After managing the Romance Bookstore Directory for almost a year and a half, I’ve noticed there’s a lot of duplication when it comes to romance bookstore names.
I decided to analyze the 550 bookstores in the directory (as of September 30, 2026) to determine the most common words and names used.
Naming Tips
Before I dive into the findings, here are a few tips when it comes to bookstore names:
Do your research. Use the Romance Bookstore Directory as a research tool! Be sure to also conduct thorough internet searches, check local business directories and registries, and reserve available internet domains and social media handles before finalizing your name.
Think big. I’ve heard the argument that duplication is fine as long as the stores aren’t in the same state/country or same industry. While this may avoid potential trademark issues, remember that the internet is global and having stores with the same name can hurt your SEO and confuse customers, even if they’re physically located far apart or in different industries.
Make it obvious. To help differentiate between duplicate names, make your location clear on your homepage and in your social media bios. This includes clearly listing your state and country, as not everyone will be familiar with local descriptors or abbreviations.
Methodology
A few points about my methodology:
I excluded the most obvious words from this analysis, including:
romance
book/books
bookshop, bookstore, librarie (French for bookstore), and other nouns that identify the type of store (boutique, cafe, library, mobile, truck, etc.).
I only counted stores with multiples locations once.
I included variations of the words as indicated with brackets in the counts.
I included nested and compound words in the counts, such as Lovestruck for Love or Unbound and Lovebound for Bound.
Love and Lover are the only nested words that I counted separately.
33 Most Common Words
Here are the 33 most common words in romance bookstores names.
Given that there are numerous ties on the list, the words are ranked alphabetically within each tied group for the sake of simplicity.
Love - 42 stores
Chapter(s)- 31 stores
Page(s) - 25 stores
Read(s) - 19 stores
Bound - 18 stores
Blush(ing) - 15 stores
Ink(ed) - 14 stores
Shelf - 14 stores
Fiction - 13 stores
Spice or Spicy - 13 stores
Lit - 11 stores
Cover(s) - 10 stores
Lover(s) - 10 stores
Novel(s) - 9 stores
Girl(s) - 8 stores
Romantic(s) - 8 stores
Sweet(er) - 8 stores
Burn(ing) - 7 stores
Forbidden - 7 stores
Good - 7 stores
Swoon - 7 stores
Little(st) - 6 stores
Lore - 6 stores
Nook - 6 stores
Romantasy - 6 stores
Trope(s) - 6 stores
Affair(s) - 5 stores
Bad - 5 stores
Enchanted - 5 stores
Ivy - 5 stores
Quill - 5 stores
Spine - 5 stores
TBR - 5 stores
Those are the 33 most common words, but what are the most common names? I cover that in the next section, but you’ll have to be a paid subscriber to find out! For just US$5/month or US$50/year you can access all my paid content.