1) The names "Church of God", "Church of Christ", "Assemblies of God" and "Assemblies of Christ" are used by existing denominations. An independent group may wish to avoid those names simply to avoid being confused with those denominations.

2) Believers are much less unified than they were in the first century. One independent congregation usually does not represent the entire Church in a particular geographic area. There are many other believers in Seattle who do not attend "The Church of God in Seattle".

These problems can be avoided by calling the group a "Fellowship", "Congregation" or "Meeting" rather than "the Church". Greatly limiting the geographic area can also help. The Market Street Seattle Fellowship" is more accurate. It does not claim to define who is in the Church at all—it just declares that certain people get together to fellowship at that place. This kind of name may sound too local or too humble, but that may be exactly what you want: a local, humble group through which God can do great things.

You want to avoid using the same name as another group both to avoid confusion and prevent legal problems. If you include a place-name in your title, it is much easier to be sure you are not duplicating someone else's name—you need only look in your local phonebooks and newspaper church listings to be sure that you are not duplicating another group's name. (If you do not include a place name, e.g. "Congregation of the Almighty God", you would have to search your entire state or country to avoid a name conflict.) To be very diligent in verifying that you are not using another group's name, you can check (in the USA) with your state's Secretary of State to find if you are duplicating a corporate name. Also, counties, cities and states keep records of DBA ("Doing Business As") names.

This author highly recommends that congregations not be named after leaders, dead or alive (1Cor 1:11–17; 3:1–10). Also, do not name a congregation after a particular doctrine or practice (baptism, form of government, speaking in tongues, etc.). While many groups do this, it tends to serve as a point of division. By placing a doctrine in the name, it may attract people who already believe the doctrine, but it will discourage those who do not believe it. Yet, if the doctrine is true, the very ones who need to hear it are those who do not yet believe it. For example, a person who does not believe in baptism might avoid the Hill Street Baptist Church, but be willing to attend the Hill Street Congregation and learn about baptism when someone there simply decides to teach about it.