Shop Names Are Getting Dumber 

What's the silliest shop name that you've come across?

I don't know if someone else has mentioned it, but in NYC there's a British-style fish and chip shop called "A Salt and Battery."

Apparently, with lots of illiteracy in the middle ages, lots of English pubs named themselves like "the cat and mutton" bc it was something they could easily have a picture of Also lots of companies called themselves like AAA locksmiths bc it would put them near the start of the phone book

Back then: People couldn't read so they used emojis for signs. Now: People couldn't be bothered to read so they use emojis for signs.

They explored this idea a lot on Parks and Rec, with all of Tom's businesses, and also contrasted it with Ron Swanson, a man who would not tolerate this foolishness, calling his construction company Very Good Construction.

I would totally shop at a bedding store called "Nightmares".

Are you making fun of my secret ambition to buy a liquor store and rename it I Don’t Even Know Her?

My theory is that the emergence of companies as separate legal entities plays a role. The owner of a limited liability company is not liable for the company with his own name and private assets. The company is an independent entity and is not tied to the name of the entrepreneur. On the contrary, there are also forms of company in which the owner is liable with his own assets. In some countries, the name must even appear in the name of the company in such cases.

Curl Up and Dye is also Julie Brown's salon in "Earth Girls are Easy".

There’s a place in Astoria, Queens called City Sliquors (a wine and spirits shop whose name sounds like city slickers, an older expression) that I think was there since the 1960s.

'Ace of Spades' That's poetry

I honestly like straightforward shop names, because it removes any ambiguity. For instance right now I see a shop called "Manolos Pan" meaning "Manolos Bread" and "Talleres Teco" meaning "Teco Workshop". Let me take another look: "Aluminios", means "Aluminiums" or I guess "Aluminas" "Libros, periódicos, bolígrafos", meaning "Books, newspapers, pens" Yes, the last one is just a list of what they sell, no owner name, no family name, just the products sold. And my favourite of all: all. And I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE OF the Chinese snacks shops in my country are named, exactly and specifically "Alimentación frutos secos" which means "Nourishment dry fruits" or "Nourishment nuts" and has those words in white on a red background with maybe some pictures of ice cream and snacks for good measure, it's run by one family of Chinese people, one of which has a perfectly native Chinese name that sounds just like a normal Spanish name, like "Hu an" which sounds like Juan. Oh and this one shop I mentioned is roughly found once per street, in every single street of every single city in the country. You can always count on them to magically teleport to your location when you need that soda the most

Theres a chain of chicken restaurants in the American northeast called Wings Over. Each individual restaurant is in turn named Wings Over [Location] (ie Wings Over Boston, Wings Over Sommerville, Wings Over Framingham, etc)

there's a Thai massage spa thing i saw by the side of a street that's called Duat Guat - which looks somewhat Thai, but is actually the local German (Bavarian) dialect saying "does (i.e. feels) good" and i love it

I'm surprised you didn't mention companies that name themselves for SEO like Chinese Near Me

You missed the two best shop names on The Simpsons: "Bloodbath & Beyond" (gun store), and "Sneed's Feed & Seed... formerly Chuck's"

7:15 Sneed's Feed & Seed (Formerly Chuck's)

I give kudos to the night club owner in Saigon who snapped up the name "Apocalypse Now".

In ”Friends” the New York gang sipped coffee at Central Perk, and much earlier in the 1970s the sitcom show “Three’s Company” had occasional mentions of, and visits to, a tavern named the Regal Beagle, which, in the 1980s, at least one real life pub in Dunedin, Pinellas County, Florida adopted as its actual name. Of course, there is the US lingerie chain Victoria’s Secret, which is silly because everyone knows she kept Prince Albert in the can (an old prank call to any tobacco shop). But with a tire chain called Tire Kingdom, I think there should be a couch and footstool shop named Ottoman Empire!

In the Seattle area there's lots of Thai and Pho restaurants so of course lots of word play

That Pompeiian place being the predecessor to Greggs:

Some funny named chippies I know of in my area and further afield: Batter Days, Thorpe Acre, Loughborough The Codfather, Shepshed, Leicestershire Oh My Cod, Hamilton, Leicestershire Fork in Chips, Loughborough (now closed)

Why is the title of the video "shop names are getting dumber", when instead it is about them getting wittier and more imaginative?

The other show with great shop names was “The Good Place.”

You ask the question “why *were* shop names so boring back then”? at the end. Here’s the thing: business still kind of want names to be as generic as possible-at least if my trademark law education is correct. There’s kind of a tension between marketing execs and trademark lawyers here. Any trademark lawyer will tell you the strongest trademarks are those that are fanciful or arbitrary, while the execs say “no no, we can’t call our pet shop ‘Zanimucks from the Planet Terraria,’ no one will know what that is! Can’t we just call ourselves ‘Springfield Pet Shop’ since well, that’s where we’re at?” Genericism itself signals something of a monopoly, and as you suggest with the “La Corner Schoppe” example, these generic-ish (or more properly, “descriptive”) names at the very least create the illusion that they’ve been around forever and thus reliable. (Basically they want to try to get secondary meaning before they’ve even gained a following!) The sweet spot is indeed a name like “Dreams,” which in trademark law lingo we call “suggestive.” It seems so you can only be suggestive in so many ways though, hence why there seems to be a lot of dumb puns now. So the strategies with naming a business can go both ways, but of course those opting for generic run much more risk.

In Norway we have Tannlege Bore (Dentist Drill), Tannlege Røskeland (Dentist Pull-country), and Hurtigruta bilglass (The Fast Window Car Windows)

The TV show Bob's Burgers has a bunch of these.

The medieval literacy seems to be downplayed, since most families did have at least one person who could read their native language, but to be considered literate, you'd have to be literate in Latin.

Paw & Order (dog obedience trainer). There is also a luxury resort nearby called Nemacolin Woodlands; their doggie daycare is Nemacolin Wooflands.

I live in a small town in Nebraska settled by Czech immigrants. We only have one grocery called the Food Mesto, mesto being Czech for 'city'. However, we do have two butchers. One, 'Frank's' uses the owner's Christian name. The other, Karpisek's, uses the owner's surname.

There used to be a gaming cafe where I live called the Board Room

Your videos are so excellent and interesting! Definitely underrated!

Ooh! Your book sounds AMAZING! I can’t wait to read it! Sorry, that’s my absolute favorite part of linguistics!!!! EEK!!!!

These new shop names remind me of store front in Idiocracy

GTA Vice City has a music shop called Vinyl Countdown

There once was an advertisment bureau in Denmark by a name somewhat like "Juul og Stejle". The macabre fun was that "Hjul og Stejle" is a way of execution. Your hand is cut off with a sword, then your head. The body is cut in large pieces. The head is set on a spike (Stejle) with the hand nailed to the spike. The rest of the unhappy man is placed on a wheel (Hjul) and raised on another spike. It was a slightly less barbaric way of killing than having the convicted beaten with a wheel breaking the limbs. He would then be placed on the wheel with the rather flexible limbs woven into the spokes of the wheel. The whole mess is then raised on a spike. It could take days to die on the wheel. Was it a funny name? No, but I cannot forget it.

This is a good idea. When are you doing a store name listicle? ;-) I'm also fascinated by British pub names, especially ones that appear in Andy Capp comic strips, like The Dog and Duck.

Chinese restaurants have one key advantage. Two of my favourites are "Wok and Roll" and, in the seaside town of South West Rocks, "South West Woks". Both since renamed, sadly.

The shop names in the intros for Bob’s Burgers are pretty epic too!

Scene: kids are offering Gerhard Reinke money to go buy them beer from a shop. He takes their money, repeats what they want and walks away nodding. Then the voice over: "Of course I didn't use their money to buy beer -- for them!" and he's at a bar with a cold pint in front of him

Sorry I've got to my own suggestion so late on in the day, Patrick. If you don't mind my saying so it does seem a stretch to call it my suggestion as it's diverged quite markedly therefrom. But anyway, thanks for the video, which was both entertaining and informative. I seem to recall thinking it quite funny, around half-a-century ago, when a new development called The Pingle in the small town where quite a few relatives lived at the time - our bit of the family decamping northwards to mid-Derbyshire - Melbourne, had a shop called 'Ye Olde Village Shoppe'. As there was something of a Regency revival going on at the time, reflected in ladies' hairstyles, with twists down either side of the face being very popular - the Valérie Čižmárová for whom I run the Fan Blog, recently re-named from 'Bananas For Breakfast' to 'Hotlips On The Horse Tram' coming along with her Czechoslovak 'twist' thereof in late 1973 with a twist just on one side - and in glazing, with small window panes with a 'blown glass' effect in some panes, which featured heavily at The Pingle and at that shop, maybe the fake old-fashioned name was a way of itself reflecting the retro style in which the development was built. On Victoria Street, Derby - about mid-way between Belper and Melbourne - there was very briefly a footwear shop with a very good play on words inspired by The Rolling Stones' song, 'Ruby Tuesday', 'Ruby Shoesday', which brings up the recently sadly-departed Melanie (Safka), gone at the age of seventy-six, whose devastating cover of 'Ruby Tuesday' was so much better than the original, with all due respect to The Rolling Stones. It comes full-circle back to Valérie Čižmárová as, in the year she had that twist done, she covered Melanie's 'Stop! I Don't Wanna Hear It Anymore' as 'Sbohem, školní bráno' ('Farewell, School Gate').

I had a dog grooming building right next to my local Jumbo Pizza called The Dogfather.

We went to Germany on vacation last year, where we found a clothing store called "Ooh La La".

I work at Van's Dive Bar, and sometimes people make fun of having put "dive bar" into our name. To them? I say: "Phooey!"

Sneed’s Feed and Seed. Formerly Chuck’s.

Hair salon in Canada called Dewey, Cuttem, & Howe is one of my favourites

Eric coffee = King coffee

The Dew Drop Inn is a classic. My favorite has to be Dick's Liquor

There was a boom of small/medium cafes throughout the Philippines. Imagine a positive word ending in "-ty" and there's a decent chance it is turned into a milktea shop such as InfiniTea, Bon AppeTea, SereniTea, etc. I wonder if someone already made an adult tea shop named SexualiTea or something

In 1980s the local barber shop was named "Sweeney Todd". I wondered if it was for humour or they just picked a name after a barber.

My grandfather and great grandfathers menswear stores were called Finlayson’s Menswear (there last name were Finlayson). Basic, but it got the idea across)!

Ryby & Chips (an English-style fish&chip restaurant in Prague. "Ryby" means fish (plural).)

Try to guess what my local shop "For Emma" is selling It's a bakery that only sells baked goods that's gluten free

There's a dog groomer in South Phila called ”Doggie Style”

There used to be a pizza place in Burlington, VT called Bite Me.

Does it count if i only live in Oxfordshire half the time? Also as always, banging videos

On the other hand, gravestones have become a lot more plain... Literally and figuratively! Where are the inscriptions such as _Johanna Tschirrer 1815-1848 Housewife in retirement_ (well that's an early retirement!)

A couple in near where I live; Gamble accountants, Vile and Vile lawyers

In Southampton there is a bar called Sobar or Students Only Bar.

There's a restaurant called "Something Good"

I don't know, man. I'd shop at a store called 'Dough or Die'.

Now that ive seen this, i wonder if Smorfé is a good name for a s'mores café

Dumb or not they’re are a lot more unique and have more personality than just bakery or blank’s bakery imo

Tea puns are extremely common for milktea shops but they are a little too easy.

One of my favorites was a shoe repair place called "Viva Zapato." You need some basic knowledge of Spanish and of Mexican history to get it, but it's a great joke if you do.

A business near me is going the opposite direction, from a funny name to a serious, bland, uninformative name. They sell and repair hydraulic hoses, so of course they were originally called The House of Hose. That name was the inspiration for a lot of jokes. Then they changed it to ERIKS North America and just recently changed it again to LGG Industrial. II don't care what they are now, they'll always be the House of Hose to me.

I used to go to a mall woth a store called Lord of the Fries

Opening a new store soon!

Nightmares North Korea's Leading Bed Specialist

Because most names are already taken up so stores have to make new, unique and eye catching names that stand out to get costumers.

I saw a shop called Egg Sheeran lol

What a classic naming system

I sleep on a Nightmares mattress lol

Just letting any fellow blind American folk know. Currently, the book is not available on NLS BARD.

A ranbow to signify a die uh... what?

How could you not mention Bubbagump Shrimp?

ive came up with some names but becuase not rich AF someone else ofton gets the patant on the name, copyright is trash and is to protect the rich and has nothing to do with humbly protecting creators from thives.

It's an assumption that shop names were boring for so long. Even if something had a name that was silly to their contemporaries at the time it's possible that we just wouldnt get it now. You kinda just said it started in the 60s with no real references or anything. Humans have been human a long time. "A dog entered into a tavern and said, 'I cannot see anything. I shall open this one?'"

When did you start loving names and words

Are they available in France, Belgium or Germany? Asking for a friend :] (Said friend is me lol)

I am from Oxfordshire and I. Can confirm it is a very boring county 😭

I didn't realise how distracting a schwa-like sound at the end of a sentence could be.

My shop has the name of the town and the type of shop as the name

A hotdog vender in nyc

Ah, 7:36 looks like a jigsaw puzzle we once had.

My favourite is Hokey Poké selling poké

Not a funny name but thr best pizza you can get in the town, is just named. "Pizza"

I strongly support 'Flappy bird' vietnamese banh mi shop

Tom's Diner has entered the chat 😊

How about Tom Can Stuff It

What does the "Ф" in Fen TV mean? It means Fen TV 😂😂😂😂 Haha very obvious

I have a challenge for all of the like minded commentators. The etymology of my name is sent by God to be watchful. Or sent by God to be vigilant. WHAT IS MY NAME?

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Isn't your channel name less sophisticated too?

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When I see names like these I say to myself "I guess all the good names were taken." I say go ahead and blame the boomers, they used them all.

Why do you talk like thisuh

You're just a hater 🙄🙄🙄🙄

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