Naming my shop and checking for names already taken

[Former_Member]

Hi All,

I am new to Etsy and am trying to come up for a name for my shop.

I make customised cookies and thought that handinthecookiejar would be great but noticed somebody else has that name, it seems there has been no activity at all there since the person joined. I realise from reading other posts that this can happen and nothing can be done about it.

Would it be wrong to use a variation of this for eg: aHandintheCookieJar ?

Or perhaps adding Etsy to the name somewhere?

Any advice welcome and appreciated. Any tips on searching existing shop names would be good too.....at the moment I am just using the general search box to check if a shop name already exists but if there is a specific list/accurate way of checking that would be useful.

Thanks

[Former_Member]

I also had the same problem with the shop name and I just typed every shop name I could think of until it said that it's available =)

[Former_Member]

As far as I know, a shop name variation is fine unless you're copying the shop, which is not.

You could just try the name and add "etsy.com" to it. For example, my shop is "openquotedesigns.etsy.com" and you could try "thecookiejar.etsy.com".

[EleanorsVintage]

Unfortunately, there is no exhaustive list we can use. Etsy admin looks through 'old' shop names too (names that have been given up), which makes it difficult.
If you keep choosing names that then are already taken (you won't find out until you try to use it), the best thing to do is contact etsy, tell them what you want, and ask them what variations are possible.
Good luck!

[Former_Member]

You can't use Etsy in your shop name unless you have special permission to do so.

[Former_Member]

you can always add a 1 at the end. I have seen that before.

[WintergreenDesign]

What about Handsinthecookiejar (hands being plural)?