130 Pizzeria Name Ideas, and How to Use the Italian Correctly

Short answer: A good pizzeria name is short, easy to say over the phone, and tells people it's a pizza place before they open the menu. It also has to be free to use as a trademark, company name, domain and social handle where you trade. If you use Italian, match the article to the noun (il forno, la pala, lo spicchio) and check what the word means to an Italian speaker. Below are 130 ideas in 10 styles, a short guide to Italian pizza words, reusable name formulas, and the checks to run before you order the sign and the boxes.

Key takeaways

• Name the pizza you bake. Neapolitan, Roman al taglio, New York slices and Detroit pans each have their own vocabulary, and people who know the difference notice a name borrowed from the wrong style.
• Italian articles follow the gender and first letter of the noun: il forno, la teglia, lo spicchio, l'impasto. "Il Pizza" and "La Forno" are mistakes any Italian customer will spot.
• In the EU, "Pizza Napoletana" has been a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed with reservation of name since 18 December 2022. The term may only be used for pizza made to the registered specification.
• Search trademarks (your national office, EUIPO and TMview, USPTO), the company register, domains, handles and Google Maps before you print anything.
• These names are starting points. Any of them may already be in use near you, so check before you commit.

In this guide

• How to name a pizzeria in 8 steps
• 130 pizzeria name ideas
• Neapolitan and Italian-word names
• Wood-fired oven and fire names
• Dough and fermentation names
• Family and surname names
• Neighbourhood and slice-shop names
• Roman al taglio names
• New York-style pizza shop names
• Detroit-style and pan pizza names
• Modern and minimal names
• Playful and pun names
• Using Italian words correctly
• Pizzeria name formulas
• Checks before you commit
• FAQ

How to name a pizzeria in 8 steps

The method is the same one we use in the café names guide, adjusted for pizza.

1. Decide what comes out of the oven. A 60-seat wood-fired Neapolitan room, a slice counter open until 2 a.m. and a Roman shop selling pizza by weight need different names. Write your concept in one line before you brainstorm.
2. Decide how Italian you want to sound. An Italian name signals tradition. In Italy it also puts you next to a lot of similar signs, and abroad it has to be easy to say for people who don't speak Italian.
3. List 20 to 30 words. Pull them from the oven and its fuel, the dough, your street or neighbourhood, a family name, a local landmark and the toppings you want to be known for.
4. Combine them with the formulas below until you have 30 to 40 candidates.
5. Cut the hard ones. Drop anything over three words, anything a caller would have to spell out, and anything that sounds like a pizzeria you already know.
6. Do the phone test. If you take phone orders, say each name to someone who has never heard it and ask them to write it down. If they can't, people searching for you later will struggle too.
7. Run the availability checks on your shortlist: trademarks, company register, domain, handles and Google Maps.
8. Mock up the last three on a pizza box lid, the shop sign, a 100-pixel profile picture and a delivery app tile. Keep the one that still works when it's small.

130 pizzeria name ideas

Neapolitan and Italian-word pizzeria names

Italian pizza vocabulary makes good names because each word points at something specific in the craft. We checked the less common words against the Treccani dictionary. Pair a common word with a second word or a number, because a bare word like forno describes every pizzeria and is hard to tell apart from the next one.

Wood-fired oven and fire names

1. Ember & Peel
2. Firebrick Pizza
3. Woodsmoke Pizzeria
4. Oak & Ash Pizza
5. The Dome Oven
6. Hearthside Pizza
7. Ashwood Pizzeria
8. Flame & Flour
9. Kindling Pizza Co.
10. Ninety Seconds
11. Coal & Crust
12. Leopard Crust
13. 450 Degrees
14. Open Flame Pizza

Use fire words only if there is a fire. A guest who reads "Woodsmoke" on the sign and then sees an electric deck oven behind the counter will feel misled, and may say so in a review.

Dough and fermentation names

1. Long Rise Pizzeria
2. Proofed
3. Cold Proof Pizza
4. Madre Pizza (after lievito madre, an Italian name for sourdough starter)
5. Forty-Eight Hours
6. Hand Stretched Pizza
7. Dough Ball Pizza Co.
8. Knead Pizza
9. Stretch & Fold Pizza
10. Slow Dough
11. Crumb & Crust
12. Bench Rest Pizza

A number in the name is a promise. Call the place Forty-Eight Hours only if every batch of dough really rests that long.

Family and surname pizzeria names

Da plus a first name means "at [name]'s place", and it's the classic formula for an Italian pizzeria or trattoria. It works best with a less common first name, since the most common ones are already on many signs. The family words: zio is uncle, nonna grandmother, fratelli brothers, figli sons or children, sorelle sisters, cugini cousins.

1. Da Rosetta
2. Da Zio Tonino
3. Pizzeria Nonna Ines
4. Fratelli Ruggi
5. Ianniello & Figli
6. Sorelle Cantone
7. Cugini Pizza
8. Casa Ferrandi
9. Da Papà Elio
10. Mamma Tina
11. Due Sorelle
12. The Galli Family Pizzeria

Before you put a relative's name on the sign, agree in writing who owns the name if the business is ever sold or the family splits.

Neighbourhood and slice-shop names

1. Corner Pie Shop
2. Block Party Pizza
3. Two Doors Pizza
4. Stoop Slice
5. Late Bus Pizza
6. Main Street Pie Co.
7. Neighbourhood Pie
8. Window Slice
9. Pizza on Elm (use your own street)
10. The Slice Counter
11. Night Shift Pizza
12. Back Lane Pizza

Roman al taglio pizzeria names

Treccani describes pizza a taglio (also al taglio, or a metro) as pizza laid out in rectangular trays and sold by weight. The Roman vocabulary gives you names that sound nothing like a Neapolitan place.

New York-style pizza shop names

New York-style pizza is a large, thin, hand-tossed pie, usually sold in wide slices that people fold to eat. The slice-shop vocabulary gives you plenty to work with.

1. Fold Line Pizza
2. Plain Slice Co.
3. Paper Plate Pizza
4. Eighteen Inch
5. Borough Slice
6. Grandma Square
7. Garlic Knot Pizza Co.
8. Slice & Soda
9. Uptown Pie
10. Big Pie Pizza

Detroit-style and pan pizza names

Detroit-style pizza is rectangular and baked in a high-sided steel pan. The cheese, often brick cheese, goes right to the edges and caramelises into a crisp rim called frico. The sauce often goes on last in stripes, which is why the style is sometimes called "red top".

1. Red Top Pizza
2. Frico Edge
3. Racing Stripe Pizza
4. Brick & Pan
5. Square Deal Pizza
6. Steel Pan Pizza Co.
7. Corner Piece
8. All Corners Pizza
9. Deep Edge Pizza
10. Crisp Edge Pizza

Modern and minimal pizzeria names

1. Tondo (Italian for round)
2. Forma
3. Cerchio (circle)
4. Doppio (double)
5. Pie Room
6. Oven Room
7. Plain Pizza Co.
8. Ash
9. Base
10. North Pie
11. Slab
12. Disco (Italian for disc, and for a record)
13. Venti (twenty)
14. Pala

One-word names need help elsewhere. "Ash" on its own could be a bar or a florist, so put "pizza" on the awning, the profile and the box.

Playful and pun pizzeria names

1. Crust Issues
2. Slice of Life
3. Pie Society
4. Pie Fidelity
5. Saucy Pie
6. Pie Hard
7. Pie Chart
8. Dough Getter
9. Slice Slice Baby
10. Basil Instinct
11. Sauce Boss
12. Crust Fund
13. Pizza la Vista
14. Grate Expectations

About pun names: puns like these are popular, so expect to find several already trading when you search, which makes them harder to register and easier to confuse. They also rarely survive translation. An Italian or Portuguese customer won't hear the joke in "Basil Instinct", so if many of your guests don't speak English, an Italian-word or descriptive name will do more for you.

Using Italian words correctly

An Italian name on a sign is read by Italians too, including tourists, staff and suppliers. A few rules cover most pizzeria names.

Match the article to the noun

Every Italian noun is masculine or feminine, and the article changes with the gender and with the first letter of the word:

The Italian plural of pizza is pizze. In an English name, "pizzas" is fine.

Make adjectives agree

Adjectives take the gender and number of their noun: forno rosso, pala romana, pizze buone. "Forno Rossa" and "Pala Romano" read as errors. Bello and buono also shorten before a masculine noun: Bel Forno, Buon Impasto.

Mistakes that show up on pizzeria signs

Check what the word means to an Italian

• Forno means oven, and by extension a bakery, the shop where bread is baked and sold. In Italy, "Forno" on a sign can read as a bakery, which suits a shop that sells pizza by the slice alongside bread.
• Spicchio is a wedge: a segment of an orange, a clove of garlic, a slice of a round cake or pizza. For a rectangular al taglio portion, trancio fits better.
• Impasto is dough, or any kneaded mixture. Italian and English also use it as a painting term, so art-minded customers may read it that way.
• Lievito is yeast or leavening. Lievito di birra is baker's yeast. Lievito naturale, which many bakers call lievito madre, is a sourdough starter made from flour and water.
• Bottega is a craftsman's shop or workshop, a more modest word than negozio (shop). It suits a pizzeria that wants to sound handmade.
• Vicolo is a narrow street, but vicolo cieco means a dead end. Keep "cieco" out of the name.
• Pizzaiuolo is the Neapolitan form of pizzaiolo, a pizza maker. UNESCO uses it in the "Art of Neapolitan 'Pizzaiuolo'", added to its intangible cultural heritage list in 2017.

If nobody on your team speaks Italian, pay a native speaker to read your shortlist. It costs far less than a new sign.

Protected names to keep off the sign

• Pizza Napoletana. The EU registered it as a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed in 2010, and since 18 December 2022 the name has been reserved (Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/2313). The EU IP Helpdesk explains that the term may now only be used when the pizza meets the product specification. If you don't follow that specification, describe your pizza another way, and talk to a lawyer before you build a brand on the term.
• Vera Pizza Napoletana. The Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN), founded in Naples in 1984, describes "Vera Pizza Napoletana" as its collective mark, used under its own regulations. Leave the phrase out unless the AVPN has certified you.

Pizzeria name formulas

If your pizzeria doubles as a wine bar, the bar names guide covers the drinks side. Selling from a van or trailer? The food truck names guide deals with names that have to read on the side of a vehicle. For name ideas written in Italian for trattorias, osterie and bars, see our Italian list of restaurant names.

Checks before you commit

Run every check on your final three names.

1. Trademarks

Search for identical and similar names. Trademark offices use the Nice classification: class 43 covers restaurant and take-away restaurant services, and class 30 lists pizzas as goods, which matters if you ever plan to sell frozen pizza or jarred sauce.

A trademark lawyer can tell you how close is too close before you spend money on signage.

2. Company register

Check your national company register (in Italy, the Registro delle Imprese) for businesses already trading under the name, and confirm you can register it as your trade name.

3. Domain

Check the .com and your country domain. Apostrophes and accents disappear in web addresses, so "Spicchio d'Oro" becomes spicchiodoro. Make sure the result still reads well.

4. Social handles

Search Instagram, TikTok and Facebook for the handle. If the exact name is taken, adding your city or "pizza" is fine, as long as the handle stays easy to type.

5. Google Maps and delivery apps

Search the name in your city and the next towns over. Google's Business Profile rules say the name on your listing must match your real-world name as used on your storefront, and they don't allow extra keywords in the name field. If you want "Pizzeria" in the listing, it has to be part of the name on the sign.

6. Pronunciation

Ask people who don't speak Italian to read the name out loud. Words like cornicione and scugnizza are hard for many English speakers to say; pala and tondo are easy. Then ask an Italian speaker whether the name sounds natural.

7. The box test

Print the name on a pizza box lid, look at the sign from across the street, and shrink the logo to a 100-pixel avatar. Long names and thin script fonts fail all three.

How Menumigo fits

Once you have the name, the next place guests see it is your menu.

• Your pizzeria's name, logo and banner on a menu page that guests open from a QR code on the table, the counter or the pizza box.
• Change a price or hide a pizza when you run out of an ingredient, from your phone. The QR code stays the same, so you print it once.
• Tags for all 14 EU allergens on every item. Cereals containing gluten and milk are on that list, and they're in most pizzas.
• Menus in 20+ languages. The free plan includes two.
• The free plan has no time limit and needs no card: one venue, unlimited menu items, one menu QR code, menus in two languages, 5 AI menu imports and 10 AI translations a month, logo and banner. Every new restaurant gets 7 days of Pro first. Pro costs €19 a month or €180 a year (October 2026).
• Menumigo is a browse-only menu. It doesn't take orders or payments and doesn't connect to a POS, so keep your ordering setup for that.

See how it works for a pizza restaurant, or create your menu free.

FAQ

What is a good name for a pizzeria?

A good pizzeria name is one to three words, easy to say and spell over the phone, and tells people it's a pizza place. It should fit the style you bake and be free as a trademark, domain and social handle. Examples: "Pala & Brace" for a wood-fired Neapolitan room, "Trancio" for a Roman al taglio shop, "Red Top Pizza" for Detroit-style squares.

How do I come up with a unique pizza shop name?

Write your concept in one line, list 20 to 30 words linked to it (oven, dough, street, family name, toppings), and combine them with formulas such as "Da + first name", "tool & fire" or "place + pie". Then search trademark registers, the company register, domains, handles and Google Maps to confirm nobody nearby is using it.

Should a pizzeria name be in Italian?

It doesn't have to be. An Italian name signals tradition and suits Neapolitan or Roman pizza, but it must be grammatically right and easy for your customers to say. New York-style and Detroit-style shops usually suit English names built from the slice and pan vocabulary of those styles.

Can I use "Napoletana" in my pizzeria's name?

In the EU, "Pizza Napoletana" is a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed with reservation of name, so the term may only be used for pizza made to the registered specification. "Vera Pizza Napoletana" is also the collective mark of the AVPN. If you want a reference to Naples in your name, ask a trademark lawyer in your country before you commit.

How do I check if a pizzeria name is already taken?

Search your national trademark office and EUIPO (in the EU), the UK IPO or USPTO for similar names in class 43 (restaurant services). Then check your company register, domain availability, Instagram and TikTok handles, Google Maps and the delivery apps in your area.

Should a pizzeria name include the word "pizza"?

It helps when the rest of the name doesn't say what you sell. "Tondo" alone could be anything, while "Tondo Pizza" is clear. On Google Maps the listing name has to match the name on your sign, so if you want "pizza" to show there, it needs to be part of your real name.

Sources

• Treccani, Vocabolario: forno. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/forno/
• Treccani, Vocabolario: pizza (pizza a taglio, a metro; pizza bianca and rossa). https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/pizza/
• Treccani, Vocabolario: spicchio. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/spicchio/
• Treccani, Vocabolario: trancio. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/trancio/
• Treccani, Vocabolario: bottega. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/bottega/
• Treccani, Vocabolario: impasto. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/impasto2/
• Treccani, Vocabolario: lievito. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/lievito2/
• Treccani, Vocabolario: cornicione. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/cornicione/
• Treccani, Vocabolario: pala. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/pala1/
• Treccani, Vocabolario: teglia. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/teglia/
• Treccani, Vocabolario: pizzaiolo and alla pizzaiola. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/pizzaiolo/
• Treccani, Vocabolario: pummarola. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/pummarola/
• Treccani, Vocabolario: scugnizzo. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/scugnizzo/
• Treccani, Vocabolario: vicolo. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/vicolo/
• Treccani, Vocabolario: infornata. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/infornata/
• Treccani, Vocabolario: mezzogiorno. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/mezzogiorno/
• Treccani, Vocabolario: tufo. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/tufo1/
• Treccani, Vocabolario: legna. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/legna/
• Treccani, Vocabolario: brace. https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/brace/
• Larousse, Italian-English dictionary: etto. https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/italien-anglais/etto/15035
• Wikipedia (Italian), Lievito madre. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lievito_madre
• Priberam, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa: pizzaria. https://dicionario.priberam.org/pizzaria
• Scatti di Gusto, types of Neapolitan pizza (pizza a portafoglio). https://www.scattidigusto.it/2022/10/04/tipi-di-pizza-napoletana/
• Wikipedia, Detroit-style pizza. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit-style_pizza
• Wikipedia, New York-style pizza. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York%E2%80%93style_pizza
• EUR-Lex, Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/2313 (Pizza Napoletana, TSG with reservation of name). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2022/2313/oj/eng
• European Commission, IP Helpdesk: TSG Pizza Napoletana. https://intellectual-property-helpdesk.ec.europa.eu/news-events/news/tsg-pizza-napoletana-juventus-fc-and-nfts-pasapalabra-case-2022-12-02_en
• Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, about the association. https://www.pizzanapoletana.org/en/chi_siamo
• UNESCO, Art of Neapolitan "Pizzaiuolo". https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/art-of-neapolitan-pizzaiuolo-00722
• WIPO, Nice Classification, class 43. https://nclpub.wipo.int/enfr/?class_number=43&lang=en&menulang=en&mode=flat&explanatory_notes=show
• WIPO, Nice Classification, class 30. https://nclpub.wipo.int/enfr/?class_number=30&lang=en&menulang=en&mode=flat&explanatory_notes=show
• EUIPO, eSearch plus trade mark database. https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/
• TMview, trade mark search across participating offices. https://www.tmdn.org/tmview/
• UIBM, Italian trade mark database. https://www.uibm.gov.it/bancadati/
• UK IPO, search for a trade mark. https://www.gov.uk/search-for-trademark
• USPTO, trademark search. https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search
• Registro Imprese, Italian business register. https://www.registroimprese.it/
• Google Business Profile, guidelines for representing your business. https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177