Daycare Business Name Ideas

For some daycare’s it can be difficult picking a quality name. Your business name is one of the key components in getting your customers to remember your business and be able to associate it with your values and service.

There is a lot of value in these 3-5 words.

But don’t overthink it. While your business name is important, it is just one piece of the puzzle. If you have a great business name and inadequate service, your business will likely struggle. Pairing a great name with quality marketing, service, and business practices will give you the full scope of components you need to succeed.

To create the perfect daycare business name, follow these simple steps:

Remember the basics
Identify your brand
Get creative
Mix and match
Review and obtain feedback
Check for similar names
Register your name

Table of Contents

1. Remember the basics

Before you get too crazy with your daycare business name, you need to start with the basics. A business name is meant to be creative, but even more so, it is meant to attract and retain customers.

Your business name tells a lot about your daycare business, it is important that it is structured appropriately and gives a good representation of who you are and what your business stands for.

A business name should be:

Simple
- Easy to remember and recall
Catchy
- Fun to say and pleasant to hear
Unique
- Reflects your business values and unique services

These basic elements should be in the back of your mind when choosing your daycare nickname. These are your guidelines that keep you in-line during the creative part of the naming process.

2. Identify your brand

The next step in the naming process is to identify your brand. This is important because your brand reflects your daycare business’ mission and values.

To help identify your brand, think about the following items.

Mission

Your mission is the reason why you are in the daycare business industry in the first place. It is the reason you work late nights and take on the risks of being a business owner. Having a strong mission statement is not only good for you to have, but it gives your customers a sense of security knowing you are doing things for the right reasons.

So what is your mission? Are you wanting to help low-income families find affordable child care? Are you helping the gifted and talented children take the next steps to become leaders amongst their peers? Or are you trying to help special needs children learn and grow?

Whatever yours is, start to think of ways to incorporate this mission into your daycare business name.

Values

Your values are the elements that make up your overall mission. They are what you believe in and will make sure they happen at your daycare. Some common values that daycare owners have might be:

Extra employees to ensure each child gets adequate attention
Provide a safe environment where kids can be kids
Open communication so children can work through their problems together
Treating each child as an individual
Making sure children have plenty of playtime
Helping children develop social skills

Your values are your guiding light as you build your daycare business, if possible, try to work them into your business name as well as well.

3. Get creative!

Now it is time to dive into the fun part of naming your daycare business. There are plenty of different tricks and tools to give your business name the creative flair it needs. Pick some of these to help you brainstorm ideas for your daycare business name.

Use your own name

Not the most creative trick in the book but using your own name gives customers a sense of personal service and care that larger daycare providers don’t offer. When you put your name on your business, it signals that you are proud of your business and stand behind the service you provide.

Using your own name doesn’t have to be boring, you can pair it with any of the following tactics to make your name exciting, yet personal.

Describe your business

A key element in most business names is giving the customer an idea of what you do and how you are different from your competition. Best Buy tells you that you are getting the best deal on your electronics, 7/11 lets you know they are open from 7 AM-11 PM.

Don’t take the easy route and make your name “Sadie’s Daycare”, yes you are a daycare, but what makes yours different from the rest. How about:

Sadie’s Daycare For The Gifted & Talented
Little Learners Bi-lingual Academy
Learn, Play, & Grow Daycare

Use your brand identity to come up with key brand elements that you can incorporate here.

Combine descriptive words

If you have too many words that you use to describe your business, try combining them to form a new word(s). This can help keep your name concise while also giving your name a “cool” factor for not being a real world. Think of Netflix, EverNote, and TripAdvisor as some examples.

Use acronyms

Tons of businesses use acronyms to take a long business name and shorten it down to just a couple of letters. If your name is looking too long or you just have a couple of words that would look at sound great as an acronym, try it out.

Some examples of names that could be condensed into acronyms:

Growing tomorrows leaders daycare – GTL daycare
Peace of mind childcare – POM childcare
Love & learn daycare – L&L daycare

Use foreign words

Another way to give your name a boost in creativity is to use foreign words. This gives your daycare business a more worldly and unique feel. This can also be a good idea if you are in an area with a lot of non-native speakers or if you run a bi-lingual school.

Use mythology, pop culture, and fiction references

Relating your business to a fiction book or a greek god is a great way to catch people off guard. It should be something that either sounds good or that everyone understands the reference to, for example:

Little Hogwarts Daycare Academy
Little Minions Daycare
Here Comes The Sun Childcare

Tweak the spelling

Changing up the spelling for your daycare business name can help abbreviate your name, or help it be more noticeable because it is not what people are used to seeing. For example, instead of “Growing Kids Daycare” you could do “Growing Qids Daycare”. This helps make your name pop and give you an extra creative boost.

Use a thesaurus

If you find yourself repeatedly coming up with the same generic words to describe your business, use an online thesaurus to help spark some new ideas. For example, instead of saying “daycare” you could say:

School
Academy
Schoolhouse
Institute

4. Mix & match

Once you have a good list of names or name parts, it is time to combine them to see if we can make something great. The best way to do this is to put all of your names down on a piece of paper and start circling the names or elements that you really like.

Take a new piece of paper and transfer your shortlist onto this one, now repeat the process until you have narrowed it down to 5 or so names.

5. Review and obtain feedback

Going through the whole creative process, you may have lost sight of some of the key elements of a quality name. You also may have gotten a little too creative and strayed too far away from your brand and the message you are trying to send.

Go back and review the basic elements of a good company name, then go through your brand identity to make sure your names are aligned with these guidelines.

Once you have done this, it is time to put your names to the test. Share your name ideas with friends, family, and colleagues to see what they like and if they have any suggestions.

If you want to take it one step further you can ask strangers or get feedback from online message boards. Asking people you don’t know can help get more honest feedback because they aren’t as worried about hurting your feelings.

6. Check for similar names

Before you select your final name, you want to make sure you aren’t copying someone else’s name or are too close that it will cause confusion. Some things to check:

Do a Google search for your preferred business name
Search for a domain name that you would like to use for your business
Check local competition to see if there are any similar names to yours

7. Register your name

If you have received feedback, made any necessary changes, and double-checked to make sure your business name isn’t conflicting with others, it is time to make it officially yours.

The first step is to file your incorporated papers then you can start using the Trademark (™) or Servicemark (SM) to let others know the name belongs to you and your daycare business.