The Namoly roadmap: what ships next

Where Namoly is today

A roadmap only means something next to what already works. Namoly takes a candidate brand name, plus optional context like your sector and target markets, and returns a report: an overall score out of 100 and four scored categories, each with a band, a justification, and a tip.

Domain availability carries the most weight (0.30) and tests the name across a weighted set of TLDs. Memorability and distinctiveness (0.25) asks whether the name is easy to hold in a head and separable from its category. Phonetics and readability (0.25) covers how the name sounds, spells, and survives being said aloud. Cross-language safety (0.20) screens it against a curated wordlist across languages. Every sub-score and the overall score land in the same four bands: 80–100 is Strong, 60–79 Good, 40–59 Fair, and 0–39 Weak.

Each category also emits a confidence signal (high, medium, or low) next to its score, so a result the engine was unsure about never reads as a confident verdict. The analysis is free, and re-analysing is free. Signed in, every report is saved permanently and privately to your own history, as a dated snapshot you can reopen or set beside another name in the compare view. If you work with an AI agent, you can connect it to Namoly and let it run the same analysis under your own account.

The full picture, including everything Namoly deliberately does not check, is in what is Namoly. The principle underneath it shapes the whole roadmap: deterministic first. Every check today is plain code or a data lookup, so the same name with the same context always produces the same scores and there is nothing to hallucinate. Namoly calls the stance “deliberate AI”: AI gets added sparingly, only where it genuinely reads better than a lookup table, and never as a replacement for the deterministic scoring. The longer argument is in why AI name generators fall short.

Why this page has no dates

Public roadmaps invite two dishonest moves, and this page tries to make both impossible. The first is the date that quietly hardens into a commitment: a quarter written down to look organised, then missed, or met by shipping something thinner than promised. The second is subtler, which is describing a planned feature in the present tense until a reader cannot tell what is built from what is imagined.

So: no dates, no quarters, no prices. The order below is rough. Items can move, merge, or be dropped outright if the reason for them stops holding, and something not on this list can jump ahead if enough people need it. What you can rely on is the line between the two halves of this page: the section above describes what runs today, and every section below describes what is intended and not available.

What ships next, in rough order

Six items, ordered by how much each would change the answer a Namoly report gives you.

• AI nuance, with paymentsConnotation reading and natural-language phrasing, added as annotation on top of the deterministic checks, shipped with the paid layer that funds it.
• Trademark screeningA knock-out signal that flags obvious conflicts early. Never legal clearance. Today Namoly does not check trademarks at all.
• Social handle checksWhether the name is claimable on the platforms you care about. Today Namoly does not check handles at all.
• “Watch this name”Mark a name you analysed and be told when something changes, a taken domain freeing up being the obvious case.
• Agency layerBulk analysis, projects, N-way compare, export, and seats, for people who name things professionally rather than once.
• Local-only modeRun the three non-network checks in your browser, so an unannounced name never leaves your machine.

1. AI-assisted nuance, and the payments layer that funds it

These are one milestone, not two. AI’s job would be narrow. Cross-language safety today screens a name against curated wordlists, which catches obvious collisions and misses connotation: the word that is technically fine but lands oddly in one market. A small, fast language model reads that kind of nuance better than any list can, so that is the first place it would go. The second is phrasing: turning a report’s justifications into a natural-language summary rather than assembled fragments.

What would not change is the scoring. The four deterministic checks stay the core and stay deterministic. AI would annotate them, adding nuance beside a score and prose around it, never producing the score itself. That boundary is the point of the deterministic-first stance: a number you can reproduce is worth more than a number that merely sounds confident.

The reason payments arrive in the same milestone is arithmetic. Deterministic checks cost effectively nothing per run, which is why the analysis is free today. An AI call costs real money every time someone analyses a name, and that cost grows with use. Namoly is not willing to cover it with advertising, or by selling anything about the names you analyse, or by letting the free product get quietly worse until paying feels necessary. That leaves charging for the part that costs money, which is why the payments layer would ship alongside the AI it funds and not before. What is paid and what stays free is not decided, and this page will not invent it.

The report interface already carries clearly-marked COMING SOON placeholders exactly where the AI annotations would appear, labelled rather than hidden so an empty slot is never mistaken for a finished feature.

2. Trademark screening

Today Namoly does not check trademarks at all, and every report says so. It is also the single most common thing people expect a name checker to do.

A screening feature would be a knock-out signal and nothing more: a fast look for obvious, blocking conflicts so you can drop a candidate early instead of falling for it first. It would not be legal clearance, it would not be an opinion on whether you can register, and it would never be dressed up as either. Those need a proper search and, past a point, a lawyer. A knock-out screen that saves you three weeks on a name that was never available is still worth a great deal.

What a trademark actually protects, why a free domain proves nothing about it, and how to run a knock-out search yourself today are covered in trademark basics for startup naming.

3. Social handle availability

Same shape as trademarks: today Namoly does not check social handles at all, and says so. A handle check would tell you whether the name is claimable on the platforms you actually care about, which for most projects is a short list.

It sits deliberately behind trademark screening, because a taken handle is an annoyance you can route around with a prefix or a small variation, and a trademark conflict is not. Until it ships, the manual path is written out step by step in how to secure a brand name you picked.

4. “Watch this name”

Analyses today are snapshots, dated on purpose, because availability moves. A domain that was taken when you checked can be free months later, and nothing currently tells you when that happens. You would have to remember to come back and look.

“Watch this name” would close that gap: mark a name you analysed, and be told when something relevant changes, a taken domain freeing up being the obvious case. It is the one item as much about staying useful after the decision as about making it.

5. An agency layer

Everything above assumes one person naming one thing. Some people name things for a living: agencies, brand consultants, and product teams working through a long shortlist rather than checking a hunch.

The agency layer is the set of features that work is missing. Bulk analysis, so a list of candidates runs in one pass. Projects, so a client’s names stay grouped. N-way compare, because the current compare view holds two names and a real shortlist is longer. Export, so a report can leave Namoly and land in a deck. Seats, so a team shares one workspace. Which piece comes first depends on what people doing that work say they need most.

6. Local-only privacy mode

Three of the four checks (memorability, phonetics, and cross-language safety) are pure computation and need no network at all. Only the domain check has to talk to the outside world.

A local-only privacy mode would run those three in your browser, so a name you are not ready to say out loud never leaves your machine. It sits last because it serves a narrower need, not because the need is imaginary. For anyone working on something unannounced, it is the difference between using the tool and not.

What will not change

A roadmap is also a set of promises about what stays put. These four constrain everything above, and they are the part of this page worth holding Namoly to.

• The free tier staysThe four-check analysis stays free, and re-analysing a name stays free. A paid layer exists to fund the parts that cost money per run, not to put a toll on what already works.
• Reports stay yoursEvery analysis remains a dated snapshot, private to your account and kept permanently in your history. No global cache, no cross-user pooling, no reuse of your names as someone else’s answer.
• Scores stay explainedEvery category keeps its justification, its tip, and its confidence signal. A score without a reason you can check is a score you should not trust, including one of ours.
• Non-checks stay disclosedAnything Namoly does not check is stated on the report rather than left out. A category that was not run is never silently folded into a number that looks complete.

The last one matters most, because it is the easiest to break by accident. Any product is tempted to start scoring something it cannot really measure, since a complete-looking report reads better than an honest one with a gap in it. If Namoly ever scores trademarks or handles, it will be because it genuinely checks them, and the report will say how confidently.

How to follow along, and how to influence it

There is no mailing list here and no “notify me” box, because collecting an email address against a feature with no date implies the date exists. When something on this page ships, it will be visible in the product and written up in these guides, where a change is easy to verify rather than take on trust.

The genuinely useful thing you can do today is run a name. The report shows you exactly what the deterministic engine measures and how confidently, and the COMING SOON markers show where the AI annotations are meant to land, so you can judge the direction against something real instead of against a list. Use is also the honest signal: what people lean on is what pulls the next item forward.

Frequently asked questions

Does Namoly use AI?

Not in the analysis, and not today. All four checks are deterministic code and data lookups, so the same name with the same context always returns the same scores. AI is on the roadmap in a narrow role: reading cross-language connotation beyond what a curated wordlist catches, and phrasing the summary in natural language. It would annotate the deterministic checks rather than replace them, and it would not produce the scores.

Will Namoly stay free?

The analysis you can run today is free, and re-analysing a name is free. That is not planned to change. A paid layer is on the roadmap for one reason: AI calls cost real money on every run, and Namoly would rather charge for the part that costs money than fund it with advertising or by quietly degrading the free product. Nothing is purchasable today and no price has been set.

When will Namoly check trademarks?

There is no date, and this page deliberately does not invent one. Trademark screening sits high in the roadmap order, but that is intent rather than a commitment. Today Namoly does not check trademarks at all, and says so on every report. Until it ships, run a knock-out search yourself and treat a clear domain as no evidence about a mark.

Will AI change my existing scores?

No. The four deterministic checks are meant to stay deterministic and stay the core of the score, with AI adding nuance and phrasing alongside them rather than inside them. Existing reports are dated snapshots, so they are not recomputed behind you: a report you ran today keeps the scores and the reasons it had today.

What is Namoly today?

A free brand name checker. You give it a candidate name plus optional context, and it returns a report with an overall score out of 100 and four scored categories: domain availability, memorability and distinctiveness, phonetics and readability, and cross-language safety. Each carries a band, a justification, a tip, and a confidence signal. Signed in, every report is saved permanently and privately to your history. It does not check trademarks or social handles.