1,000+ Best Restaurant Name Ideas [2025]

Updated: August 13th, 2025

So, you've come up with the perfect restaurant idea, but in order to launch, you need a good business name.

And not just a name, but a creative and descriptive name that will make your restaurant stand out.

The name of your business will forever play a role in:

  • Your customers first impression
  • Your businesses identity
  • The power behind the type of customer your brand attracts
  • If you're memorable or not

We've put together 400+ restaurant ideas, provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to name your business and give real-world examples of how other founders came up with the name of their business.

Additionally, we provide you with a free business name generator with an instant domain availability check to help you find a custom name for your restaurant.

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Ideas

Catchy restaurant name ideas

Creative restaurant name ideas

Learn more about starting a restaurant:

Where to start?

-> How much does it cost to start a restaurant?
-> Pros and cons of a restaurant

Need inspiration?

-> Other restaurant success stories
-> Marketing ideas for a restaurant
-> Restaurant slogans
-> Restaurant Instagram bios
-> Restaurant Instagram captions

Other resources

-> Blog post ideas for a restaurant
-> Restaurant quotes

Funny Restaurant Names

Cool restaurant name ideas

Unique restaurant name ideas

Cute restaurant name ideas

Clever restaurant name ideas

Best restaurant name ideas

Guide: How To Name Your Business

Why Is Your Business Name Important?

Your business name is one of the single most important pieces to starting a business.

Why?

Because your business name has power.

It reflects your reputation, your mission, values, and represents what people (and customers) are searching for.

It impacts the way in which people remember, refer you, and perceive your business

When choosing your business name, there's a lot to think about in order to get it right - so it's important not to rush this process.

Let's take a look at everything you need to consider before deciding on a business name:

Tips To Consider When Naming Your Restaurant:

Simple is always better

This means a few different things. Your restaurant name should always be:

  • Easy to spell
  • Easy to pronounce
  • Easy to remember

Consider avoiding long names as much as possible, as this will only lead your customers forgetting your name and feeling frustrated.

To test this point, try to think of any well-known reputable brand off the top of your head.

The first that come to mind for me are Alexa, Google, Nike, Apple - each unique in their own way (hence, easy to remember) , less than six characters and easy to spell.

Your Business Name Should Define What You Do

The name of your business should reflect a defining characteristic of what you do.

Before your customer goes to your website or speaks to you, the name of your business should spark some initial thoughts in their brain as to what you're all about.

For example, marketingexamples.com describes exactly what their company is about: providing great examples of marketing tactics.

Consider SEO When Naming Your Business

Bottom line: If you don't show up in google, you're going to make it that much more challenging for customers to find you.

There are several different aspects to think about when it comes to SEO & naming your restaurant:

  • Try not to pick a business name that's crowded with other businesses
  • Consider naming your business based on highly searched keywords
  • Make sure the name of your business matches search intent and what people are looking for

Think about the emotions you want to evoke

Your business name has the power to evoke certain emotions and thoughts from your customer.

It has the ability to evoke a positive or a negative feeling. An inclusive or an exclusive feeling. A fearful or a loving feeling.

It's not to say that any of these feelings are wrong, but it's important to ensure that they are in line with your values and mission.

For example, the brand Death's Door makes me feel a bit risky and uncertain - but that's the point. They're selling Gin.

Try Not To Pick Something Too Limiting

Your business name should be fitting for the future and growth of your business, that way you don't have to confront a re-brand down the road.

If you choose something too narrow, it may be challenging to diversify your product and revenue streams down the road.

Here are some tips to avoid making this mistake:

  • Try not to name the business after a particular geographical area (this makes it hard to grow in other areas)
  • Try not to name the business after only one product you sell
  • Try not to name something based on a current trend

Brainstorming Names For Your Business

If you're in the brainstorming phase and trying to come up with a business name, there are a few key things to think about in order to get the juices flowing:

  • Write out a list of words that reflect your brand, personality, team etc. These should be the first things that come to your mind and you shouldn't have to think too hard about it.
  • Look at competition in the space and see if there's a common theme. Write down some key words or phrases that resonate with you and add them to the list.
  • Think about the emotion you want to evoke with your business name
  • Ask yourself: If I had to describe my business in one word, what would it be?

From there, you can create a shortlist based on the words that resonate best with you and follow the naming guidelines above.

Tips on naming your business

In addition to the requirements from the State, there are some general naming guidelines that may help you down the road as well.

We've put together a full guide here for naming your business here but will also cover the most critical pieces below:

Is your URL available? Social media handles?

You can check for domain availability here:

Find a domain starting at $0.88

powered by Namecheap

As soon as you resonate with a name (or names), secure the domain and social media handles as soon as possible to ensure they don't get taken.

Other general naming tips

  • Consider SEO when naming your business
  • Consider naming your business something that reflects what you do and/or who you are
  • Keep it simple! Easy to spell, easy to pronounce and easy to remember
  • Try not to pick something too limiting that could impact your businesses growth in the future!

Check out our full naming guide here.

Here is a video covering all factors to consider when naming your LLC:

Examples of Great Business Names

When choosing a business name, it's critical that you look at other examples of businesses not only in your space, but business names in other industries that have done particularly well.

Here are a few examples of great business names (+ how some of these businesses came up with their name):

Competitor Analysis Example

One great way to name your business is by looking at the competition and getting inspiration.

Gia Paddock, founder of Boutique Rye analyzed other businesses in the space and added her own personal spin to her business name:

A popular national brick & mortar women’s boutique that many may have heard of is called Francesca’s… How original, right? So we came up with Boutique Rye named after our son, Riley. We put "boutique" in front to be a little different.

The name "Boutique Rye" checks the boxes for naming a business:

  • Short and simple
  • Easy to spell and easy to remember
  • Clearly defines what the company does
  • Optimized for SEO (people searching for boutiques)
  • Unique and personal touch - tells a story.

Ask Other People

Sometimes, coming up with a name is as easy as asking other people, whether that be friends, family, people at a coffee shop, or in Spyq Sklar case, his own customer!

How we came up with the name Cat Sushi:

So, we put together a quick business plan and set aside some money that we were willing to risk. One of our loyal customers actually came up with the name. We still give them free cat food.

Read the full story ➡️ here

The name "Cat Sushi" checks all the boxes for naming a business:

  • Memorable and funny
  • Short and simple
  • Obvious that they sell treats for cats
  • Fun & unique story - their customer literally came up with the name of their business!

The Amazon Example

Formerly called "Cadabra", Jeff Bezos decided that the name was too obscure, hard to spell, and easy to misinterpret.

The name Amazon came from a simple dictionary search .

Jeff Bezos wanted something that started with an A, looked through a dictionary and came up with the word Amazon.

When he told his team, he didn't care for anyone else's input. He was set on it.

Here's how the word "Amazon" checks all the boxes (aside from being worth a trillion dollars):

  • Represents the largest river in the world, making it very memorable
  • The story and meaning of the word matches the vision of the company: To be the larger and better than any other business!
  • The name allows for future growth opportunity - they didn't name something specific to just "books," even though at the time, that's what it was.
  • Easy to spell, pronounce and recommend!

Part of
Starting A Restaurant: Everything You Need To Know

meet the author
Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.

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