The seven checks before you print a business name on anything
A name goes on a sign, a van, a domain, two handles and a thousand printed cards, and every one of those is expensive to change. Before any of it, seven checks, each free and each a few minutes: the domains through the registry's own record, the two handles, a plain search, the company register, the trade-mark register, the phone test, and an attorney for the one you choose. Here is what each is, where it sits, and what to look for.
1. The .com and your local domain, through RDAP, not a registrar's search box
Where it sits: Open the registry's own record: rdap.org/domain/yourname.com (it forwards to the registry that runs .com), and the same form for .co.uk, .com.au or .ca where the registry publishes RDAP. A registrar's search box shows you upsells, "premium" prices and suggestions, and some registrars have been accused of front-running names people search; the registry record just says whether the name exists and when it was registered.
What to look for: No record at all means free. A record with a recent registration date and no website means a reseller holds it, and the asking price will be high. A record that expired years ago but still shows is a redemption hold; wait, do not pay a broker. Check the local domain and the .com both: a brand that lives on one and loses the other spends years explaining itself.
2. The Instagram handle
Where it sits: instagram.com/yourhandle in a logged-out browser window. A profile page means taken, even if it has three posts from 2017; Instagram does not release inactive handles on request.
What to look for: The handle should be the name with no numbers, underscores or "official". If the plain handle is taken, the name is weaker than it looks: every customer who searches for you finds someone else first. "yournamegrooming" or "yourname.leeds" is the fallback, and it belongs in the shortlist row before you fall in love with the name.
3. The TikTok handle
Where it sits: tiktok.com/@yourhandle. A profile means taken; a "couldn't find this account" page means free, as of today.
What to look for: TikTok handles go faster than Instagram's for anything food, fitness, beauty or pets. Check it even if you never plan to post there: the person who registers it after your launch will be a stranger, and sometimes a competitor.
4. A plain web search: the name, your trade, your town
Where it sits: Any search engine, in a private window, three searches: the name on its own in quotes, the name plus your trade, the name plus your town or region.
What to look for: Someone already trading under the name in your trade, even with no registered mark and no company, can stop you using it nearby (passing off in the UK and Australia, common-law trade-mark rights in the US and Canada). A café with the same name 300 miles away in a different trade is usually fine; a plumber with the same name in the next town is not.
5. The company register
Where it sits: US: your state's Secretary of State business search (every state runs one; the name is reserved per state). UK: Companies House, find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Australia: ASIC's business names and company registers at asic.gov.au. Canada: Corporations Canada's federal search plus your province's registry.
What to look for: An identical or "too similar" registered company name is refused at incorporation in most of these registers, so the search tells you whether you can even form the company. It is not a trade-mark check: a company name on the register gives its owner little right to stop you trading, and a trade mark on the register gives its owner a lot. The two registers answer two different questions.
6. The public trade-mark register: a look, not a clearance search
Where it sits: US: the USPTO's trademark search at tmsearch.uspto.gov. UK: gov.uk/search-for-trademark (the UK IPO). Australia: search.ipaustralia.gov.au. Canada: the CIPO trademark search at ised-isde.canada.ca. Search the exact word, then the word with one letter changed, then the word said aloud spelled differently.
What to look for: Look for a live mark that is the same or close in the classes your trade sits in (class 44 for grooming and salons, 43 for food and drink, 35 for retail, 41 for teaching and events, 37 for trades and repairs). A dead or abandoned mark does not block you. A live identical mark in your class is a stop; a live similar mark in a nearby class is a question for an attorney. This is a look: it finds what is registered, not every unregistered name with rights, and it never makes a name safe.
7. Say it on the phone, then let an attorney clear it
Where it sits: Ring a friend and say the name once, with no spelling. Ask them to write it down and to tell you what the business does. Then, before the sign, the van and the printed cards, a trade-mark attorney in your country runs a clearance search on the one name you have chosen; in the US, UK, Australia and Canada a clearance letter is a few hundred dollars, and the application itself is a separate fee.
What to look for: If the friend spells it wrong or asks what it means, the name costs you an explanation on every call and every referral. If it passes, the attorney's search is the only check on this list that counts as clearance: the six above are how you avoid paying for a clearance search on a name that was never free.
Availability changes by the hour; every check above is as of the day you run it. Nothing here is legal advice: it is a reading list of public records and free pages, and a trade-mark attorney in your country clears a name.
Three questions.
Do I have to run all seven before I choose?
No. Run 1 to 3 on every name you like; they take a minute each and knock out most of a long list. Run 4 to 6 on the last three or four. Run 7 on the one. Our shortlist does 1 to 3 and a look at 5 and 6 on all twenty names on the day we deliver, so you start at check 4 with names that are still free.
What if the .com is taken but the .co.uk, .com.au or .ca is free?
It depends on who holds the .com. A live business in your trade on the .com is a strike against the name. A parked page held by a reseller is a cost, not a stop: many local businesses run on the local domain alone. A dead page with an old registration is worth one polite email to the holder before you decide.
Why does a registered company name not protect me?
Because the company register only stops a second company registering the same words; it says nothing about who may trade under them. Trade-mark rights come from the trade-mark register and, in all four countries, from actually trading under a name first. That is why check 4 (the plain search) and check 6 (the register) matter more than check 5 for whether you can use the name, and check 5 matters only for whether you can form the company.
Want this list in your inbox, with the sample shortlist?
The seven checks as a list you can tick off, plus the whole invented Leeds grooming shortlist as a PDF, so you can see what twenty checked names look like.