How much does a naming agency cost? Published prices, what each tier includes and the costs after the name

The short answer

Naming is sold at four very different price points:

• Crowdsourced contests: Atom.com lists naming contests at USD 299, 449 and 749, and a managed contest at USD 1,499.
• Freelancers: Upwork's own guide puts a name ideation sprint at USD 500–2,000, strategic naming at USD 2,500–7,500 and a naming system at USD 8,000–20,000 or more.
• A boutique naming firm: Eat My Words publishes a USD 6,000 package for very small, self-funded companies and a USD 17,500 full-service package, with corporate projects up to USD 50,000.
• Specialist naming agencies: on Clutch, the naming firms it ranks highest list minimum projects of USD 10,000 or USD 25,000 and rates of USD 200–300 an hour or more.

The name is not the last bill. A lawyer's clearance search and opinion, the USPTO filing fee (USD 350 per class of goods or services) and the domain come after it, whichever tier you choose.

This guide was checked against providers' pages and official fee schedules on 15 October 2026. It isn't legal advice.

Published naming prices, side by side

Two market-wide figures help place these. Clutch's branding pricing guide for October 2026, built from verified client reviews, puts the average naming rate on its platform at USD 100–149 an hour and says most branding projects reviewed there cost USD 10,000–49,999. Tanj, a New York naming agency, describes the market for full engagements in three bands: USD 15,000–30,000 for lighter scope, USD 35,000–75,000 for mid-market work with strategy, several rounds and preliminary trademark screening, and USD 80,000–150,000 or more for enterprise projects with international clearance and linguistic vetting.

Upwork's page also lists brand consultants at USD 50–98 an hour, but its naming tiers are priced per project, so compare deliverables, not hourly rates.

What you get at each tier

The price follows five pieces of work. Each tier does some of them and leaves the rest to you.

Two things hold at every tier. First, nobody's screening replaces a lawyer's clearance: Tanj's own guide says full legal clearance by trademark counsel is a separate cost, and Eat My Words refers small clients to a screener and attorneys. Second, the contest and marketplace prices buy ideas; the strategy that tells you which idea fits is what the higher tiers charge for.

The costs that come after the name

Trademark clearance by a lawyer

A clearance search looks for confusingly similar marks, not only identical ones, and the USPTO decides likelihood of confusion on similarity of the marks and relatedness of the goods or services. The USPTO's own clearance page points beyond its database to state registrations, unregistered common-law use and domain names, and suggests a screening service or a US-licensed attorney.

Some US firms publish flat fees for this work, for example:

Budget for clearance on your two or three finalists, not on the long list.

USPTO filing fees

Since January 2025 the USPTO charges a base fee per class plus surcharges, from its current fee schedule (last revised 14 August 2026):

A name filed in two classes with wording from the USPTO's ID Manual costs USD 700 in base fees; writing your own description adds USD 200 per class, for USD 1,100. If you file on an intent-to-use basis, add the statement of use when you start using the name. Applicants based outside the US, including founders in Colombia or elsewhere in Latin America, must be represented by a US-licensed attorney.

The domain

Registry prices set the floor. Verisign, which runs .com, raises its wholesale fee for each new and renewed .com from USD 10.26 to USD 10.97 a year on 1 November 2026; registrars add their own margin. If the exact .com is taken, the aftermarket is a different budget: on 15 October 2026 Atom's marketplace featured names from USD 3,499 (BrandOps.ai) to USD 5,000,000 (Nova.ai). A clear name with a descriptor or a different extension is often the practical answer.

Naming a brand for English and Spanish

If you will sell in the US and Latin America, or to Spanish speakers in the US, test every finalist in both languages before anyone falls in love with it.

Say it. The same letters sound different. In standard modern Spanish the h is silent; j, ll and v don't sound as they do in English. Spanish spelling doesn't start words with s followed by a consonant: the Royal Spanish Academy's dictionary of doubts adapts English snob as esnob, so a name that begins that way may be heard with a leading e. Ask a native speaker of each language to read the name aloud, then to spell it after hearing it.

Type it. Accents and ñ are part of Spanish spelling but awkward in domains and email addresses. If the name needs one, decide how it appears in the URL and the inbox before you commit.

Check what it means. A word can be harmless in one country and offensive in another. Mitsubishi sold the Pajero as the Montero in Spain, North America and most of Latin America because pajero is a vulgar insult in Spanish. Check meanings and slang in every country you plan to sell in, not only in one variety of Spanish.

Expect translation in US trademark review. Under the doctrine of foreign equivalents, US examiners may translate a word from a common modern language such as Spanish when deciding whether it is descriptive or confusingly similar to an existing mark (TMEP §§ 1207.01(b)(vi) and 1209.03(g), summarized here). A Spanish word that simply describes your product is as weak as its English translation.

Check Colombia's registers separately. In Colombia, trademarks are registered with the Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio (SIC). Its 2026 online fee for a trademark application is COP 1,347,500 for the first class and COP 673,500 for each additional class (Resolución 6167 de 2026); from 1 January 2027 they rise to COP 1,441,000 and COP 720,000 (Resolución 75972 de 2026). Company names are a separate register: the chambers of commerce check them for an identical existing name (homonymy) through the RUES. Passing one check says nothing about the other, so run both, and have a Colombian trademark lawyer confirm the result.

Dardo's brand naming service develops names from a written brief, tests them in English and Spanish and plans the trademark review with a lawyer in each market. It is quoted per scope, with no minimum budget; our pricing page explains how.

How to choose a tier

Ask every provider the same questions: how many territories and rounds, how many names on the shortlist, which languages and countries are checked and by whom, what trademark screening is done and in which databases, whether domains are checked, who owns the rejected names, and what happens if every finalist fails clearance.

Naming on a tight budget: a DIY process

Our free brand name checker handles the first screen of a shortlist: domain registrations, spellings to search and pronunciation in English, Spanish and Portuguese, with links to the official trademark searches.

1. Write a one-page brief. Audience, what you sell, the promise, the personality, languages and countries, and where the business will be in five years. Note words and associations to avoid.
2. Pick two or three territories. For example: a descriptive name, an evocative metaphor and an invented word. Generate 30 or more candidates in each.
3. Cut to ten with a simple test. Can someone say it after reading it, and spell it after hearing it, in each of your languages?
4. Screen the ten for free. Search the USPTO trademark database for identical and similar marks in your class, then the web, app stores and social handles. For Latin America, add WIPO's Global Brand Database and, in Colombia, the SIC and the RUES.
5. Check domains. Look for the exact .com and the variants you would accept.
6. Test three finalists with real people. Show each in a website header, an email address and a spoken introduction to native speakers of each language, and ask what it makes them expect.
7. Pay for clearance on the winner. Spend the budget you saved on a lawyer's search and opinion, then file.

If the new name replaces an old one, our rebrand launch checklist covers the rollout. To name a brand with us, send a short brief.