How to check a startup name before you commit
A name only becomes a problem after you have built on it: the .com turned out to be taken, or a company in your category already holds the trademark, and now the rebrand lands on your contracts and your homepage. Two checks, run before you decide, remove almost all of that risk. Here is how to do both, by hand and automatically.
Step 1. Confirm the .com is actually free
Start with the domain, because it is the fastest disqualifier. The trap is that a name can look available in a registrar search box and still be parked, premium-priced, or freshly dropped and about to be re-registered. The reliable signal is the registry itself. A registry check (RDAP, the modern replacement for WHOIS) tells you whether the .com is genuinely unregistered right now, not whether a reseller is willing to sell it to you for four figures.
Why insist on the .com at all? For most software and consumer businesses it remains the default a customer types and a partner links to. A hyphen, an alternate extension, or a near-miss spelling all leak the same message: the real name was already gone. If the .com is taken and not for sale at a price you accept, treat the name as taken and move on. Good available .coms do not stay available long, so when you find one, claim it quickly.
Step 2. Screen the name against the US and EU trademark registers
A free .com tells you nothing about whether someone already owns the name as a brand. That is a separate search, against the trademark registers: the USPTO in the United States and the EUIPO in the European Union. What you are running is a knockout search, a fast pass to eliminate the names that clearly collide before you invest in any of them.
Three things make a knockout search useful rather than naive:
- Exact and similar spellings. An identical mark is the obvious conflict, but registers also protect confusingly similar marks, so near-spellings matter.
- Phonetic matches. Conflicts are judged partly on how a name sounds, not only on how it is spelled. “Kandid” and “Candid” can collide. A search that ignores sound misses real risk.
- Class of goods and services. Trademarks are granted per Nice class, so the same word can be held by unrelated businesses in unrelated fields. The conflict that matters is one in, or near, your own category.
Read the result as a signal, not a verdict. A clean search means no direct or similar conflicts surfaced in your class, which is your cue to keep going. A surfaced conflict means change the name or take advice before you commit. What an automated search cannot do is clear a name for use: it surfaces potential conflicts, it does not certify their absence. A name used in a different industry may be open to you, or it may not, and a famous mark can reach beyond its own class. When the answer matters, that judgment belongs to a qualified trademark attorney.
Step 3. Combine the two into a go or no-go
A name worth keeping clears both checks at once: the .com is free, and no trademark conflict surfaces in your category. Treat them as a single gate. A great name with a taken .com is a future compromise; a free .com on a name someone already owns as a mark is a future rebrand. Only the names that pass both are worth your attention, and among those the .com is the clock: register it before someone else does.
Do both automatically
This is exactly what startupnamegenerator is built to do. The generator only shows names whose .com is available at generation time, so step one is already handled for every name you see. The Name Check runs the same name against the US and EU registers with exact, phonetic, and fuzzy matching, so step two is one click. Any model can suggest names; the part that protects you is verifying the .com is free and screening the trademark, and that is the part this tool does.
If you build with AI agents, the same three operations, generate names, check a .com, and screen a name against the US and EU registers, are exposed as an MCP server and HTTP API, so the assistant doing your research can call them directly instead of guessing.
Questions, answered
How do I check if a startup name is available?
Availability has two parts. First the domain: check the name's .com against the registry, not a reseller search box, because parked or premium-priced domains can look free when they are not. Second the trademark: search the name against the US (USPTO) and EU (EUIPO) registers in your category. A name is only worth keeping when both come back clean.
How do I check if a name is trademarked for free?
Search the public registers directly: the USPTO trademark database for the US and EUIPO eSearch for the EU. Run the exact spelling plus obvious sound-alikes, and look within the class of goods or services you operate in. startupnamegenerator automates this as a single knockout search across both registers, free once a day. It surfaces potential conflicts; it is not legal clearance.
Does my startup's .com really need to be available?
For most software and consumer companies, yes. The .com is still the default a customer types and a journalist links. A hyphen, an alternate extension, or a near-miss spelling all quietly signal that the real name was already gone. This is why the generator only shows names whose .com is free at generation time.
Can I use a name that is trademarked in a different industry?
Sometimes. Trademark rights are granted per class of goods and services, so the same word can be held by unrelated businesses in unrelated classes. But the lines between classes are not always obvious, and a famous mark can reach beyond its own class. A registry search shows you the conflicts; whether you can safely proceed is a question for a trademark attorney.
Is a registry search the same as legal clearance?
No. An automated registry search finds direct and similar matches quickly, which is how you eliminate bad names early. It is not a clearance opinion, not a guarantee, and not legal advice. Before you file the mark or print the name on contracts, have a qualified attorney run full clearance.
Naming the company you are betting on, not just a side project? Nomenco runs the full process, naming territories, trademark-aware shortlisting, brand direction, and a decision matrix, as one project for $1,900. See Nomenco.
Trademark results are an automated database search against the USPTO and EUIPO registries, not legal advice and not a clearance opinion. Registries change daily; results are dated. Before filing, have counsel run full clearance.