Travel blog names: how to come up with something great!

For many people that I meet, starting a travel blog (or YouTube channel) is a fairly common “dream job”. They tell me that they want to create travel content for a living just like I do, and I usually smile and tell them that it’s a pretty sweet gig. Of course I leave out all the scary stuff like never feeling like I have enough money to pay the bills and feeling homesick while out on the road, but I try to stay as positive as I can.

“It’s totally awesome!” I say, followed up with: “Have you thought of any really cool travel blog names yet?”

This question is often met by immediate (and intense) blank stares. “Nuh-uh. But I’m gonna start as soon as I come up with something!” they say. Three months later, when I run into them again, having the exact same exchange isn’t completely out of the ordinary. It’s easy to dream, but it’s not so easy to act on those dreams.

How to come up with a name for your travel blog

For most people, coming up with a clever name for their travel blog is the thing that stops them dead in their tracks. They think that it has to be the most clever and witty thing that anybody has ever heard, and anything less will expose them as an uncreative wannabe. Quite frankly, that’s just a load of bull.

The important thing to remember is that your brand is all about the content you create. It’s not the name at the top of your website or the name of your YouTube channel. Create amazing content, and everything else will fall into place.

However, that’s not to say that it isn’t important to take a few minutes to come up with a name for your travel blog that will instantly give a first time viewer a clue as to what your content is all about.

Before giving you some ideas on how to come up with a really great travel blog name, let me just say this:

Do not overthink it! Spending more than an hour thinking about what you’re going to brand yourself is a wasted effort. You need to be creating amazing content instead.

Idea number 1: just use your real name

Using your real name as the name for your travel blog is the most obvious solution. I also understand that it’s likely the most scary as well. Most creators prefer to stay somewhat anonymous online (myself included), and the thought of blasting your name out to the world and attaching it to perhaps the biggest project of your life is scary indeed.

Back when I started SANspotter.com in 2011, I couldn’t even dream of using my real name anywhere online. Hence, that’s why I came up with the name “SANspotter”. Yeah, it was maybe a little too safe, but It was ideal because it would be impossible for anyone to identify me just from that title.

As the years went on and my brand grew, I started to understand the importance of not hiding behind a clever nickname. My audience has grown because they like me and the content I produce. And guess what? I’m finally reaching a point where I feel like I am doing them a disservice by hiding and keeping my identity hidden.

It just doesn’t seem fair at times, especially since some of the conversations I have with my audience are on a deeply personal level. They let down their guard for me, so why am I not letting down my guard for them?

As you’ve likely noticed by now, I’ve never switched over my brand name to reflect my real name. This is primarily because my brand name is well-established, and that it has a measurable value of its own.

However, I do try to inject my own name into my content whenever I can, just to help my audience feel like I’m a real person and not a faceless brand.

That being said: if I had to come up with a travel blog name all over again, knowing what I know now, I would most definitely use my real name.

Idea number 2: use matching letters

One of the best ways to get people to remember something is to hit them with something catchy. An extremely easy way to do this is to take the first letter of your first name, think of an activity that best represents an activity that starts with that same letter, and then put that word in front of your name. Voilà! Instant brand name.

For example, you know my name is Scott, and I write a blog about airline and general travel stuff. What are some possible names for a travel blog I was just starting from scratch today?

Using my formula described above, below are some quick travel blog names I just thought of off the top of my head. Warning…some of these are really cheesy, I know, but I tend to get silly when thinking spontaneously. It’s a curse really:

• Sightseeing Scott
• Send It With Scott
• See The World with Scott
• So Long Scott!
• Sayonara Scott
• Scootin’ Scott

It’s even easier if you’ve been blessed with a name that doesn’t start with”S”. For example:

• WanderingWanda
• Window Seat Wanda
• Go With Flo
• Jessica’s Jaunts
• Tim’s Travels
• Xavier’s Experiences
• Flynn’s Flights
• Jet Lag Jeff
• Checking in With Charlie
• Contrail Conner
• Long Haul Leslie
• DominiquesDepartures
• Cathy’s Carbon Footprint (lol)

Again, I know these are cheesy, but come on. You know you scratched your head when you heard “Google” for the first time…

Here’s a list of travel blog name ideas:

Now that I’ve given you some guidance on how to come up with a good name for your travel blog, I’m just going to spit out a long list of as many travel blog names that I can possibly think of.

This list is going to be somewhat fluid and free, and I’m just going to write out all the things that pop into my head at this very moment. Some of them will be cheesy, some may already exist, but my hope is that you’ll find a golden nugget (or some variation of it) in here that you can use for yourself.

• (Your name) meets world
• To The World
• Life At 36,000ft
• Now boarding
• Life is a (road) trip
• Still 12 hours to go
• Priority Boarding
• Ultra Long Haul
• I’m Never Home
• Let’s Fly Again
• Let’s Sail Again
• Making Contrails
• Rails, Waterways, and Contrails
• Headed out Again
• My Footsteps In The Sand
• Abused Passports
• Ratty Passports
• My Poor Passport
• The Wanderist
• The Fly Traveler
• Fly Travels
• Destination: Anywhere
• Destination: Not Home
• I don’t wanna go home
• I’m Outta Here

Mistakes to avoid when coming up with a travel blog name

Since your travel blog name is something that has the potential to stay with you for the rest of your life, it’s really important to come up with something that is going to age well. Not only that, you have to make sure it’s something that sounds professional and as respectable as possible. Here are a few specific mistakes to avoid:

1. Do not use your email ID as your brand name (unless it’s extremely clever)

There are two reasons for this:

1. First, it shows a lack of creativity. Time and time again I see people with Instagram accounts, YouTube channels, and blog URLs with names such as “scott8725”, and I instantly think that they weren’t creative enough do use anything but their email ID.
2. The second reason why you don’t want do this is because it’s pretty obvious what your email address is (in this case, “scott8725@gmail/hotmail/outlook/etc.com”). Unless you enjoy receiving gobs of spam every day, keep your email address private!

2. Don’t create a brand name centered around a current fad.

Remember when mileage running used to be huge? And the mega points bonuses we used to get for credit cards? Anyone who created a blog name tied to any of those topics back in the day very likely regret doing so now. Sure, creating an online brand centered around mileage running (and how it was the best way to reach Double-Dipped Diamond-Crusted Platinum Unicorn status) sounded good back in 2005, but it’s definitely not as popular today.

However, that’s not to say you can’t create content around current fads. As a matter fact, I highly recommend it, since it’s a good way to get a lot of eyeballs on your content the quickest way possible. The trick is not not name your entire blog after it.

3. Shorter is better!

Nothing will make it harder to build an audience than to have a brand name which is too long for anyone to remember. For example, let’s say your name is Will and you come up with something like this:

• Travel With Will to the Far Ends of the Earth

Nobody is ever going to remember a mouthful like that, so cut it down to something like:

• Will Travel

By the way, God bless you if your name is Will (or William). There are tons of awesome travel blog names I could think of with a multi-use name like that:

• Will I go?
• Will it fly?
• When there’s a Will…
• Have Ticket, Will Travel
• Etc…

4. If possible, create a brand name that you can get a matching URL for

Very simply put, what I mean by this is that if you want your blog name to be “Will Travel”, it’s going to help your credibility tremendously if you can also get www.willtravel.com.

On a side note, I just did a quick search and it looks as if that domain name isn’t being used for anything at the moment. So – if your name is Will, this sounds like an opportunity of a lifetime to me.

A simple way to test whether or not a URL is available is to go to Google and just type it in. If a developed website pops up, you’ll know that it’s taken and you probably need to think of something else. However if you get a generic web hosting page with nothing on it, you’ll know that the domain is available and you need to jump on it really quick.

Remember: don’t overthink this!

As I mentioned earlier, it’s extremely important not to dwell on a travel blog name for more than a few hours. As long as you create something that’s short, easy to remember, and catchy, you’ll be fine. Even better, if you just stick to your real name, you don’t even have to think about this at all. You will, however, have to put some effort into thinking of some ideas for your travel blog, but that’s a topic for another post…

Be proud of the content you create and just put yourself out there!