SMALL businesses are now choosing business names that reflect their products and services, rather than picking a name that is connected to their family, according to new research from Royal Mail.

The number of small firms starting out with a family name over the door is in decline, and nowhere more so than in the North-west.

More than 40 per cent of small businesses established before 1980 are named after a family name.

That figure falls to only 14 per cent among businesses established after 1995. Just 12 per cent of the North-west's small businesses have a family name today -- the lowest level in the UK.