There are millions of other creators jostling for the limelight online. Here’s how to pick a YouTube channel name to set you apart from the rest!

Like naming a business, picking the perfect name for your YouTube channel can present a stumbling block. There are so many options. Do you go for something witty or provocative? Or should you simply use your birth name, and keep things simple?

The name you plump for will depend largely on your goals, and the type of content you plan to create. Generally, if you’re embarking on an expedition to conquer YouTube, your goals will include gaining subscribers, getting lots of views, and promoting your channel. If you nail these things, you could end up earning money with YouTube, which could be your overarching goal.

There are lots of tactics for reaching these goals, like mastering YouTube analytics, or coming up with the perfect titles for videos. But, doing all of this with a name that doesn’t fit or represent you can hurt your efforts. Here are our top tips for choosing a YouTube channel name that will stand out for all the right reasons.

Be Unique

This is one of those vague points that are kind of obvious, but offer little help on how to actually achieve it. But, having a unique channel name doesn’t always have to mean having something completely mind-blowing. You can ensure a level of uniqueness by simply not ripping off anyone else.

It’s actually against YouTube’s community guidelines to deliberately copy someone else’s channel. Furthermore, once you’ve intercepted another popular channel’s traffic, what will you do with it then? People will realise pretty quickly that they aren’t in the right place.

It might make some kind of sense that if you use a name like another successful channel’s, it will boost your traffic initially. But, in the end, it isn’t a good look.

Short & Simple

You might think that coming up with an eye-catching and interesting name means it needs to be long and complex. That’s not exactly the case.

The online world is incredibly fast-paced, and the faster it grows, the shorter our attention spans get. That means the people are confronted with an enormous amount of information, with only limited capacity to remember it. Because of this, your channel name should be easy to remember and not take up too much precious brainspace.

On top of this, shorter names are much faster to type in. You want to make it as easy as possible for people to find and access your channel, so they can enjoy all your wonderful content.

Represent Your Niche

With so much to read and choose from, audiences want to be able to discern what a channel is all about before they even go onto it. That means the channel name has a big responsibility. The name you choose needs to tell people:

  • What your niche is
  • The kind of content they can expect
  • What they’ll get out of it

That last point is very important. People are far more likely to click on something if they think it’s going to add value to their lives in some way.

To start off, focussing on a name that has something to do with your niche will help. From here, you can get creative with wording and add on the important little extras.

Don’t Forget Keywords

Keywords are those common search terms that will help lead people to the right place, i.e. you! Just like you’d use keywords to help your videos rank better and be more searchable, so too should you use them for your channel name.

If your niche is cooking, then think about incorporating keywords like cooking, food, eating, meals, or tasty into your YouTube channel name. Featuring these words in your name will signpost to your audience what sort of videos you make, and the content they’ll find on your channel.

A couple of good examples of keywords being used in channel names without sounding robotic are Babish Culinary Universe (the name tells you it’s a person called Babish making content about cooking, but pretty much covering all sorts of cooking content), You Suck At Cooking, and Peaceful Cuisine (a name that instantly tells you it’s food but ASMR).

Name Generators

If you’re really struggling to come up with a name on your own, you can always try a name generator. There are plenty online that have been built with YouTube specifically in mind.

You can use Business Name Generator, which performs availability checks alongside coming up with the name itself. There’s also Social Video Plaza, or Name Bounce. All these generators invite you to enter a keyword or multiple to be either included in your name or drum up ideas that are relevant.

If you settle on a name but eventually feel you’ve outgrown it or have changed direction, you can always rename your channel.