Naming a product: a method that kills bad names early

Most naming advice is about generating names. The harder part is rejecting them in the right order, because the expensive checks (a trademark search, a lawyer) should only ever see names that have survived the cheap ones. This method runs six stages from a written brief down to a decision record, with the checks sorted by what they cost you.

Everything here is general information and not legal advice. The Canadian material comes from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) guide linked in the sources, and fees, wait times and procedures change, so none are quoted. The product names in the examples are fictional.

Stage 1: write down what the name has to do

A name judged against nothing gets picked on mood. Before generating anything, write four lines.

• What it names. One sentence: what the product does and for whom.
• Where it will be spoken. A name used on phone calls and in referrals has to survive being heard. A name used only in app stores can lean on spelling.
• Which languages it must work in. In Canada that usually means English and French at minimum. CIPO's search advice makes the same point: look for all possible spellings, including in French.
• What it must be able to become. A name that includes today's feature ("InvoiceHelper") strands you when the product grows.

Stage 2: generate wide, then sort by type

Aim for several dozen candidates before judging any, and sort them by how they relate to the product. The types matter because the law treats them differently.

CIPO's guide lists the grounds for refusal: names and surnames on their own, clearly descriptive marks, deceptively misdescriptive marks, place of origin, a word that is the name of the goods in another language, and confusion with a registered or pending mark. A coined word falls outside every one of those except the last, which is why the last is where the checking effort goes.

Stage 3: the cheap filters

These take minutes per name and remove most of the list. Do them before touching a register.

1. Say it aloud to someone who has not seen it. Ask them to write it down. Each misspelling you hear is a visitor who will type the wrong address or search for a different business.
2. Say it in French. Does it resemble another word, a rude one, or something with a different meaning? The same question applies to any other language your buyers speak.
3. Search the name by itself. Look at the first results page. If another business already occupies the name in your field, a second one will compete with it for every query.
4. Check the initials and the shortened form. People shorten names, and the short form is what ends up on invoices and in chat.
5. Read it next to the product's own description. A name that reads as an unrelated phrase in a sentence ("Join Tarnsolve") may need a different word beside it.

Cut the list to five or six names before spending anything on the later stages. If two names are close after this round, prefer the one that the person in step 1 spelled correctly on the first try, because that failure cannot be fixed with marketing later.

Stage 4: domains and handles

A name without a usable domain costs you in every link and email, so check this before the register. Registries answer lookups through RDAP, the Registration Data Access Protocol. RFC 7480 says a server that has no data matching a query returns a 404 response. RFC 9224 describes the bootstrap file that IANA publishes to find the right RDAP server for each top-level domain, so you do not need a third-party site.

This script (Node 18 or later) does a first screen. It also compares each candidate with rival names in your category, using edit distance (the number of single-letter changes between two spellings). Candidates and rivals are fictional.

const candidates = ['brindlewick', 'quillmarten', 'tarnsolve', 'vessarine'];
const rivals = ['brindlewood', 'quillmartin', 'tarnish', 'vesper'];

function distance(a, b) {
  const row = Array.from({ length: b.length + 1 }, (_, j) => j);
  for (let i = 1; i <= a.length; i++) {
    let prev = row[0];
    row[0] = i;
    for (let j = 1; j <= b.length; j++) {
      const keep = row[j];
      row[j] = Math.min(row[j] + 1, row[j - 1] + 1, prev + (a[i - 1] === b[j - 1] ? 0 : 1));
      prev = keep;
    }
  }
  return row[b.length];
}

const boot = await (await fetch('https://data.iana.org/rdap/dns.json')).json();
const server = (tld) => boot.services.find(([tlds]) => tlds.includes(tld))[1][0];
const rdap = async (name, tld) => (await fetch(server(tld) + 'domain/' + name + '.' + tld)).status;

for (const c of candidates) {
  const near = rivals.map((r) => ({ r, d: distance(c, r) })).sort((x, y) => x.d - y.d)[0];
  console.log(c, 'nearest:', near.r, 'edits:', near.d, '.com:', await rdap(c, 'com'), '.ca:', await rdap(c, 'ca'));
}

The script fetches the bootstrap file once per run. RFC 9224 says clients should not fetch it on every request, so cache the file if you adapt this into something that checks many names.

Run on 2026-10-17, it printed:

Read it for what it can and cannot tell you. A 200 means the registry holds a record, so that exact .com is taken. A 404 means only that the registry returned no data. Reserved names, premium listings and registry-specific rules are separate, so confirm at a registrar. The edit distance is a blunt pre-screen: one letter apart (quillmarten and quillmartin) is a red flag, but a large distance does not clear a name, because the test for confusion is about how marks look, sound and what they suggest.

If the exact domain is taken by an unrelated business, you have three options: another top-level domain, a different name, or an added word that is part of the brand rather than an afterthought. Pick one on purpose. Handles on the platforms you will use deserve the same check, made before you commit to the name and not after. Keeping names, handles and profiles consistent covers how to keep them aligned once you have chosen.

Stage 5: search the trademark register

CIPO's guide calls searching the Canadian Trademarks Database a good first step and says it is not compulsory. It covers active and inactive trademarks, official marks and prohibited marks, and the database's own introduction says it holds more than 1.4 million marks, including inactive ones. As soon as the Registrar receives an application, that application also becomes part of the public record.

What the guide asks of your search:

• Search every plausible spelling, including French. Its example for "North Pole" is to search "North", "Nord" and "Pole" separately.
• Look beyond the exact name. Examiners, the guide says, consider whether marks look or sound alike, whether they suggest similar ideas, and whether they are used with similar goods or services. Mark candidates that share a sound or an idea with a rival, even when the spelling differs.
• Do not stop at the register. The Registrar does not register names that businesses use without registering a mark, yet such names often work as marks anyway. The guide says that searching them is complex and suggests a trademark agent.

The same guide notes that the Registrar will not search for you or give legal advice. If a name makes it through your screening and you plan to build on it, this is the point to pay for a professional search. A candidate with a close match in your own field is usually better dropped here. The guide says a mark confusingly similar to a registered or pending one will be refused, and whether two marks are confusingly similar is a judgment you should not make alone.

Where naming usually goes wrong

• Falling for a name before it is checked. Attachment makes later knockouts feel like losses. Keep the list anonymous (numbers, not favourites) until the cheap filters are done.
• Checking only the exact string. The guide's advice to search variants applies here too. People search with the wrong spelling, and so do examiners and rivals' customers, so the misspelled form and the French form belong in every search.
• Solving a taken name with a vowel trick. Dropping a letter or swapping one for another keeps the confusion and adds a spelling problem on top.
• Treating a description as a brand. A plain description is easy to understand, and by the guide's own examples it is the kind of mark that cannot be registered.
• Skipping the record. Without notes on what was searched, the next person repeats the work or trusts a search that was never done.

Stage 6: decide, and write down why

Use knockouts first and preferences second. Any of these removes a name:

• a registered or pending mark in your field that looks or sounds close;
• an unusable domain and no acceptable alternative;
• a spelling people cannot reproduce from hearing it;
• a meaning in a language your market speaks that you would not want attached to the product.

Among survivors, choose on the criteria from the brief. Then write a short decision record: the name, the date, which searches you ran and the results, and who decided. That record is what you will want if the name is challenged, if a lawyer asks what you checked, or when you wonder in two years why a name was picked.

Registration is a separate decision. CIPO's guide says you do not have to register and that using a mark for a period of time may give you common-law rights, while registered marks have duties of their own: a registration can be removed from the register if the mark is not used in Canada. Whether to register, and when, is a question for a trademark agent.

Checklist

• Write the brief first: what it names, where it is spoken, which languages, what it grows into.
• Sort candidates by type and expect coined and compound names to survive best.
• Run the cheap filters before any register: say it, spell it, search it, translate it.
• Check the domain through the registry's RDAP server and treat a 404 as a hint, not a purchase confirmation.
• Search the Canadian Trademarks Database for every spelling, in English and French, then get professional advice before committing.