain, on the platforms your customers use, and on the trademark register. That is the whole test. Clever matters far less than people think, and clear beats clever every time: a name that says what you do saves explaining in every advert you ever run.
At a glance
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| The test | Say it aloud to someone once — can they spell it and find it? |
| The four checks | Companies House, the domain, your social platforms — and the trademark register |
| Clear vs clever | Clear wins. Wordplay ages badly and gets misspelled |
| Trading name vs registered name | You can register one name and trade under another |
| Changing later | Possible but painful — signs, listings, reviews and rankings all reset |
The four ways people name businesses
Say what you do and where. "Reading Emergency Plumbing" is unglamorous and works hard: it tells customers and search engines exactly what you are. For local service businesses this is the strongest pattern going.
Use your own name. "Jamie's Plumbing" builds on the person — right for trades and services where you are the product, and where word of mouth carries your actual name anyway.
Invent something brandable. A made-up or borrowed word gives you a name nobody else holds and room to grow beyond one service — at the price of spending marketing effort teaching people what it means.
Describe the feeling. "City Florists" is barely a step from literal, but names in this pattern can carry a promise. They suit product businesses where the brand matters as much as the category.
New businesses usually do best at the literal end of that range. You can grow into a brandable name later; you cannot make an obscure name findable on day one.
The checks, in order
Do these before you fall in love with anything. Each takes minutes, and the trademark check is the one that protects all the money you are about to spend on the name.
Companies House. No company can register a name another holds, and trading confusingly close to an existing business invites trouble even as a sole trader. Search the register — it takes a minute.
The domain. If the.co.uk and.com are taken by active businesses, keep thinking. A name whose website belongs to someone else leaks customers forever. Our domain guide covers picking well.
The platforms. Check the handle on whichever platforms your customers actually use. It does not need to be everywhere — it needs to be where they look.
The trademark register. This is the check people skip, and it is the one that can undo everything. A trademark is a legal right to a name (or logo) for particular types of goods or services — stronger than company registration, and enforceable: trade under someone's trademark and they can make you stop, after you have paid for the signs, the website and the reputation. Trademarks are registered by sector, so the same name can be free for a cleaning business and taken for a clothing brand — which means you check against what you sell, not just the words. Search the official register at GOV.UK's trademark search — it takes minutes, and finding a clash now costs nothing.
The mouth test. Say it over a bad phone line. Anything you have to spell out twice fails.
If the name clears all five, register it before someone else does — our company registration guide covers making it official, and a matching domain costs little to reserve even before the website exists.
Registered name and trading name
One wrinkle worth knowing: your registered company name and the name over the door do not have to match. Plenty of companies register under something plain and trade under something better. That flexibility means an imperfect registered name is not a crisis — but the trading name still has to pass every check above — including the trademark search, because infringement follows the name customers see, not the one on the certificate.
What comes after the name
The name is the first brand decision, not the last. Once it is chosen, the look follows — and you do not need to pay for that bit. Create your brand guidelines free with Plan. Answer a few quick questions about the look you want, and Plan puts together your colours, typefaces and a brand guidelines document — free, and built around the name you just chose.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check if a business name is taken? Search the Companies House register, check the domain, check the handles on the platforms your customers use — and search the trademark register on GOV.UK against what you sell. All four take minutes and stop the expensive mistake of building on a name someone else holds.
Can two businesses have the same name? Two companies cannot register the same name at Companies House, and names judged too similar can be challenged. Sole traders have more room legally, but trading under a name a nearby competitor uses confuses customers and invites disputes — treat taken as taken.
Should I put my location in my business name? For local service businesses it often helps: customers and search engines both learn instantly what you do and where. The trade-off is growth — "Reading Emergency Plumbing" reads oddly in Oxford. If you plan to stay local, the location earns its place.
Can I change my business name later? Yes — companies file a change, sole traders simply start using a new one. But everything attached to the old name resets: signs, listings, reviews, search rankings, word of mouth. Changing is possible; choosing well now is far cheaper.
Do I need to trademark my business name? Not to start trading — but you must check you are not stepping on someone else's. Search GOV.UK's trademark register against the goods or services you sell, because trademarks are registered by sector. Registering your own trademark adds real enforceability if the name is central to your value — our trademark guide covers when it is worth it.
What is Plan?
Plan is a free business operating system for people starting or newly running a UK business. It walks you, one simple step at a time, from your elevator pitch through brand, product and pricing, to a complete business plan — then uses everything it now knows about the business to help with the basics: logo and brand, marketing, a website, a bank account, funding, insurance, company registration. You can use as much or as little as you want.
Two ways to do this
Name it as part of building the brand, free. Plan walks you through the decisions a name should follow — who it is for, what makes you different — then the name, then creates your brand guidelines around it, free.
Or have the whole brand designed. If you would rather hand it over, our sister agency The Fractions can design your brand and build the website that goes with it.