Starting up a new YouTube channel comes with a variety of different hurdles to overcome. Choosing what content you will output on your channel is hard enough, however, we also have to deal with the difficulties before then.
What kind of style will you pick for your channel?
What audience is your channel meant for?
How will you advertise your channel to get more views?
But, there is also the big one, what will you name it?
How can I create a good name?
Naming your YouTube channel might sound simple and easy at first, but coming up with a good name that really hits that spot, and gets people coming back is hard.
A good name is your brand. If you want to create a channel and use it to help build your brand, become one of your main sources of business, and craft your own image, it is much more than just a simple coalition of words.
There are sites that can help you with this, such as https://www.blogoftom.com, these sites will help you to craft a good and ideal name so that your channel name has that real Zing to it.
A good name doesn’t only fit well, but it rolls off the tongue, it looks, sounds, and feels good to hear, say, and speak.
A good name will also be ideal for the audience you are targeting, and it will be unique to you.
So, how do you pick a good name for your YouTube channel?
Today, we will take you through a few things that you need to consider in order to choose the right name for your channel. It is not as simple as you think. Naming a YouTube channel is not that different to naming a business, band, book, or movie!
Things to keep in mind.
Let’s start off by looking at a few things you should keep in mind when choosing a name. These things can be in reference to how the name will make you look, and make others feel. It can also reference the guidelines set by YouTube as well.
There are so many things to think about when naming a channel, much like naming a business, and for some their YouTube channel is their business. So, what should you consider?
YouTube’s community guidelines
Even YouTube knows, you cannot just throw a collection of words together and hope for the best, that is not how it works. Instead, you need to pay attention to their guidelines first and foremost.
The name has to be appropriate for YouTube. You can’t include spam, swearing, profanity, or words that may be impersonating another creator. You do not want to create a new YouTube, only to have someone end up reporting it because it is rude, threatening, inappropriate, or borders on plagiarism.
For many people, the worry of plagiarism is big, and it feels so intimidating because there are so many channels out there, how could you know?
Consider big YouTubers, such as PewdiePie for example. You could be impersonating him if you were to name your channel ‘Pewdie Cake’ or something similar.
The best way to avoid this is to simply craft the name of your channel to be as unique as you can. If you are extra inventive and creative, you could always make up totally new words to do so.
Just remember, that aside from plagiarizing other YouTubers, do not be rude, so no swearing, or inappropriate language, even light-hearted sexual innuendo is best kept at bay, YouTube might accept it, but if someone reports it, what is the point?
It's best to keep it clean to stay on the safe side.
Less is more
Many artists will always say ‘less is more’ and that is true for most things. While complexity can be worthwhile in some places, when it comes to naming and advertising, it is best to keep it short and sweet.
On Youtube this is even more true. Having a shorter name for your channel is always better than having a long name. This is simply because it is easier for people to remember.
If someone saw a cool video on your channel, but cannot remember the name of your channel because it is too long, they are not going to search for it. Shorter names are easier to remember, shorter and simpler.
Think about creating a name that anyone can remember with ease.
Try to keep it shorter, and while it is not easy you should try to prioritize making it include the following;
If you have a cooking channel for example, you could go with ‘CookIQ’ or FoodFrenzy’, or something like that. It is short, simple, easy to remember, and kind of catchy.
Individuality
You might have a favorite YouTuber yourself, but do not try to mimic them, as we said, it is against YouTube’s rules to impersonate other creators.
So, you need to have an original name so that you do not get your channel taken down.
Having a unique and individual name and channel helps you to build your own brand too. If someone had the same name as you do, then they probably claimed the unique URL that goes with it too, so instead you will have a web address filled with random letters.
However, if you are unique then you can grab a URL that is unique to your brand once you have 100 subscribers.
Niche representation
Think about what your niche is, is it gaming, cooking, pranks, gardening, home design, movie reviews.
Whatever it is, the name should represent that. Your channel's name can not only be unique to you, but also unique to your niche as well.
Think about your subject, and what words are key to that. For you could use; spatula, fork, knife, table, plate, dish. For gaming; console, controller, dodge, MMO, RPG, shooter, and any words that refer to the specifics of the games you will cover.
You can even incorporate word play as well. Such as ‘Excellent Dude’ who creates Excel tutorials, and his name incorporates the word ‘Excel’, so his name basically means ‘My Excel tutorials are excellent’.
Is it personal?
If you are creating a channel for your own online persona then your niche is you. You can create a new ‘stage name’ for yourself, or you could simply use your own actual name.
It might seem weird, but if you are trying to create a personal brand, then this can work. There are many who do this, and create really successful channels.
Keywords
However, if you are focusing on specific topics you can also incorporate keywords. Obviously, your videos will be keyword heavy each time, but if your channel focuses on a specific topic then you can use keywords here too.
If you were to make a channel focusing on cars and mechanics, then you could name your videos specifically about the individual parts of cars and mechanics, but your channel could be named ‘EngineDays’, or ‘Motor Madness’.
These keywords will make your channel searchable to the topic niche.
Top tips
These things you should think about, however there is more you should consider as well. So, before we leave your brain to get busy thinking of a name, let’s give you a few final top tips.
What’s the rush?
Don’t rush thinking of a name, take your time and think about this thoroughly. Even though it seems like a small decision, the ripple effect of a bad name can impact how successful your channel will end up being.
Make it stick
It is worth it to make the name catchy, remember to not only think about the niche but if you can include alliteration, rhymes, or onomatopoeia in the name too. These are all techniques used by poets, and can be used by you to make the name stick.
The catchier the name, and the better it sounds, the more likely people are to remember it and search it.
Careful wording
When designing the name remember, avoid profanity, vulgarity, inside jokes, and plagiarism.
However, you want to also make it easy to smell, easy to pronounce, and is in the language of those you are targeting.
Even if the channel name idea you have may be funny and catchy, if it is profane, or vulgar, you are more likely to lose views because of this, than gain them.
Availability.
The name must be available, if you come up with a cool name, and you love it, be sure to search the internet beforehand and take a look at what comes up.
Make sure that it does not come up for someone else on YouTube or otherwise, or you might end up getting confused with another creator, or even a company.
Even if it isn’t plagiarism, if your name matches a company, you may end up losing views because your content is not what they were expecting under the name.
