It can be a joyous exercise to brainstorm names for a new business -- almost as much fun as naming a baby or a pet. But before purchasing that domain at Go Daddy.com, consider this mistake I made.  The first of many.  

When thinking of names for my shop and its accompanying blog, I made a list of relevant keywords like collection, tablescape, mantlescape, collage, still life, tableau, vignette.   

Of those words, I loved 'still life'.  It implied artful arrangements that are carefully composed and that convey a rather specific moment in time.  

And the creative possibilities!  I began compiling lists of ubiquitous twenty-first century objects that could be building blocks.  This image below is one of the first arrangements I created.  It contains my beloved collection of French paperbacks. 

From there, I decided my blog should be titled Still Life No. 3.  The "No. 3" would be a reference to the phase of life I'm in.  My first 'life' was childhood through young adulthood, when everything was egocentric.  My next 'life' came when I had children.  And now that my children are leaving the nest, I'm at the threshold of a third 'life', a life where I can venture out on my own again.  Thus, Still Life No. 3.  

Perhaps a little esoteric but that's how I roll.  

Besides, business names with numbers are cool.  I couldn't think of an image that would be representative of my work, so incorporating a number into the name provided a graphic solution.

I had already done a a quick search on Go Daddy and many versions of the name were available.  For example:

stilllifeno3.com  stilllifenumberthree.com  stilllifenumber3.com  

And now you can see my mistake.  

They all looked awful.  Written out as a domain address, the title was confusing. That clump of 'l's bookended by the 'i's.  Like a bunch of branches sprouting in the middle of a sentence.  Worse, the more I stood back and studied the name, the more I saw other words like 'silly' and 'stiffen'.  I didn't like the words 'silly' or 'stiffen.'  

And the user's constant guesswork at how to spell out the 'number 3'.  

I was sad to let go of that idea.  And to let go of all the still life compositions I had planned.  "Still Life with Shoes" was going to be incredible.  

But it was back to the drawing board.  Where I made another mistake.  Read about more domain name mistakes here.