Your Business Name?

Just wondering how you came up with it and how you make sure you are the only one.

I went it about it a bit backwards. I was looking around Vista Prints at the pre-designed logos and saw one I liked. It looked like swirls and curls and thought "There are a lot of swirlys and curls in face painting." Viola. I used the logo until I got my car decal done and the designer came up with something wonderful. As to protecting it. Who knows. I got my dot com at least.

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I have not got my own business name yet
so far I have been running anything I need to do with just my name.
kind of have a logo tho, may have to change if I get a face paint business name.

Well... coming up with my name was easy!

I never even considered coming up with a "name" for the business.

Well, my business name isn't "official" yet. As in, I haven't advertized or printed it anywhere yet. But I've decided to call it KittyKat's Face Painting, because cats are one of my most favorite things in the whole world, my name is Kathryn and my husband always calls me Katty. It just seems to fit me. Hopefully I won't have to change it if I discover someone else already uses it, lol

My husband came up with my business name... Fun Faces. I liked it and we ran with it. I registered it in Florida, but I didn't see a way to do it in Georgia. When I looked into doing it... it was rather expensive, so I think I'll put that off for a while.

Mmmm....I like kitty kats and it implies 'good stuff'. So I just thought it sounded good.

When you apply for a business license, they do a check to make sure no one else has that particular 'dba'. So you are ok for your locality. If you wanted to be sure nationwide...I think you need a lawyer to do a search and register your name.

My biz name is "Debi's Doodles"

I used it a long time ago when I drew greeting cards and when I started face painting and airbrush tattoos I figured it was still fitting so I use it.

My business name is Always A Party because life is always a party!!!!

Vis A Vis which means face to face as that was already taken still need a logo though. Will probably go with the obvious! lol!

Brush and Beret

When I started painting I always wore a beret - (covered up bad hair days and kept me warm at fall festivals) Then the kids would always ask me "are you a real artist?" So as a francophile - I decided my gig was to 'masquerade as a 'costumed' artist -- striped shirt, red scarf and beret. So the name came naturally, I chose Brush & Beret as two symbols of my business - and it is easy to remember when I tell folks it sounds like "Russian Ballet."

I Search Engined the name in several formats and came up with no other duplicates and purchased the dotcom name too.

The kids are atracted by my french easel on which I mounted an unbreakable 16"' x 20" mirror on the canvas. This gives the kids someplace to look at themselves after they are done and have had the 'Voila' in the handheld mirror.
So that's my business name and Gig!

The word Hennawi is a 14th century Moorish Spain tax classification for a person who sifts henna. My business started out as Hennawi House Henna but as I added other types of body art it was changed to it's current name. It has slowly evolved into a house of various body arts.

I came up with Face Painting Express, because my motto is "we bring the fun to you". Plus it just sounded good. There are several websites where you can do your own business name search without having to hire a Lawyer, and yes when you register with your city/state they will do a search too. You can also trademark your name/logo, but that costs alot of money.

My family was dumfounded when I decided to do this, as a frustated comeback after too many teases and to this question.... "And what exactly are you going to be doing?" I blurted out, color whims! all kinds of painted FUN for everyone! that's what i'll be doing! lol who knew!

I'm with Shannon on this one. I just use my name. I did however add the word studio so I can use it for all of the artsy things that I do:
The Jessica Hicklin Studio.

Jessica I love your web site. I also do Face and body art work and photography.

Well, while I haven't yet officially registered my business yet either, there is an interesting story behind my clown name....

Back in university, I used to be on a moo (kind of an old school chat room) where we had our online personas and one of mine was paranoia (I am actually afraid of an awful lot of stuff). When I decided to become a clown (many years later) I thought about what the hardest thing would be for me as a clown... I figured it would be if I went into someone's house and they had a horse sized dog and I was expected to be OK with it. So, I decided that if my character is supposed to be afraid of everything, then it would be easier to stay in character. So, I ressurected Noia (a nick name I acquired from that online persona)... but I was informed by someone that in Italian, Noia means boring, so decided to spell it out a little more. Which is good because there are still a lot of people who don't get the name until I say it out loud for them. I also added "the Scaredy Clown" to further spell it out (although it doesn't help all the time either).

I haven't bought the domain name yet, although I will have to go with a .ca since the .com is taken by a Perry family or something. There is also apparently a comic book character named Perry Noia, but it does seem to be unique in the realm of children's entertainers.

Perry Noia, that is a great story behind you name!

Mine comes from my name. My mailbox says: Lone Lyngkjær Wolf Kirkegaard, but that is a bit too long. The short version is easier for people to remember. I then added "creations", very practical since I can change what I do. When I started out I did mostly special effects, so thought about having something that indicated that. But realised that I did do other things as well, and now I'm happy I didn't chose that.

Apparently my name is still too hard. At the snazaroo contest site I have been giving five different names!

Lone Kirkegaard: Birds, dinosaurs, sharks, eyes-have-it
Lone Wolf Kirkegaard: eye-for-eye
Lone Wolf: free-for-all
Lone Kirkgaard: snakes, wild-animals
Lone Kirkarrd: hand faces

What happened to copy-paste?

Mine is Face FX. I always thought the cold medication Cold FX was a clever name, so when I decided I was going to make my million face painting (try not to laugh too hard! ) it just came and stuck--I know, a face painting business named after cold medication... not too much of a link eh?? It wasn't until after I registered the name and started ordering face painting supplies that I saw Diamond FX, Evil Twin FX, Snazaroo Special FX.

(A bit of history.... I registered the name and ordered business cards after painting 4 kids and with just having two books. One was called Face Painting (by the editors of Klutz). It came with 6 Wolfe Brothers paints.....hey wait a second..... I didn't even know I had Wolfe paints until just now.... I could be using that black, white and red for my line work!! Who'd a thunk!!

Well.... there you go then!!

Perry Noia - love it!! I actually did not "get it" until now!!!

And LoneWolf - I noticed that the other night while I was bouncing around the Snaz contest pages! Don't feel too special, they get my location wrong a fair amount - apparently I live in AL sometimes (Alabama)

How do you go about registering your name?

And does it cost anything?

I don't know if it's different where you are, but I had to send in a name approval request (www.bcbusinessregistry.ca), which was $31, then after getting it approved, registered it, THEN registered as a sole proprietership. I don't remember how much that was.

Search Iowa's business registry?

My grandmother came up with Pic-N-Paint... my last name is Pickin..so, we thought it was cute and went with it.

I'm on the verge of changing it all of the time though... because it's hard to remember, and it isn't spelled like my name, which I really think it should be! I don't know... if/when Ryan and I get married, I think that he and I should combine companies(his is Totally Twisted Creations...yes, he does balloons) but would we keep the same name? Start a parent company with a different name and then have he and I under that main name as two seperate entities?? *sigh* it's frustrating for me to think about!

My business partner came up with PartiGras. Sort of a take on Martigras masks and fun. I'm horrible at naming, so we went with it. (although I tend to think of Fat Tuesday on Burbon Street, not exactly rated G). I came up with the logos, one I painted my daughter a masquerade type mask, the other is a clip-art style jester and I added some eye art swirls with photo shop. It helps I'm married to a photographer.

Ha! I figured out the picture thingy, I think! Now if only I could get the gallery thingy figured out. At any rate, there it is. It was in the early days, when I only had Snaz, great for blending, but not as great for lines. I'm almost tempted to do it again with my DFX for line work.