Whether you’re trying to promote your brand or business, establish yourself as an influencer, or even just want to share your passion or knowledge on a given subject, YouTube is an outstanding platform. It has a diverse userbase made up of over 2 billion monthly active users. This userbase is not only diverse, but it’s also highly engaged, watching an average of about eleven and a half minutes of content daily on the platform. The platform, therefore, is well worth the effort.
In order to most effectively reach your audience, improve your visibility, and establish your channel, it’s important to take the time and effort to optimize your profile for success. This includes creating keyword-optimized video titles, adding great YouTube thumbnails, designing rocking channel art, and, of course, choosing a great YouTube channel name, which brings us to today’s post!
Your YouTube channel name can help you establish your brand, help users find you, and set the tone for your channel overall. Its importance should be easy to see. And in this post, we’re going to discuss some of the best YouTube channel name ideas and look at a few types of usernames that you’ll want to steer clear of.
What Your YouTube Channel Name Should Accomplish
Your YouTube channel name should do all of the following:
- Set the tone for your channel. Do you want the name to sound cute and fun, hyper-professional and serious, badass and adventurous, or something else entirely? It can be clever, straight-forward, or something outside the box. Whatever you choose, make sure it aligns with your goals and the videos that you’ll be uploading.
- Help your target audience find you. If you’re a business starting a YouTube channel, you’ll want to use either your brand name or some variation of it (we’ll look at how to do this in just a minute). If you’re starting a new channel for a new “brand” (which can just be you as an influencer!), think about potential keywords and how to let people know what you do. Instead of “Ana Gotter,” for example, I might use “Ana Gotter Content Writing Lessons.”
- Easy to read, easy to remember, and easy to search. Unfortunately, plenty of people won’t subscribe right away. You want it to be easy for them to find your content again later. “Yoga with Adrienne” is straightforward and simple, while “YogaDiva999212452” or “NamasteAllDayYogaforMomLessons,” not so much. This means you’ll want it to be short, sweet, and memorable.
4 of the Best YouTube Channel Name Ideas & How to Adapt Them For Your Brand
Alright! We know what your YouTube channel name should do in theory, so now let’s look at how this translates in the real world.
You can ultimately get as creative as you’d like with your channel name, but there are a few foolproof strategies that you can use to create a strong-but-unique name for your channel. We’re going to take a look at four of the best YouTube channel name ideas that are already online in a variety of industries and you can see how to adapt these strategies for yourself.
Reel Weddings
Reel Weddings is a wedding cinematography company in the UK, and their channel name is their brand name: “Reel Weddings.”
If you’re an established brand, this is a safe tactic to use. You want people to instantly recognize your content for what it is if they stumble across it, and you want to make it easy for them to find you. In this case, the company likely uses their YouTube videos as a promotional channel to help them land new potential clients.
The name works on another level, too. It’s clever, making it interesting. This can help the brand feel and unique, helping them to stand out. The pun works for the brand instead of against it.
The strategy here that you can steal for yourself: Use your brand name that’s already established. And if you don’t have one already, consider creating a fun, engaging name that will capture people’s attention.
Milabu
Milabu is a “beauty addict” with a wildly popular YouTube channel that frequently shares beauty tutorials for hair and makeup.
The channel owner’s name is “Milana,” which is the basis for her channel name, “Milabu.” It takes part of her real name, turns it into something short and distinct (and available on YouTube!), and gives her a unique brand on-platform.
If you’re creating a new business or brand around yourself and want to create a unique name, this is a great tactic to use.
Throttle House
This name just sounds intense and like the perfect channel for adrenaline junkies and car lovers alike. Throttle House isn’t your standard car review channel; they look closely at race cars, standard car reviews, and even set up test tracks. This is designed to be more like a show and a resource than a “stand in front of the camera and talk about cars with a bookcase behind you” kind of channel.
The name is exciting, and it’s heavily branded. It sets the tone for the channel, and gets users pumped up about the content they can expect to see.
If you want to use this strategy, think about how you can use engaging, exciting, industry-specific language that has strong connotations. Vibrant language is a great way to capture user attention and set yourself apart.
Bark
I’ve got three dogs, so it probably wouldn’t surprise most people that I’m a huge fan of BarkBox. It’s not just about the actual products, though; they also have amazing marketing, and as a content marketer, it’s always exciting to see.
Their YouTube channel is a great example, and it’s titled “Bark,” not “BarkBox.” This isn’t surprising; they’ve got an extraordinary blog called “BarkPost,” so they’re using a part of their brand name consistently across multiple platforms. The idea here is to create unique, branded experiences that all tie back to their product but that exist well on their own.
Bark is still branded, it’s still definitively tied back to the overall BarkBox brand, making it effective promotion, but it also works as a standalone channel.
You can consider using this strategy if you want to create an extensive resource on YouTube that’s associated with but not necessarily centered around your existing business.
YouTube Usernames to Avoid
There are some YouTube usernames that are safe bets, and there are others that you definitely want to avoid. When creating your YouTube channel name, make sure you follow these rules:
- Adding a lot of numbers. If you’re adding numbers to your channel name, it’s likely because the original name was already taken. Keep in mind that users aren’t going to remember those extra numbers. Choose an original name, and leave the numbers out unless it’s part of your name (like “99Designs”).
- Using symbols in your name. Same thing here. Keep the symbols out of your channel name unless it’s a key part of your branding. They can be confusing and look like spam, and can also easily clutter up your name.
- Don’t focus on something timely. Timely, relevant YouTube videos? Outstanding. Choosing a time-sensitive or trending channel name, though, likely won’t work so well. As soon as the trend passes, this name will feel dated.
Aside from this, skip out on anything controversial (you don’t want an entire channel wrapped up in a controversy that may get worse or better over time, especially if you change your mind), and skip out on anything politician, insensitive, or vulgar.
Conclusion
Your YouTube channel name can absolutely set the stage for your entire channel, and will affect how people perceive your brand, your content, and everything that you’re doing. Take some time to think about different options, doing research in your industry. You can get some new ideas and see what audiences seem to respond to, giving you some great inspiration for how to get started.
