Brand name checker: domains, trademarks and pronunciation in English, Spanish and Portuguese

How to use the checker#

1. Enter up to five candidate names.
2. Pick your markets: United States, Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and Spain. Your choice decides which official trademark and company-name searches you get, and adds .com.co for Colombia and .com.br for Brazil to the domains checked.
3. Read the results for each name:

• Domain registrations for .com, .co, .ai, .net and .studio, checked with each registry.
• Spelling and sound-alike variants to search too: c/k/q, s/z, b/v, ll/y, a silent h, ph/f and doubled letters.
• Pronunciation flags across English, Spanish and Portuguese.
• Dictionary links: Merriam-Webster, Urban Dictionary for slang, the RAE for Spanish and Priberam for Portuguese.
• Links to the official trademark and company-name searches for each market you picked, and to the social profile addresses you'd want.

1. Export or send. Download the report as a Word or Markdown file to share with partners or your lawyer, or send the shortlist to us and ask for a naming proposal.

Search the variants as well as the name itself. The USPTO says marks don't have to be identical to conflict: they can be similar in sound, appearance or meaning, and likelihood of confusion is the most common reason it refuses registration.

What a domain result means#

The checker asks each registry directly, through RDAP, the protocol ICANN describes as the replacement for WHOIS, or through WHOIS where needed.

• Registered: the registry has a record for that domain. Someone holds it, whether or not a website is live, and only the holder can tell you whether it's for sale.
• No registration found: the registry has no record. That's a good sign, not a guarantee you can buy it. Registries can reserve or block names at their discretion and sell some at premium prices, and a premium name can renew at a higher price if that was disclosed when it was bought. Confirm the price and the renewal at a registrar before you announce the name.
• Local rules apply. A .com.br needs a valid Brazilian CPF or CNPJ. .co is Colombia's country code and .ai is Anguilla's.

A domain is not a trademark. Holding the .com gives you an address, not rights over the name; Brazil's INPI, for one, treats trademark, company name and domain as three different things.

Trademarks and company names in each market#

A company name and a trademark are separate registrations, usually with different offices. In the United States, registering a business name with a state lets you do business there but does not create a registered trademark, according to the USPTO. California, for example, checks a new corporation's name only against other corporations on its register, not against trademarks or fictitious business names.

What each search covers:

• United States. The USPTO's database holds federal applications and registrations only. Common-law rights come from use and don't appear there, so the USPTO also suggests searching the internet, state trademark databases and business name databases.
• Colombia. SIPI shows registered and pending marks. The SIC says a company name in the commercial register is not industrial property, and that the exclusive right to a mark comes only with its registration.
• Mexico. The Secretaría de Economía refuses a company name for clashing with an IMPI trademark only when that mark is registered in all classes or is well known or famous. Otherwise the authorization carries a warning, and the Secretaría isn't required to check that you comply with industrial property law.
• Brazil. INPI registers trademarks, with exclusivity across the country; company names belong to the Junta Comercial of your state. REDESIM's viability check asks the registry whether a company with an identical or similar name already exists.
• Spain and the EU. The OEPM calls the belief that a registered company name is automatically protected as a trademark a common error. The Registro Mercantil Central also treats names that sound alike as identical. The EUIPO points to TMview, a free search across every EU national office, the EUIPO and many offices outside the EU, though TMview itself is not an official register.

How to test a name across English, Spanish and Portuguese#

A name that's easy in English can change shape in Spanish or Portuguese. The checker flags these patterns:

• Initial s plus a consonant. Spanish adds an e: English snob became esnob. Brazilian Portuguese spells stress as estresse. Expect "Stellar" to be said "Estellar".
• j and h. In Spanish, j is a throaty sound, breathed like an h in much of Latin America, and h is silent. In Portuguese, h is silent too, and j sounds like the s in "measure". A name built on an English h or j will change in both languages.
• ll. Most Spanish speakers say it like y, so "Villa" and "Viya" sound alike.
• z, ce and ci. In central and northern Spain they sound like the th in "think"; across Latin America, like s.
• b and v. Spanish doesn't distinguish them, so "bello" and "vello" are pronounced the same; the checker lists the other spelling among the variants to search.
• English-only spellings such as th, sh and ee, which Spanish and Portuguese readers may not read the English way.

Then check meaning: the dictionary links cover standard English, slang, Spanish and Portuguese. Finally, say each name aloud to native speakers in each market and ask them to spell it back.

What to do before you commit#

1. Shortlist two or three names that pass the checks, and keep a backup.
2. Hire a trademark attorney for a clearance search in every market where you'll sell. Registration is territorial: the SIC notes that a Colombian registration covers Colombia only. If you're based outside the US, the USPTO requires a US-licensed attorney to represent you.
3. Choose your Nice classes. The Nice Classification has 45 classes: goods in 1 to 34 and services in 35 to 45. Offices charge per class; the USPTO's base application fee is USD 350 per class.
4. Buy the domains and handles the day you decide, including the variants people are likely to type, and check the renewal price.
5. Register the company name separately. It's a different filing and doesn't replace the trademark.

When a naming studio helps#

If every name on your list is taken, or your favorite fails in one of your languages, you need new candidates rather than more variants. 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. Send your shortlist from the checker and we'll reply with a proposal.

Privacy#

Domain lookups go from our server to the registries, and the names you check aren't stored. If you send us the shortlist, it reaches us like any other inquiry.

Questions before you choose#