So, you’ve got a great topic for a blog and a massive list of posts you’re just dying to share with the world. And before you even get to that, simply coming up with some good blog name ideas for your new online platform seems like an impossible challenge.

If that sounds familiar, I’ve got some good news for you:
You’re not alone. 

Coming up with a blog name that is memorable, relevant, and, perhaps most importantly, not taken by anybody else can be a significant challenge for any new blogger. And it’s especially true if you’re aiming to set yourself up for success in a competitive niche. 

Want some more good news?

Just because naming your blog is a challenge doesn’t mean it’s impossible. 

Over the years, I’ve developed countless blogs and content websites which today earn me a substantial income. In the process, I’ve faced the same challenges in coming up with a good blog name that you’re facing right now, and I’ve also devised an effective way of overcoming that challenge by asking four key questions about my blog.

How to Choose a Blog Name: Five Key Questions to Ask

Below, I’ll share with you exactly what those questions are, why they matter, and how they can help you develop the perfect title for your new venture. And if that’s not enough? I’ve also provided you with over 100 blog name ideas that you can use.

1. Should I Use My Own Name?

Barring the fact that there might already be another Jane Doe or Forrest Webber out there who may have already snapped up their name as a .com (more of which later), simply using your own name may seem -at first anyway- to be the easiest solution.

After all, it takes much of the creative thinking and decision-making out of the process. It leaves you free to spend more time creating awesome blog posts and generally growing your brand.
Having said that, there are really only two occasions when a yourname.com approach to naming your blog is the best approach:

A. When Nobody Knows Who You Are And You Want To Keep It That Way

If you’re starting a personal blog for no other reason than the love of writing about what you love and your ambitions in terms of audience growth are relatively small, then by all means, yes, use your own name.

It will save you a lot of hassle in the short term but, in the long run, may end up restricting your ability to grow.

B. When Everybody Knows Who You Are And You Want To Keep It That Way

If you already have a strong reputation in your industry, that means people want to read something just because you create it. Hence, using your own name for your blog is an ideal way to go.

People already know who you are. They’re interested in finding out more about what you have to say or how you can help them, and simply using your own name can help them to do that. 

C. When Using Your Own Name Might be a Bad Idea 

Of course, while using your own name might be the easiest option in the majority of cases, it’s not without its problems, especially when:

You have a common name (meaning there’s a greater chance of somebody already using it for their website or blog)
You share a name with a celebrity, influencer, or notable industry figure (meaning people are more likely to get confused)
Your name is difficult to spell (meaning there’s a greater chance people struggle to type your address into their browser or otherwise search for your content).

2. What’s My Niche?

Let’s assume that you’ve decided against using your own name, and you’re now looking for something different, something unique, something that really stands out and gives your blog a brand and an identity all of its own. 

In that scenario, the next question to ask yourself is simply what niche am I writing?

Please note that this isn’t the time to figure out what your niche is. If you haven’t done that yet, check out my guide to choosing the right blog niche first and then come back to this point. 

Instead, this is the time to look at your niche and determine a handful of words most closely associated with that niche.
For example, if you’re starting a football blog, then you’ll probably come up with words like touchdown, gridiron, your favorite team, the NFL, and of course, the word football itself.

Grab a piece of paper and write these few words down. You’ve now got the foundation of your new name, a name that will resonate with people and tell them precisely what you’re about.
Keep in mind that this isn’t necessarily about doing keyword research for your blog in the way you might do with your posts and other content. 

The truth is that featuring keywords in domain names don’t make any real SEO improvements, so you’re not doing it for that reason. 

You’re simply picking out a few choice words because, ultimately, you need to tell people what you’re about. 

Imagine your blog as a magazine. For example, you walk into a store to buy a magazine about football, but all of the magazine covers are blocked from view, and all you can see is the title.
A magazine title with the actual word football in it, or at least something closely related to it, is going to tell you exactly which of those magazines you want.

It’s the same with your blog. The name might well be the first thing people see, so it’s a good way to let them know whether or not this is a blog they’d be interested in. 

3. Is It Catchy or Creative?

You’ve got a list of related words together, but let’s be honest, in most cases, you can’t just put two or three of those words together and call it a blog name.

Going back to the words we picked for our football blog example earlier, does Football Touchdown Gridiron really make much sense as a name?

You might feel differently, but I’m not sure that it does.
This is where it’s a good idea to start pairing one of those words with something else to create a blog title that is not only catchy but actually makes sense. 

There are a few ways you can do this, including:

Alliteration

Touchdown Gridiron may not mean anything on its own, but if your blog is all about football news, then how about The Touchdown Times? Or, if you want to cover football played around the world, Global Gridiron?

Alliteration (each word in your title starting with the same later, or at least the same sounding letter) is a fun and creative way to come up with a blog name that works and sticks in the mind.

Think about titles like:

DIY Dads
Parent Power!
Perfect Pilates
Blog like a Beast
The Crypto Kings
Marathon Madness
Ragin’ Rock Reviews.

All creative titles are easy to remember and require just a little creative thinking.

Puns and WordPlay

If straightforward alliteration doesn’t quite work for you, think about any phrases or sayings that you could turn into a creative name for your new project. 

Things like Alcohofrolic (for a cocktail making blog) or Making Cents of Money (for a finance blog) are good examples of this.

Popular Phrases and Niche Terminology

Of course, there may be times you don’t need to think of an amazing pun. Especially if there’s a phrase or certain terminology that people would instantly recognize as relating to what they’re interested in.

Our football blogger, for example, might use a nickname of a particular team they’re blogging about or pick a name like Passing the Pigskin. These are kinds of names that anyone who knows much about football would instantly recognize as being about their sport.

A soccer blogger might call their blog The 90th Minute, referring to the game’s final moments, or a running blogger might want to call their new blog 26.2 or 26 Point 2, which a lot of serious runners would recognize as being the distance of a marathon.

Whichever approach you decide, be sure to write down any really good ideas you have so that you don’t suddenly forget that genius name you came up with later.

4. Does it Make Sense? Is it Easy to Remember?

Is your blog name difficult to spell?

Is it a word that’s so obscure that even people who are equally as passionate about your niche may not know what it means?
Is it excessively long?

If so, it probably goes without saying that the name you’ve come up with is going to be far more difficult to remember than one that is short and easy to spell. It should be such that your audience doesn’t have to look for a dictionary.

If you want my advice, I would always recommend you to keep your blog names as simple as possible. So that people will remember them and, ultimately, have no problems when it comes to checking out your work.

A good test for this is simply to run it by friends or family, particularly those who share your passion. If they look puzzled, ask how to spell it, or later tell you that they tried to find your blog but couldn’t, then that’s probably a good indication that you need to simplify a little further. 

5. Is it Available?

So, you’ve asked all the right questions, you’ve poured over all the great blog name ideas you’ve come up with, and now you’re convinced that you’ve chosen the absolute most perfect name.

There’s just one problem:
Somebody else already thought of it and registered the domain name, meaning it’s most likely back to the drawing board for you.

Given the sheer number of niches and individual blogs within each of those niches, it’s hard to fathom two people striking on exactly the same name, but it does happen, and when it does, it can be the most disheartening thing in the world for a new blogger.

With that in mind, it’s always best to first check that you can actually buy the domain name you want from your blog.

It may seem like the easiest way to do this is to simply type your preferred address into Google and see what comes up. Unfortunately, if there’s already a website there, then you can’t have that domain name; if there isn’t, there’s a chance -but only a chance- that it’s yours for the taking.

I say only a chance because there’s every possibility that a domain name may still be registered by somebody else without having a website attached to it. Either because the domain owner hasn’t started a blog yet, because their blog’s web hosting is down, or any number of other factors. 

So, what’s the most effective way to check if a domain name is available?

Simple:

Use a domain-name checker from any reputable registrar or hosting company. 
Personally, I like to use this handy tool from one of my favorite WordPress web hosting companies around, BlueHost. 

To use it yourself, just type your preferred domain name into the box provided, and the domain-name checker tool will tell you whether the .com domain name is available for you.

If it is, you can go right ahead and pick it up. If it isn’t, the checker tool you use will also recommend other Top-Level Domains (.org, .net, etc.) that are available for that keyword or phrase, along with recommendations for alternative names that are similar to the one you originally wanted. 

110 Blog Name Ideas 

While you’re free to use any of the following blog name ideas for your new blog, I want you to know that this list exists as much -if not more- to help inspire your own creative thinking as it does to save you thinking altogether.

In other words, there’s no reason why you can’t use this list as a starting point to come up with some creative blog names that you may not have previously thought of, or even why you can’t take one of the names suggested here and modify it to better suit you.

Pets

Paws For Thought
Dalmation Diaries
Bird Keeping 101
Perfect Puppy Products (ideal for pet-related review sites/affiliates)

Travel

The Long Haul
Long Haul Hacks
The World on a Dime
Thrifty Travels
Wherever I May Roam
Where I Lay My Hat
The World According to… [Your Name]
Travel Smarter
American Adventurer
Not All Who Wander (based on the old saying that not all who wander are lost)
Wandering Nomad
Confessions of a Nomad
Nomadic [Your Name]
The Path Less Travelled
Lost in Europe
The Travelling Foodie
Food Travel Hacks

Sport

Premier League Weekly
Football Weekly
The 9th Hole 
26 Point 2 (for marathon runners)
One More Mile 
The End Zone
One Man in the Stands
Gym Hacks
Play [Sport] Better
Best Sports Supplies (for affiliates, product reviews, etc.)
The Tennis Pros 
RacquetWorld
The Squared Circle (boxing/wrestling)
The Final Round
Expert [Sport] Tips
Up Your Game
Next Level Lacrosse

Money and Finance

Passive Income Secrets
My Money Matters
Making Cents
Financial Freedom 101
Early Retirement Club
Expert Investment Hacks
Retire at 50
Debt Free Hacks
My Debt-Free Journey
The Debt Destroyers
Our Frugal Family
One Frugal Dude
Miss Frugality
A Dollar a Day
A Few Dollars More
The Bitcoin Beast
Curious About Crypto
The Crypto-Factor

Movies

Midnight Movies
Retro Movie Reviews
The Old School Movie Critic
The Late Night Picture Show
[Your name] ‘s House of Horrors
You Have to See This! 
At The Drive-In

Gaming

[Your Name] ‘s Classic Games
Pro Gamer Weekly
Pro Gamer Tips
Adventures of a Professional Gamer
You Have to Play This! 
X,Y,A,B
Up, Down, Left, Right

Music

Musicality
Adventures in Musica
The Slipped Disc
The Metal Edge
You Have to Hear This! 
The Best Songs You’ve Never Heard
Music’s Best Kept Secrets
Unsigned Band Advice
No Guitars Allowed

Technology

Data Bytes
Confessions from The Helpdesk
Home Computer Lessons
Ultimate PC Purchasing Guide
Smartphone Solutions
Smartphone Tricks and Tips
TechTopia
Techvolution
Tech Trends
Gadget Review Central
Geeks Unlimited
Weekly Tech Bargains
Small World, Big Data
PC Repair Guide
Smartphone Repair Guide
The Gadget Doctor
For the Love of Code
Confessions of a Coder
Computer Programming for Beginners
DIY PC Repair
Home Office Gadget Reviews

Food and Cooking

You Gotta Try This! 
The Sweet Tooth
Vegan Food Hub
Veganicity
[Your Name] ‘s Kitchen
[Your Name] ‘s Cookbook
Soul Food Reviews
How to Cook Anything
Cooking for Those Who Can’t
Top Cooking Hacks
Chef’s Best Kept Secrets.

Frequently Asked Questions About Choosing a Blog Name

Q1. Do I need to have a .com domain for my blog?

Ans. Technically, you don’t need a dot com domain name for your blog. Pretty much any domain name out there will work, but keep in mind that dot com is the most popular and widely-recognized TDL out there. Names with ‘dotcoms’ make it much easier for your readers to remember how to access your site.

Q2. Does Using Keywords in a Domain Name Affect SEO?

Ans. Not really. Though Google used to give a higher ranking to Exact Match Domains (EMDs, domain names that literally match specific keywords like “whatcomputertobuy.com”), they no longer do, so there’s no reason to stuff keywords into your domain name purely for SEO purposes.

Q3. Should I Use a Blog Name Generator?

Ans. If you’re really struggling to come up with a good name, then yes, using one of the countless blog name generator tools out there will certainly help you out. Still, it’s always worth seeing what you can come up with first. You’ll undoubtedly understand your niche and your audience better than even the best apps ever could. 

How to Come Up With Amazing Blog Name Ideas: A Final Word of Advice 

If you’ve followed my suggestions in this guide, by now, you should have no problem coming up with a domain name that is easy to remember, catchy and compelling. It gives people a good idea of what you’re about…or at least what you’re about when you first get started.

If I could offer you one final piece of advice, it’s to consider your long-term blog content strategy and how the name you choose. You might need to accommodate other subtopics within your main niche.

If you’re calling your blog Dalmatian Grooming Tips, for example, but you feel like you might want to also start talking about dalmatian diets, exercise, or general care tips, then it might be a better idea to drop the word “grooming” from your name and think of something that encompasses everything you could ever possibly want to write about dalmatians.

That way, your awesome blog name doesn’t just work when you’re first starting out but also helps you to set yourself up for blogging success for a long time to come.