Naming guide
“Taken” means more than a registered domain. Before you buy a domain, print anything, or file a trademark, run these six checks on every name on your shortlist.
Look up the .com first, then the extensions your category uses (.io, .app, .dev, .ai). A registrar search or an RDAP lookup tells you whether the domain is registered.
What to watch for: A registered domain is not always in use, and an available one does not mean the name is free to use. A parked or for-sale .com is a cost question; an active business on it is a collision question.
Use the USPTO's Trademark Search application. Search the exact name, then spelling and sound-alike variants, and open each live record in TSDR to read its goods and services and its status.
What to watch for: An exact match is not the only risk. A similar mark for related goods or services can also block you, while an identical mark for something unrelated may not. Dead (abandoned or cancelled) records are usually lower risk.
Search GitHub, Apple's App Store, Reddit, Product Hunt, and Crunchbase for the name. In the U.S., a business can build trademark rights simply by using a name, without ever registering it.
What to watch for: This is the check most people skip, and it is invisible to a USPTO search. An established product already using the name in your category is the conflict most likely to force a rename later.
If you are shipping an app, search the App Store and Google Play for the exact name and close variants.
What to watch for: Store listings are where customers will compare you side by side, so a same-name app in your category is both a legal and a discovery problem.
Look up the handle on the platforms you will market on, such as Instagram, TikTok, and GitHub.
What to watch for: A taken handle is usually a nuisance, not a blocker; you can add a suffix. Treat it as a soft signal unless the account is an active brand in your space.
Search the bare name in a search engine and note who owns the first page of results.
What to watch for: A name can be legally open and still be unwinnable in search if a large company, a common word, or a popular product already owns the results.
Federal search details are in our guide to searching USPTO trademarks. If you already used a free name generator's checker, see what free checks usually skip.
NameVerdict checks domains, live USPTO records, unregistered use, social handles, search results, and category collisions for the product you describe, then gives each name a GREEN, YELLOW, or RED verdict with the evidence. $39 for one name, $99 for up to five. It is a preliminary screen, not legal advice.
Not necessarily. Domain availability only tells you nobody registered that exact web address. A business can still own trademark rights in the name through a federal registration or through unregistered use, and those rights do not depend on the domain.
A state business-entity registration lets you operate under that legal name in that state. It is not a trademark search and does not by itself give you trademark rights or prevent a conflict with an existing mark.
For a name you will invest in, an attorney's clearance search and opinion is the reliable answer. The checks on this page are a preliminary screen: they are for eliminating obvious conflicts cheaply, so you only pay for legal work on names that survive.
Done by hand, the six checks typically take an hour or more per name, and the trademark and common-law steps are the slowest to judge. NameVerdict runs all six for a shortlist and returns a report in about a minute per name.