Hipster Business Name Generator

The hipster business name is a recognisable genre with its own grammar. The dominant form is two concrete nouns joined by an ampersand (Salt & Cedar, Rust & Rye, Fox & Fable), usually alliterative and drawn from a small vocabulary of workshop, farm and forest words: anvil, foundry, kettle, cask, bramble, sorrel, wren, hatchet, tallow. The second form is a lone noun with the definite article (The Larder, The Foundry, The Commons), which implies there is only one and it has been there forever. The third borrows the language of nineteenth-century commerce: Provisions, Mercantile, Dry Goods, Supply Co., Apothecary, Roasters, Ale Works.

The effect these names are chasing is honest craft. Words are short, Anglo-Saxon and tactile; nothing is 'digital', 'solutions' or 'global'. Animals are small and native (fox, wren, hare, badger, not lions or eagles), materials are raw (copper, burlap, brass, slate) and food words lean rustic (rind, crust, brine, rye). Ampersands and 'Co.' do a lot of work, and so does the implied backstory, so a barber called Cask & Cleaver feels like it should have leather chairs and a whiskey cart.

Use these for cafés, roasters, barbers, vintage stores, small-batch food and drink brands, letterpress studios or an ironic novel about Brooklyn. Just be aware that the genre is crowded, so search Instagram before you commit to yet another Salt & something.