Want to start a franchise? Great! You’ll need to contact a franchise attorney or consultant; get your Franchise Disclosure Document and operations manual in order; and top it all off with loads of research and other preparation. You’ve also got one important question to answer: What will your franchise be called?

Make It Male
Want to lend some instant authority to your operation? Just take whatever service you offer and add “Mr.” to the front. This practice is especially popular among repair and maintenance services. For example, Mr. Transmission, Mr. Sandless, Mr. Handyman, Mr. Appliance, Mr. Electric and Mr. Rooter–all guys who by their very monikers sound like you can count on them to get the job done. Weed Man and Rooter-Man and even a few “Uncles” and “Grampa’s” can be found on thefranchisemall.com list as well.

Don’t forget the women!  Mrs. Fields, Mrs. Vanelli’s and Mrs. Powells are  examples. This would make one suspect that adding Mrs. in front of something cooked or maybe even hand-made would suggest an authority.  Auntie Anne’s Pretzels is quite successful.

Give It a Doctorate
Misters are nice, but for a real air of expertise, nothing beats a doctor. Once again, you’ll find this word particularly popular among repair and maintenance franchises, like Grout Doctor, Glass Doctor, Lawn Doctor, Duct Doctor and Dent Doctor. But there’s also Tutor Doctor (which offers to heal children’s grades?). And for a bit of a friendlier, country-doctor tone, you can always shorten it, as in the case of Doc Popcorn, Doc Greens and Doc Chey’s.

If doctors seem dull, why not knight your franchise? Grout-cleaning, chocolate and printing may not be quite on par with dragon-slaying and maiden-saving, but Sir Grout, Sir Chocolate and Sir Speedy are doing just fine as franchises.

Militarize
The few, the proud, the franchisees. Franchising and the military have much in common: strict systems to follow; the need for members who can be both leaders of their own teams and followers of those above them; and, of course, the uniforms. So it only makes sense that some franchisors use a military theme in naming their companies. Among them: Lawn Army, Maid Brigade and Squeegee Squad. All give the impression of highly trained teams ready and willing to make the world a better place by fighting the forces of weeds, dust and dirty windows, respectively.

An added note here: a large base to draw from is Veterans looking to become franchisees. Give these veterans a break, they deserve it. Give them a reduced franchise fee. It may be the best investment you ever made. Chances are they will serve your franchise as well as they did your country.

And Today’s Letter Is …?
For a while, E and I were pretty hot when it came to letters, especially in their lowercase forms–for obvious reasons in our digital culture. Youth sports franchise i9 Sports and others like iTan and iPreserve are all that remains of that trend. So what will be the next hot letter for franchise names? The submissions to this year’s Franchise 500© provide a few clues.

The next heavy hitter may be D–if D Pet Hotels and D-BAT Academies are any indication. N seems popular as well, thanks to its ability to stand in for multiletter syllables like en and even end. Case in point: N-Hance, NRgize Lifestyle Cafe and N Zone Sports. (Is there a new character limit for franchise names we haven’t heard about, or is this all Twitter’s doing?)

Then there’s Z. You’ll find it leading the way in zpizza and the brand-new Zloop Computer and Electronics Recycling Centers. It seems comfortable bringing up the rear, just like it does in the alphabet. Then there’s the adage it means “the be-all and end-all”. Also it often stands in when S just doesn’t seem quite edgy enough. Unsurprisingly, this tactic is most popular among franchises that aim to appeal to kidz.

When I’m bored with results on Poker Stars I often call it JokerStarzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Count On It
Numbers have become quite popular in franchise names, too.

Established franchises like Motel 6, Motel 8 and 7-Eleven cling to their names despite the fact that those numbers no longer represent what they once did. (When Motel 6 started out, its room rate was $6 a night; and 7-Eleven was originally open–you guessed it–from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.)

Burger 21 features 21 varieties of burgers.  i9 Sports, as well as kickboxing franchise 9Round. (Apparently 9 is a particularly sporty number.) The number 1 is predictably popular; just ask Honest-1 Auto Care, A-1 Concrete Leveling, Restoration 1 and 1st Inspection Services. It looks like 2 is done playing second banana, thanks to its ability to stand in for “to” in names like Games2U, Assist-2-Sell and Live 2 B Healthy Senior Fitness.

1-800 franchises have become quite popular recently. This would especially be good for your franchise if you could also acquire the corresponding 1-800 telephone number.

Show Some Enthusiasm
You want your customers and potential franchisees to be excited about your business, right? Well, it just takes one simple ingredient to show them that they should be: an exclamation point!

Perhaps because dogs respond positively when their owners show enthusiasm (even if they’re enthusiastically saying, “Time for a bath!” or “Let’s go see the vet!”), the exclamation point seems especially popular among pet franchises, such as Fetch! Pet Care and Dogs Love Running!

There are plenty of exclamatory franchise names aimed at humans as well, especially when the services or products they offer just aren’t that exciting on their own. Tutoring service Club Z! appears to hope that an exclamation point (along with the ever-popular Z) will make kids think tutoring sounds less like extra schoolwork and more like fun. Zoup! (there’s that Z again) and Juice It Up! use exclamation points to lend intrigue to foods that might otherwise seem mundane. “Like watching paint dry” is a popular way to describe something boring, so it’s no surprise that 1-888-Wow-1Day! Painting felt the need to spice things up a bit. And results, a fairly ho-hum word on its own, gains power through punctuation at Results! Travel.

Other punctuation marks aren’t nearly as popular. You’ll find only one question mark on this year’s list, in the dare-to-be-different 1-800-Got-Junk? Just don’t try a combination of exclamation marks. You know that would not appeal to many customers.

Many who want to franchise think that their business has succeeded and that it is now time to franchise. It’s the business they have built. It should have their name. Rightfully so. There are many successful franchises named after the founder.

So, soon-to-be franchisor, we hope this look at some of the past and present trends in franchise names will inspire a few ideas for your own important step in building a brand.

Just don’t forget to pay as much attention to all the other steps that come with it. A bad name is probably the easiest mistake to correct when it comes to your franchising journey–dozens of companies change their names every year.

After all, a franchise by any other name would smell as sweet … especially one that sells popcorn. You know you can smell popcorn throughout the entire mall.