I'm starting a mineral makeup business and need name suggestions!?

Since any names that are suggested here may already be owned by another party, I wanted to go a different route...

Here's a few things to keep in mind:

1) Keep your industry, your clients/customers, your advertising plan in mind.

2) The more unique & distinctive a name, the higher the chances that the name is legally available for use. And the higher the chances of obtaining the trademark.

3) Think of your business as having a personality. What kind of image do you want your business to portray?

Specific brainstorming tips:

Think about what you want but more importantly, think about what you DON'T want. If you don't want a 3-word name, don't bother with those. If you don't want non-English words, don't bother with those & so on and so forth.

What are the "types" of names you like? Think about words in their simple forms, e.g. adjectives, Latin roots, mythological names, etc. Compile a listing of the types & then seek out resources, such as books or sites, which specialize in those types.

Here are some links where you can do some preliminary name checking:

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=tbmkb6.1.1 -- USPTO â€“ Preliminary Search of Federal trademarks
http://biztaxlaw.about.com/od/research/a/Sec_of_state.htm --Go to your state's Secretary of State page to see if they have a searchable database of business names
http://www.hoovers.com/free/
http://www.thomasnet.com â€“ Must register (free) to search their database

However, please be aware that this is merely scratching the surface of what's out there.

Only comprehensive research will tell you if the name is truly available. But, these links are free & a great place to start, so I'd try them out first. This entails searching the pending & registered Federal and State trademark files as well as the US National Common-Law files. Then, if clear, you can decide if you would like to file for a Federal or a State trademark.

There are other sites that offer free searching capabilities in conjunction with their commercial services, so I'm not able to post those links due to the Yahoo! TOS. You'll also want to check domain names & yellow pages, so simply do a search for "free domain name search" and "national yellowpages" and the appropriate links will pop up.

Hope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!