Are you struggling to find a good and unique travel blog name idea?
The struggle is real. And it doesn’t help that so many of the guides out there on how to choose a blog name are really just thinly-disguised marketing for web hosting companies.
In fact, for me, choosing my travel blog name was one of the hardest parts about starting a travel blog.
I mean, you come up with the perfect name for a travel blog, only to find out its already taken by another blogger.
Or every travel blog name idea you are able to come up with just sounds silly, or too long, or too boring.
You start searching for travel blog name generators, hoping some computer program will just magically generate a name for you… but, still, no luck…
Well, don’t worry: I’m an actual travel blogger here to help you pick the coolest, most unique, and absolutely best travel blog names out there.
Just follow these 10 steps and I promise you’ll find the perfect travel blog name for you!
Oh, and if you need help picking a name, simply email me at [email protected] with your travel blog name ideas and I’ll give you my thoughts on them (really, I help several new bloggers per week – 100% for free!).
Ok, let’s dive in:
Table of Contents
10 Steps to Picking Travel Blog Names
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If you want to break the logjam of finding a good travel blog name, walk through each of the following 10 steps.
I know you’ll be tempted to skim or skip some steps, but please don’t do that! I’ve put a ton of thought and effort into this article, and have helped 100+ bloggers pick names, so every step is intentional and important to the process. Whatever you do, please don’t skip step 3!
Step One: Decide What Your Travel Blog is About
Before you can pick a name for your blog, you first have to sort out what your blog is about. Now I know what you’re probably thinking:
Uhhh, duh, Nate: it’s about travel, you idiot!
Yeah, sure, I get it. But guess what?
Just having a generic travel blog isn’t going to cut it anymore. There are thousands of travel blogs out there, and the ones that really succeed are those that hone in on a specific niche.
My niche, for example, is about emerging and off the beaten path destinations. And all the popular travel blogs out there have a specific niche: The Blonde Abroad is about fashion and female travel, Nomadic Matt is about budget travel, Migrationology is about food and travel.
Deciding on a niche for your travel blog is really important to starting a successful travel blog. If you get stuck on this step, be sure to join my blogging newsletter for some secret blogging tips that can help you break through:
Step Two: Decide if You Will Use Your Real Name
The next thing you need to decide is if you want your own name in your blog title (e.g., “TravelNate.com”) or if you want a more generic non-personal title (e.g., “TravelLemming.com”).
The advantage of having your personal name in your travel blog name is that it makes it much easier for your audience to identify with you, and it is much easier to develop a personal brand on social media. It also means you are basically halfway to picking the perfect blog name!
On the other hand, there are some disadvantages to putting your own name in your blog name. The most important of those is that it can be limiting if you ever want to sell your travel blog (yes, there is a thriving market for selling profitable blogs!). There is also some advantage from a search-engine-optimization perspective to having a descriptive travel blog name.
Step Three: Fill Out My Free Travel Blog Name Worksheet
This next part is probably the most important step towards finding a travel blog name:
Make a copy of my travel blog name worksheet I made for you using Google Docs.
Why use the worksheet?
Well, most travel blog names consist of just 2 or 3 words together – but by now you know that finding the right and available combination is harder than you think. The idea of the worksheet is to breakdown the process into an easier first step: just starting with one word at a time.
Here is how to use the worksheet:
First, click “file” and “make a copy” so you can edit locally.
The next step towards picking your name is filling out the yellow cells for the following rows:
- Your Name – pretty self explanatory!
- Travel-Related Words – this is where you put nouns and adjectives that relate to travel (e.g., “travel,” “nomad,” “wandering,” “international,” etc.)
- Niche-Specific Words – this is for nouns and adjectives that relate to your chosen niches (e.g., “scuba,” “solo,” “food,” etc.)
- Personal/Creative Words – this is where you should get creative. Throw in original words that have a meaning to you but don’t fit into the above category. For example, in my case I chose the word “lemming” because it evokes the herd-mentality of many travelers (thanks to this crazy story involving Disney murdering a bunch of poor lemmings!).
Since my niche emerging destinations, my list originally included a bunch of words around that concept. I also included a few personal words (I’m tall, and an American from Denver, Colorado) plus some creative words around animals that follow each other to the same places.
The next step?
Combining these into some awesome travel blog names:
Step Four: Create a Shortlist of Names
Now the fun begins!
Start mixing and matching words from your worksheet. Come up with as many combos as you can!
For me, some combinations I shortlisted included: “Nate Worldwide,” “Beyond the Path,” “The Mile High Explorer,” “The Emerging Explorer,” and, of course, “Travel Lemming.”
Step Five: Make Sure Your Name Ideas Are Available and Original
Unfortunately, as I said at the start, a lot of good travel blog names are already taken. So to make sure yours are available, you need to do eachof the follow steps for each of your shortlisted names:
- First,make sure the URL for your travel blog name idea is available. To do that, click here to input your name ideas and check availability.
- Second,Google the name to make sure no one else is using it or a variant (if someone is using the brand “Emerging Explorer” already, it wouldn’t be a smart idea to use “The Emerging Explorer” even though that URL is technically available).
- Third,run a Basic Word Mark Search at the USTPO to make sure your name or a variant isn’t trademarked (this is a step that many people forget!).
- Fourth,make sure the social media handles are available for your brand for every platform you might use (the main ones are Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube). Note that Twitter has a character limit for handles, but I think it’s ok to shorten your Twitter handle if needed.
Do each of the above four steps for each of your travel blog name ideas. If a name fails any one of these tests, you need to cross it off your list.
Step Six: Bounce Your Favorite Travel Blog Names Off Friends
Ok, now you have a shortlist of travel blog names you can actually use! Time to get a second (and third and fourth) opinion to help you decide on the ultimate winner.
How?
- Ask your friends and family
- Start a poll on Facebook
- Email me – Seriously, do it: I’m more than happy to help (I do this 3-5 times per week)! Just shoot me an email at [email protected] with your ideas for your name.
Step Seven: Choose a Winner
This is the hard part of course. But if you’ve followed the above steps, you should have some good travel blog names to choose from!
But once you pick one, you aren’t done yet! Step Eight is really important….
Step Eight: Register Your New Travel Blog Name
Once you’ve picked the perfect travel blog name, you need to lock it down by registering it so no one else can take it.
There are a ton of companies that will register domain names for you, but usually it’s easiest to do it through your website host (that’s the company which houses your site).
I personally highly recommend Siteground for hosting. Click here to check out their hosting plans.
For most new travel blogs, you’ll be fine with just their StartUp Plan ($3.95/month) plus the $15.95 charge to register your domain.
And, yes, if you sign up for Siteground through the above link, I get a small commission (that’s how us travel bloggers make money!).
But you don’t have to use my link, and you can trust my recommendation of Siteground because I personally run Travel Lemming on it! I used to run on a different host, and when that expired I did a TON of research to find the best hosting company. Unless you want to pay through the nose for premium enterprise hosting (think $100+ per month), Siteground is the fastest, most secure, most reliable option you can get.
What about free hosting you ask?
Well, that’s a really, really bad idea unless you are just a really casual blogger who doesn’t plan to make any money. Yes, there are sites (such as BlogSpot or WordPress.com) that will host your blog for free. But it will be on their domain (e.g. “YourTravelBlogName.Wordpress.com”). Every single successful travel blogger I know self hosts and it is definitely worth $4/month.
Step Nine: Set Up Your Travel Site
I’m not going to lie: if you’re new to blogging, setting up your site can be really difficult and a ton of work.
You basically have two options: pay someone to do it or push through and figure it out yourself.
Option 1: Figure It All Out the Hard Way
This is what I did when I started blogging, and I can tell you how frustrating it is if you don’t know your way around web development. There are just so many ways you can go wrong if you don’t know how to set things up right (when I started, I broke my site so many times!).
Note that most serious travel bloggers choose to use the WordPress.org platform (not to be confused with WordPress.com!). To do that, you’ll need to install and customize a WordPress theme (I personally suggest a premium theme, but there are free themes out there too).
If taking this DIY option, check my step-by-step guide on how to start and step up your travel blog.
Option 2: Me and My Team Will Set Up Your Blog For You!
By popular demand, I’ve started the Travel Lemming Blog Turkey Service – where me and my team will build your entire blog for you!
We’ll set up your site correctly, work with you to come up with an awesome design and logo, and just generally help you blaze through some of the most frustrating parts of starting a travel blog!
This service is available exclusively through the Travel Lemming Patreon membership program – just select the “Blogger” tier.
If you are curious if the service is right for you, or how we can help, feel free to email me at [email protected]!
Step Ten: Claim Your Social Media Handles
Don’t forget to claim every social media handle for your brand – even if you don’t think you’ll use that platform!
For example, be sure to claim “Facebook.com/YourTravelBlogName,” “Instagram.com/YourTravelBlogName” etc.
Need your first follower? Shoot me an email at [email protected] and I promise I’ll follow all your accounts right away!
Oh, and if you want to return the favor you can find me on Facebook,Instagram,Twitter,YouTube, and Pinterest.
Tips for Choosing a Travel Blog Name
Here’s a few other random tips to keep in mind when selecting a name for your travel blog:
- Keep it short and sweet – The fewer words, the better. Try to keep it to 2-4 words!
- Try to balance being original and being descriptive – Most of the popular travel blogs out there ( here’s a list of a bunch) use the same words: travel, nomad, adventure, etc. It’s boring an unoriginal but they also do it for a reason: having a clear and descriptive name helps new readers understand what you are about. Nomadic Matt, Expert Vagabond, The Blonde Abroad – these names all give a quick idea of what their sites are about. And they are all enormously successful travel bloggers as it happens. So try to find that sweet spot between original and descriptive.
- Avoid any extensions other than .com or .co.uk, or your country domain if you’re targeting a specific country (e.g., .nl for the netherlands) – Sure, you can now buy all kinds of domains like “TravelBlogName.travel,” “TravelBlogName.rocks,” and “TravelBlogName.blog.” But that doesn’t mean you should: I know multiple bloggers who have tried this and they’ve found that it is has hurt their ability to grow, as Google doesn’t always give preference to these domain names and some brands won’t recognize them. In short, this isn’t an area where you should get cute with your travel blog name.
- Avoid dashses, underscores, or numbers in your name – It can be tempting to help secure the URL for that cool travel blog name, but its generally a bad idea.
- Think about how your blog niche may change over time – Life changes, sometimes in ways you can’t predict. But you can’t so easily change travel blog names. So if you’re currently a solo traveler and want to blog about that, consider what will happen if you meet a significant other. Or if you’re planning to blog as a couple, you might want to at least think about (and this is awkward, I know) what happens if the relationship doesn’t work out. Whatever you do, just be sure to think long term when picking a travel blog name.
- Once you pick your travel blog name, own it – Buyer’s remorse is a real thing. There are plenty of times when I wish I had used one of my other travel blog names I had planned, but the truth is that once you pick a name you just have to make it your own and go with it! There are plenty of bloggers who have imperfect names and yet are very successful. So once you’ve picked your name and set up your travel blog, stop worrying about it!
Travel Blog Names – Ideasand Examples
Here are some travel blog name idea examples of real travel blogs that follow the ideas I’ve laid out in this guide to choosing a travel blog name:
- Describe Your Niche (“Solo Traveler World”)
- Use Your Name (“Nomadic Matt”)
- Establish Your Authority (“Expert Vagabond”)
- Invent a New Word (“Migrationology”)
- Differentiate Yourself (“The Blonde Abroad”)
- Paint a Picture with Words (“One Mile at a Time”)
- Use a Play on Words (“Travel Lemming”)
- Keep to the Point (“Travel Fashion Girl”)
- Be Memorable (“Goats on the Road”)
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That’s it for this ultimate guide to picking travel blog names! If you have any questions, scroll down to leave a comment.
New to travel blogging?
You should also really read my guide to Blogging for Beginners. It has four important tips I wish I had know when I started travel blogging!
Also, realize that making money with a travel blog takes time. If you need to make money in the interim, I suggest my guide to Freelance Travel Writing Jobs.
Lastly, sign up to receive my insider travel blogging tips! You can do that by entering your email in the box here and signing up for my periodic newsletter:
