Naming guides & brand intelligence
The BrandScreen blog is where we publish practical naming guides, teardowns of the best-named startups, and product updates — everything you need to choose a brand name you can actually own.
Your business name is already taken. Now what?
A taken business name isn't one problem, it's five. How to check trademarks, entities, domains, handles, and search, and what your real options are for each.
Introducing Brand Monitoring
Brand Monitoring re-checks your name every week against trademarks, domains, and social handles, tracks domain expirations, and watches for new business registrations.
Introducing Claim Your Brand
Claim Your Brand gives you a public, verified brand page with your Brand Score and a timestamped record that you screened and committed to your name.
How many names get claimed every single day?
Every day about 15,400 U.S. businesses register, 2,100 trademarks are filed, 33,000 domains are registered, and 800,000 social handles are created. Check your name before it's gone.
Introducing the Name Generator
The BrandScreen name generator builds name candidates you can actually own, then screens them against trademarks, domains, entities, handles, and search.
How to Check If a Name Is Trademarked (USPTO Search, Explained)
A step-by-step guide to running a real USPTO trademark search — what to look for, the mistakes that get founders in trouble, and the fast way to check everything at once.
How to Come Up With a Business Name (a Process That Actually Works)
A practical process for naming a startup or business: seven naming patterns with real examples, how to generate a real shortlist, and the screening step most founders skip.
What Is a Brand Score?
A Brand Score is a 0–100 rating of how ownable a brand name is, based on trademark conflicts, domains, business entities, social handles, and search competition. Here's how to read one.
Do I Need to Trademark My Business Name?
Whether you need to trademark your business name, what a trademark actually protects, and how to check for conflicts before you file — explained in plain terms.
Notchkin: The Best-Named New Startup We've Screened — 97/100
We ran a batch of new startups through BrandScreen — trademarks, domains, entities, and search competition. Notchkin scored a near-perfect 97/100.
The Best-Named Startup in YC's Spring 2026 Batch
We screened every company in the YC Spring 2026 batch — trademarks, domains, entities, and search competition. Plan0 AI came out on top.
How to Name a Startup: A Step-by-Step Guide
A practical, step-by-step guide to naming your startup — from generating ideas to checking that the name is actually available across trademarks, domains, and more.
How to Check If a Business Name Is Already Taken
A step-by-step guide to checking whether your business name is available across trademarks, domains, business registrations, and social media — before you commit.
Why 'Stripe' Is a Great Startup Name
A teardown of Stripe's name — a short, real-word, ownable brand — and the naming principles you can borrow for your own startup.
Introducing the Brand Score
The Brand Score rolls trademark, domain, entity, and search-competition signals into one 0–100 measure of how ownable a name is. Here's how it works.