The name you choose for your newly conceived interior design business can help make or break it. Names that are too basic or filled with interior design jargon get lost deep in the web search results of competing interior firms. Overly complex, esoteric names only confuse potential clients, making your business just as difficult to find.
The best names fall somewhere in between: they are straightforward, but creative; and they are specific to you and your business. The best business names for interior design are those that people easily remember, immediately signal the services you offer, and rise to the top of a simple web search.
This guide to naming your interior design business offers tips for choosing the best name, five steps toward a perfect name, and advice from other interior design pros. Click on a link below to jump to the section you're most interested in:
What Makes a Good Interior Design Business Name?
A strong name for an interior design business starts with these attributes:
- Make it easy to spell and pronounce
Don’t make it hard for potential clients to find you. If it makes their head hurt to remember your business name, they will move on to your competitors. They, too, will avoid trying to say hard to pronounce words for fear of embarrassment of getting it wrong. Make it a name that rolls easily off the tongue. - Match the services being provided
You want future customers to easily understand what you do so that they do not confuse your services with other, unrelated types of businesses. - Avoid odd names
Making people feel good about the work you do starts with conveying to them a positive vibe through your name. - Make it easy to remember
Have you ever met someone at a party and asked the name of their business only to forget it by the time you got home? Pick a name that sticks in their head in a positive way. - Double check the name is not in use
Conduct some web searches to make sure the names you are considering are not taken.
Why is your interior design business name so important
Your business name is likely to be the first contact potential clients have with you, your design aesthetic, and the services offered. It reflects your brand and even the future of your business. Making it too limited could restrict the number of clients who seek you out, while making it overly broad can confuse them.
A name is how customers find your business, and make choices of whether to click further on a business profile or website. If it is hard to spell or pronounce, clients may not be able to find you. They may have heard the name, but when they go to search for it, no intuitive spelling appears. Similar difficulties arise if they search for your business, and find others with similar names and therefore end up with another designer whom they thought was your business.
That is why picking a name should be serious business. Choosing a funny name may make you laugh, but it will be unlikely that customers will take the business seriously.
How to Name Your Interior Design Business - A 5-Step Guide
It’s true, picking a name for your interior design business is not a task that happens overnight. Making such an important decision will take time. Here are five steps to get started on your naming journey.
1. Consider your long term business goals
While you may not know exactly how the future will play out, spend some time considering your dreams and goals for upping your design game over the next few years. Then, pick a name that does not tightly limit your option. For example, if you choose to use home interiors in your name, expanding into other interior design types such as commercial or retail will be more challenging because your name will not reflect your services.
2. Brainstorm, brainstorm, brainstorm
Creativity should know no limits when you start making your list, and it should even be fun. Think of it as the naming version of a mood board. Don’t over edit yourself in the beginning; just start by making a list of names. The best brainstorms involve a whiteboard, some sticky notes, and an unfettered imagination. Just have a whiteboard rubber and bin nearby for when you reach the point of narrowing down your choices.
- Use your name or some version of it: Some interior designers use their initials and creatively combine them with a business descriptor, such as interior design. Maybe you want to use the name of a favourite grandmother or friend. Avoid this option if your name is so common that your business will fade in a sea of similar names, or is too hard to remember, pronounce or spell.
- Make the design business descriptor broad: consider using phrases like Design Studio, Interiors Studio or Interiors etc. to avoid being boxed in.
- Evoke emotion & good energy: Consider what type of feelings you want your work to be associated with. Some to consider: excitement, surprise, calm, natural, industrial or modern.
- Replace a design descriptor with words that mean something special to you, and of course, sound good. But choose wisely - the nickname you have for your partner might be special to you, but it is unlikely to resonate with your clients.
Here’s how one interior designer from London named their business after their daughter, as her name in Hebrew meant ‘protection and shelter’ and this held a significant and heartfelt rationale to the designer. “By associating my business with my daughter's name, Akiva, I infuse it with personal and emotional depth, creating a powerful connection to our work,” explains James Woodham of Akiva Projects Ltd. “Choosing a name that represents protection and shelter aligns perfectly with the core values and goals of our interior design company, and as the founder of Akiva, my mission is to create spaces that not only aesthetically please, but also provide comfort, solace, and a sense of security to those who inhabit them. Furthermore, naming my business after my daughter adds an intimate and personal touch. It serves as a tribute to her, showcasing my love and admiration. This act of honouring her through my professional endeavours creates a strong bond between our family and the business, emphasising the values and principles I hold dear. It signifies that my work is not merely a career pursuit but also an extension of my personal aspirations and commitments, in the hope she will one day continue on.”
Another designer from Washington in the US combined a sense of emotion and the region she serves by picking a name that has meaning to both her and her clientele. “We live in this great community called Fairwood. We thought about trying to incorporate the town name, but there’s a lot of businesses with Fairwood in the name,” says Jolene Irons.
“We looked for something else that represents the area. There are a lot of Cedars in Western Washington (we’re known for them) and we live by the Cedar River. We were working at a dining room table, and in the corner was a fiddle-less fig tree, which is how we came up with Cedar & Fig. It clicked, and it felt right. Whether we decided to get into staging design, if we had a shop front or even if we moved and took the company somewhere else, it could still work. It just really evokes a Pacific Northwest feeling we felt." - Jolene Irons, Interior Designer at Cedar & Fig in Renton, Washington, US.
- Highlight a niche if you have a specialty. (Residential interiors, modern designs, etc.)
- Be a wordsmith: Use words creatively. Alliterations are easy on the eyes and ears and puns can make people smile. One warning: Done badly or overdone cliches, and puns have the opposite effect of making people roll their eyes.
- Use words that resonate with target clients whether it is an aesthetic or style such as luxury, modern, traditional.
- Shake it up: Make a list of potential words - think throwing spaghetti on the wall to see what sticks. Then play with the words like a set of Legos, arranging and rearranging in different orders and phrases and lengths to see where you land.
- Imitation is the best form of flattery: Be a detective and see how other interior designers picked the name for their business. The goal, of course, is not to steal their name, but to understand the anatomy and taxonomy of their choice.
How Other Interior Design Professionals Picked Their Business Name
Here’s some tips from four other seasoned designers to help you choose the name for your interior design businesses:
Allow Your Niche to Define You
An interior design duo who saw a gap in the market to create a business that would appeal to a wider audience, decided to choose a name to reflect this. “AFLUX stands for affordable luxury,” explains Amit Malhotra, joint founder of Aflux Designs Ltd, London. “We wanted to deliver a more accessible and bespoke service, so we thought it is a nice acronym. As we are a partnership, it was better to choose a neutral name rather than us, so the idea of the branding and concept was more important than using our names, and more everlasting.”
Create an Emotional Response
“It took me quite a while to find a name that captured the sort of feeling I aim to achieve with my designs for my clients and their homes. That feeling you get when you walk into a room and you notice your heart rate slow, or something about it makes you want to stay for longer. Any positive feeling that you feel when you go somewhere for the first time or the hundredth time, is what I like to call ‘happybeams’,” says Jess Blake, director of Happybeams Interiors. ”We get ‘gut feelings’ and ‘fluttery hearts’, but there isn’t a word to describe that physical reaction you feel in a well-designed home or interior, so I thought I’d create one! And the special thing with ‘happybeams’ is they are totally unique and personal, so as long as the homeowner feels all the ‘happybeams’ in their own home that’s all that matters!
Capture a Name’s Essence
“I wanted something recognisable and memorable, and which aligned with the customers I am trying to target and their likely lifestyles and home space,” says Chloe Cubitt of Honey & Toast Interiors. “Honey, to me, sounded sweet and treacly, warming and comforting, soft and gentle, familiar and wholesome. Honey with toast is delicious, I think, and I hoped it would resonate with the client groups I am trying to reach out to and imbue my brand with qualities of warmth, friendliness, reassuring-ness and homeliness.”
Keep Options Open
“When I first began working in the interiors industry back in 2015, I wasn’t sure if there was room for someone like me - self taught, very northern, not posh. I knew I didn’t want to use the words ‘interior’ or ‘design’ as I felt that pigeonholed me somewhat. I also didn’t want to use my own name as I’d been known quite well via my name in a previous career and didn’t want the two to cross over. I’ve always made stuff and space is something I’d become increasingly aware of during my time as a professional dancer/choreographer. ‘Making Spaces’ came to me one morning whilst in the shower. It was simple, had clarity, but didn’t restrict me in any way. It also didn’t feel pretentious and encapsulated in two words what I wanted to do. Phonaesthetically - it also sounded nice, which I thought would make it easy to remember,” Karen Knox, Making Spaces.
Consider what Inspires You
“I lived in Asia and I was so inspired by the yin and the yang. Everything in our industry is either matte or gloss. I like the combination of matte and the gloss because it helps a design become a unified element. You need both of them to unify something.” Milena Fay, Interior Designer at Matte and Gloss Interiors in Glencoe, Illinois, US.
3. Narrow Down Your Top 3 Business Names
OK, so you’ve come up with your list of business names. After you set it aside for a few days and revisit it, and revise, you are ready to pick your top three favourites (OK, five at the most). Apply the same discipline you bring to the table when helping your clients narrow down their long design dream lists. Which are the most relevant? Do they convey the type of services your interior design business offers? Are they inspiring? Do they evoke the type of feeling and professionalism that you strive for? Does it reflect your brand? Are the names flexible enough to handle the evolution of your interior design business?
Once you choose the names that will be the most hardworking for you, go back to search engines, social media, and other online platforms to find out what happens when you type the names in. Do they bring up pages and pages of results? Do any unrelated or questionable types of businesses pop up?
Since the ultimate goal is to have your interior design business name pop up high in web search results, reconsider those that do not drive through the naming clutter.
4. Seek feedback
If you want more objective help, hire a professional such as a copywriter to help craft and choose the best name for your interior design business.
Another option is to share the favourites list with trusted friends and mentors for feedback. Just remember, this is much like asking family members for suggested baby names. It can get tricky and ultimately, they are not the ones who will be living with the choice you make for years to come.
5. Double Check
Re-review our list of what makes a good interior design business name at the beginning of this article and make sure the top names you’ve picked checks those boxes:
- It is easy to pronounce
- It reflects your services
- It evokes a good vibe
- It is simple but creative
- Is it clear?
Search your business name with variations of home staging, graphic design, estate agents, and home improvement companies to spot any similar brand names from other firms.
Be inspired by these existing Interior Design business names that are cutting through the competition:
- Lomax & Chi
- Black and Milk
- Space Shack
- Honey Bee Interiors
- Emilie Fournet Interiors
- Foxhouse Interiors
- Slightly Quirky Ltd
- Up For Grabs Interiors
- Imperfect Interiors
- Born & Bred Studio
- Into Interior Design
- Studio Milne
- Optic Interiors
- Arky Interiors
- Miri Design
- Q Design House
- Golden Design
- Honey and Toast Interiors
- Studio JKL
- Orsetto Interiors
- Hampstead Design Hub
- House by Mia
- 44 Interior Studio
- Happybeams Interiors
- SKIN Interior Design
- Studio 28 Interiors Ltd
- Magentapink Interiors
- Fusion Interior Design
- Design & Conker Interiors
- Homewings
How to know if your interior design business name is available
Congratulations! Now that you have chosen the name for your interior design business, here’s how to ensure the name is available and how to acquire the domain:
- Search the name on a domain name provider to see what domains are available
- Explore social media platforms to see what handles are available
- Buy the domain and get the handles immediately when you see they’re available
- Your domain and social handles don’t need to match your business name exactly, but the closer they match the better. If you are using your name as part of your business name, for example, you can add letters or words to the end of it to get a domain that is similar.
- If the domain is not available, ask to purchase it from the owner or see when it will expire and try to grab it when it does.
Preserving the Perfect Interior Design Business Name
After devoting so much work into picking just the right name for your interior design business, you may want to consider registering your name as a trademark. Stay tuned for our next guide to learn more here about Whether to Trade Mark the Name of Your Interior Design Business.
