Reading time 6 min
So, you want to open a restaurant and are looking for a suitable name? Then you are exactly right here.
In this article, you will get numerous ideas for restaurant names. I hope to be able to support you in finding a great restaurant name that your customers love, and that won’t cause a conflict with a registered trademark.
These are the points we are looking at:
- Make the name short and simple
- Think out of the box
- Create a connection
- Try synonyms and additions
- Relate to your concept
- Check the trademark register
- Example for a trademark research
- Find a free domain
- Get inspired by 175 names of U.S. restaurant chains
- Give the restaurant name generator a chance
Disclaimer: Please note that this article is not intended to provide legal advice. The name of a business or a brand can concern several legal aspects.: e.g., copyright, trademark law, competition law, or civil law. If you have any legal questions, consult your lawyer.
Let’s find some great restaurant name ideas!
The criteria below can help you find the ideal name for your restaurant. You will probably soon find out that it is very difficult to bring all the points together. Chances are you need to focus on and ignore certain points in the name.
Make the name short and simple
A short and simple name is easy to remember and pronounce. This encourages word of mouth and the build-up of regulars—examples: Five Guys, McDonald’s, Dominos, Pizza Hut.
Think out of the box
You don’t have to sound like all the other restaurants. You can combine words in new ways. For example, “Party Fowl” or “A Salt & Battery”.
Or think about businesses outside the restaurant industry. Names like Amazon, Google, or Yahoo are phantasy names, and you can do this too.
Create a connection
You can connect the name with something else. For example:
- Your first name – Peter’s Pizza
- Your last name – Café Graf
- Your main product – Peter & Pizza
- One ingredient – Green Tomato
- An attitude to life – The Eazy Café
- A lifestyle – Bikers Inn
- The town – Café Salzburg, NYC Burger
- The district – Brooklyn’s Pub
- The street – Joe´s on Bondstreet
- A sight or place – Yosemite’s Diner, The Maui Bar
- A famous historical person – Lincoln’s Coffee House
- An industry – Broker’s Joint, Miner’s House, Timber Steak
- A story or a historical event.
Try synonyms and additions
Try a combination with one of these terms:
Restaurant, diner, house, society, inn, bar, cafeteria, coffee shop, dining room, joint, outlet, saloon, chophouse, drive-in, eatery, grill, hideaway, lunchroom, pizzeria, café, doughnut shop, eating house, eating place, fast-food place, stand, luncheonette, club, night club, coffee bar, coffeehouse, coffee room, java shop, tea shop, tearoom, lounge, snack, tavern.
Examples: Tomato Club, Peter’s Grill, Eastern Lounge, Chicken Club
Relate to your concept
The name of a restaurant could give a hint of the concept or an essential characteristic. E.g., Tony’s Bistro, Burger Point, Crazy Pizza, French Club, Russian Tearoom.
Check the Trademark Register
You certainly don’t want to start your business with an expensive lawsuit. So, take enough time to legally review the new name. In any case, the name must not be registered as a trademark. Therefore, checking the trademark registry is a good start.
TESS (Trademark Electronic Search System) from the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) allows you to search for registered trademarks for free.
Example for a Trademark Research
Simply enter the planned name of your restaurant in the Search Term field and then click on “Submit Query”. In the example, we check the name McDonald’s.
As a result, we get 437 entries, and we have a look at two of them, the records 12 and 26.
Record No 12 refers to the word mark “MCDONALD’S” and it’s a brand of the fast-food chain McDonald’s. But this trademark concerns IC30. The protection of trademarks always relates to certain classes of protection. This registration for IC (International Class) 30 includes powders for the preparation of coffee-based, tea-based, and cocoa-based beverages and processed tea leaves, but obviously no restaurants.
Since you want to open a restaurant, class 43 is relevant for you, which protects services for providing food and drink and temporary accommodation.
International Class 43 includes mainly services provided by persons or establishments whose aim is to prepare food and drink for consumption and services provided to obtain bed and board in hotels, boarding houses, or other establishments providing temporary accommodation.
Record No 26 is also a trademark owned by the McDonald’s Corporation, and it refers to IC 43. So, we know that the name McDonalds is protected by a trademark.
Let’s try another name.
Let’s say I want to name my restaurant “Peter’s Burger Joint”.
We put the search term into TESS, and that’s the result:
This is good news, as TESS didn’t find any listings for “Peters Burger Joint”! And I finally found my perfect restaurant name.
In addition, I would also recommend you to search on Google to find out whether there are restaurants with the same or similar names.
Resources: TESS search mask, Nice Agreement on International trademark classification
Find a free domain
To operate a website for your restaurant, you need a domain. I would primarily try to register the exact name as a .com domain, as it is the most popular one worldwide – e.g., petersburgerjoint.com.
However, quite often domains are registered for reasons of speculation. Since so many domain dealers follow this strategy, it has become increasingly difficult to find a free .com domain.
If your desired name is no longer free as a .com domain, you have the following options:
- You buy the domain of your choice from the owner, provided it is available for sale – e.g., petersburger.com.
- You try additions to the name, and you continue your hunt for the perfect .com domain. E.g., petersburgerjoint.com
- You choose a different domain. e.g., petersburger.net or petersburger.biz.
If you can´t find a .com domain, you can identify other domains, like .net, .org, .info, .online, .pizza, .biz, .co, .site, .club or .life.
Domain Resource: Domain Check at GoDaddy
Get inspired by 175 names of U.S. restaurant chains
Check out this list to get an idea for your restaurant name:
- A&W Restaurants
- America’s Incredible Pizza Company
- Applebee’s
- Arby’s
- Arctic Circle Restaurants
- Argo Tea
- Auntie Anne’s
- Bahama Breeze
- Baja Fresh
- Bakers Square
- Bar Louie
- Beef O’Brady’s
- Benihana
- Bennigan’s
- Bertucci’s
- Big Boy
- Biggby Coffee
- BJ’s Restaurant
- Black Angus Steakhouse
- Black Bear Diner
- Blaze Pizza
- Blimpie
- Bojangles’ Famous Chicken’ n Biscuits
- Boston Market
- Brown’s Chicken & Pasta
- Bruegger’s Bagels
- Burger King
- Burger Street
- BurgerFi
- Burgerville
- Bush’s Chicken
- Café Rio
- California Tortilla
- Captain D’s
- Caribou Coffee
- Checkers Rally’s
- Chick-fil-A
- Chicken Express
- Chipotle Mexican Grill
- Church’s Chicken
- Cinnabon
- Claim Jumper
- Coffee Beanery
- Cook Out
- Corner Bakery Café
- Cosi
- Culver’s
- Daylight Donuts
- Del Taco
- Denny’s
- DiBella’s
- Domino’s
- Duck Donuts
- Dunkin’Donuts
- Dunn Brothers Coffee
- Dutch Bros. Coffee
- Earl of Sandwich
- Eegee’s
- Einstein Bros. Bagels
- El Pollo Loco
- El Taco Tote
- Farmer Boys
- Fatburger
- First Watch
- Five Guys
- Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers
- Frisch’s Big Boy
- Fuzzy’s Taco Shop
- Gattißs Pizza
- Great American Cookies
- Gino´s Pizza and Spaghetti
- Godfather’s Pizza
- Gold Star Chili
- Golden Chick
- Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard
- Great Harvest Bread Company
- Great Wraps
- Happy Joe’s
- Happy’s Pizza
- Hard Rock Café
- Hooters
- HopCat
- Houston’s Restaurant
- In-N-Out Burger
- Jack in the Box
- Jack’s
- Jamba Juice
- James Coney Island
- Jason’s Deli
- Jerry’s Subs & Pizza
- Jet’s Pizza
- Johnny Rockets
- Jollibee
- Juice It Up!
- KFC
- Kona Grill
- L&L Hawaiian Barbecue
- La Salsa
- Lion’s Choice
- Little Caesars
- Long John Silver’s
- LongHorn Steakhouse
- Luby’s
- Manchu Wok
- McDonald’s
- Miami Grill
- Milo’s Hamburgers
- Montana Mike’s
- Mooyah
- Noodles & Company
- O’Charley’s
- Orange Julius
- Original Tommy’s
- Outback Steakhouse
- Panda Express
- Panera Bread
- Papa Gino’s
- Papa John’s Pizza
- Penguin Point
- Pick Up Stix
- Pita Pit
- Pizza Hut
- Pizza Inn
- Pollo Campero
- Popeyes
- Port of Subs
- Portillo´s Restaurant
- Pret a Manger
- Primo Hoagies
- Qdoba
- Quiznos
- Rainforest Café
- Robeks
- Roy’s
- Ruby’s Diner
- Saladworks
- Seasons 52
- Shake Shack
- Shakey’s Pizza
- Skyline Chili
- Slim Chickens
- Smashburger
- Smithfield’s Chicken ‘N Bar-B-Q
- Sonic Drive-In
- Cousins Subs
- Starbucks
- Steak ‘n Shake
- Steak Escape
- Subway
- Swensons
- Taco Bell
- Taco Bueno
- Taco John’s
- Texas de Brazil
- Texas Roadhouse
- The Capital Grille
- The Halal Guys
- Tim Hortons
- Togo’s
- Tony Roma’s
- Tropical Smoothie Cafe
- Tubby’s
- Uno Pizzeria & Grill
- Veggie Grill
- Villa Italian Kitchen
- Waffle House
- Whataburger
- Wayback Burgers
- Wendy’s
- Which Wich?
- White Castle
- Wienerschnitzel
- Yard House
- Zaxby’s
- Zip’s Drive-in
Give the restaurant name generator a chance
Put in one or more keywords and get a ton of computer-generated ideas for restaurant names. Put a space between the keywords – e.g., “peter burger”. By clicking on a result you can check the availability of the domain.
Please don’t expect too much from the computer, but it’s worth a try.
Powered by DesignBro