How to name a business: a step-by-step process, from naming brief to trademark search

The short answer

Write a one-page naming brief first, then generate names in three or four distinct creative territories and keep the ones that are suggestive, arbitrary or invented, because those are the strong end of the USPTO's spectrum; descriptive names are weak and generic ones can't be registered. Screen every finalist for sound, spelling and meaning in each language you'll sell in, then for domains, company registries and trademarks in each market. Test two or three finalists with real people and have a trademark lawyer clear the winner before you announce it.

Expect the exact .com to be gone. On 17 October 2026 we looked up 28 dictionary words and 13 short invented words, and every one was registered as .com. The data is below.

This guide covers the process. For what naming agencies, contests and trademark filings cost, see how much a naming agency costs. It isn't legal advice.

Step 1: Write the naming brief

Most naming arguments are really arguments about an unwritten brief. Write it down and get it approved before anyone suggests a name, so candidates are judged against criteria rather than taste.

If the brief says you'll sell in three languages, every later check has to cover all three. Dardo's brand naming service starts from the same fields.

Step 2: Choose the kind of name

The US Patent and Trademark Office arranges names on a scale from distinctive to generic. Its examining manual (TMEP, May 2026 edition) puts arbitrary or fanciful marks at one end, then suggestive, then merely descriptive matter, then generic terms, and it judges each name only in relation to the specific goods or services.

The examples come from the USPTO's strong trademarks page and the TMEP. The same word moves along the scale with the goods: the USPTO notes that an apple orchard couldn't register "apple" for apples, while Apple is registered for computers.

Other markets reason the same way. In Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia, the Andean Community's Decisión 486 (article 135) bars signs that lack distinctiveness, that only describe the goods, including laudatory expressions, or that are their generic name. Mexico's industrial property law (article 173 of the LFPPI) and Brazil's (article 124, item VI, of Law 9,279) have equivalent bans. Brazil's INPI even publishes a table of distinctiveness grades: for shoes, "Calçados" isn't distinctive, Multishoes is suggestive, Dakota is arbitrary and Osklen is fanciful.

A name doesn't need to be a search keyword: your pages rank for descriptive searches. Dardo named A medio tono, a music school in Bogotá, with a musical reference rather than a search phrase, and its website's instrument and teacher pages do the literal work.

Three ways a "creative" name stays descriptive

• Misspelling it. The TMEP says a slight misspelling won't turn a descriptive word into a mark; SHARPIN, for knife blocks with built-in sharpeners, was held merely descriptive. Mexico's law lists "capricious spelling variation" of unregistrable words among its bans (art. 173, fraction VI).
• Translating it. Under the doctrine of foreign equivalents, US examiners translate words from common modern languages. IMÁGENES ESCONDIDAS ("hidden pictures") was held merely descriptive for children's books and magazines, and in 2025 the Federal Circuit held VETEMENTS, French for "clothing", generic for clothing.
• Praising it. "Best", "premium" and their Spanish and Portuguese equivalents describe quality; the Andean rules name laudatory expressions explicitly.

Surnames and place names are weak in the US too: a mark that is primarily merely a surname, or primarily geographically descriptive of where the goods come from, needs acquired distinctiveness for the Principal Register (TMEP § 1211 on surnames and § 1210 on geographic terms).

Step 3: Map territories and generate names

A territory is one creative direction drawn from the brief: a metaphor, a feeling, a world the name can come from. Three or four territories stop the long list from collapsing into 200 variations of one idea. Generate widely, aim for well over a hundred candidates in total, and don't judge until the session is over.

The illustrations are deliberately left as patterns: any specific name we printed would still need every check below.

Step 4: Screen the long list

Cut fast, in this order, and keep notes on why each name was cut so the same dead ends don't return in round two.

1. Brief fit. Does it signal the positioning and the personality? Drop anything that only works if you explain it.
2. Say it, spell it. Ask someone to read it aloud, and someone else to write it after hearing it. If they hesitate between two spellings, you'll lose searches and emails.
3. Distinctiveness. Place it on the spectrum above. Cut descriptive and generic candidates unless a descriptor will sit next to a stronger name.
4. Knockout search. Search the exact name in the trademark databases of your markets (step 6). An identical live mark for related goods ends the candidate.
5. Meaning and slang. Check what it means, and what it's slang for, in every country on the brief.

Language checks across English, Spanish and Portuguese

The same letters sound different across the three languages. Our brand name checker flags these patterns for up to five names at once and links the dictionaries to check them in:

Meaning matters as much as sound. The USPTO's own advice is to check whether a name has a different meaning when translated, particularly an offensive one. Check slang in each country, not only in one variety of Spanish.

Step 5: Check domains, handles and company registries

What we found when we looked up domains

On 17 October 2026 we asked the registries directly whether four sets of names were registered: Verisign's RDAP service for .com, Registro.br's RDAP for .com.br and the .CO registry's WHOIS for .co and .com.co. We picked the words ourselves, so read this as an illustration of the pattern, not a statistic.

Three lessons. Every common word is taken in .com, whatever the language. Short, pronounceable invented words are registered in .com too, even ones we made up minutes earlier, while country extensions are far freer. And a registration only tells you someone holds the address, whether or not a site is live; "not found" doesn't guarantee you can buy it: registries can hold names back (ICANN's registry agreement for new extensions lets them reserve or block names at their discretion), so confirm the price and the renewal at a registrar. Choose the name first, then the domain: a modifier ("get", "hq", the category) or a country extension is a normal answer. In Brazil, a .com.br needs a valid CPF or CNPJ, according to the INPI.

Claim the same handle on the networks you'll actually use, the day you decide, and search each network by hand for accounts with similar names in your category.

Company names are a separate register

Passing one register says nothing about the other. Search and file both.

Step 6: Search trademarks in each market

Marks don't have to be identical to conflict. The USPTO refuses registration when marks are similar in sound, appearance or meaning and the goods or services are related, and calls likelihood of confusion the most common reason for refusal. Relatedness is why identical names coexist: Dove soap and Dove ice cream bars, Delta faucets and Delta air transportation.

United States: the USPTO's Trademark Search system

The USPTO's federal searching guide describes a method you can follow in its free Trademark Search system:

1. Knockout search. Search the combined mark field for your exact wording, for example CM:uspto.
2. Partial matches. Use a regular expression to catch your word inside longer marks: CM:/.*uspto.*/.
3. Sound-alikes. Search spellings that sound the same, as in the USPTO's own example CM:/.*youesspeeteeoh.*/, and each way a customer might pronounce your name.
4. Related goods. Narrow by coordinated class rather than your own class only: clothing in class 25 is coordinated with leather goods in class 18 and retail services in class 35.
5. Live first, dead second. Only live applications and registrations can block yours, but a dead record can still mean someone is using the name.
6. Designs. For a logo, search its design codes, and the image search as a supplement.

Then look beyond the federal register: the USPTO's clearance page lists the Official Gazette, state registers, domain names, the internet for common-law use and international databases. The USPTO doesn't refund filing fees if your application fails, and if you're based outside the US, including in Colombia or Brazil, a US-licensed attorney must represent you. The base application fee is USD 350 per class.

Colombia, Mexico and Brazil

Step 7: Test the finalists with real people

Testing a name isn't a popularity vote. Its job is to find the failure you can't see because you've lived with the name for weeks.

• Show each of two or three finalists the way people will meet it: a website header, an email address and a spoken introduction on a call.
• Use people from the audience in the brief, in each language: native speakers, not colleagues who already know the shortlist.
• Ask them to say it, to spell it after hearing it, what they expect the company to do, and what it reminds them of. Don't ask whether they like it.
• Look for consistent failures: a spelling nobody gets right, an association you didn't intend, a meaning in one country. One person's dislike isn't a finding.

Step 8: Decide, clear and secure it the same week

1. Score the finalists against the brief, then pick a winner and a backup.
2. Have a trademark lawyer in each market run a clearance search and give an opinion on both.
3. File the trademark in each market where you'll sell, in the classes you need.
4. Buy the domains and the likely misspellings, and claim the handles, before you tell anyone.
5. Register or update the company name; it's a separate filing.

If the new name replaces an old one, our rebrand launch checklist covers the rollout, and your brand guidelines should record how the name is written and said.

Common naming mistakes

Even careful teams get caught. Mozilla chose the name Firebird for its browser after attorneys assessed other uses, then renamed it Firefox because another open-source project already used Firebird. Its FAQ calls choosing and verifying a name "a complicated process that involves many difficult judgment calls".

What to do next

Put your shortlist through the free brand name checker: domains, sound-alike spellings to search, pronunciation flags in three languages and links to each market's official searches. To budget the rest, read what naming costs. If you'd rather have Dardo run the process in English and Spanish, with the legal review planned in, see brand naming, or brand creation if you also need the identity.