What is Namoly?

What Namoly is, and who it is for

Most naming decisions get made on a mix of gut feel and a hurried domain search. Someone likes a word, someone else does not, the .com is gone, and the argument goes in circles until the loudest person in the room wins. Namoly puts an objective, repeatable read into that conversation. It takes one candidate name, runs the same four checks it runs for everyone, and hands back a report you can point at: a score out of 100 per category, an overall score, and the reasoning behind each one in plain English.

The word “explained” is doing real work there. A number on its own is a verdict you either accept or dismiss. A number with the reasoning attached is something you can argue with, and that is what makes it useful in a naming discussion.

It is built for the moment just before you commit: founders picking between a shortlist of startup names, teams naming a new product inside an existing brand, anyone who wants a tiebreaker that is not a coin flip. If you are further upstream and still generating candidates, our guide on how to test a brand name covers the human checks that pair well with the automated ones.

You can optionally add context: the sector, the markets you are targeting, and keywords that describe the brand. Target markets matter most, because they make the domain check market-aware and pull the relevant country domains into the results.

The four checks, one by one

Namoly scores exactly four categories: enough to catch the problems that actually sink a name, few enough that each one is done properly rather than gestured at. Here is what each measures and why it earns its place.

• Domain availability Tests your name across the TLDs that matter (.com, .io, .app, .co), plus the relevant country domains when you supply target markets. A name you cannot get a credible domain for will cost you either money or clarity for years, which is why this is the heaviest single check in the score.
• Memorability and distinctiveness Looks at whether the name is coined and ownable or a generic dictionary word that will blend into every competitor in your category. A distinctive name is easier to protect, to search for, and to remember after one exposure. Read a low score as a trade-off rather than a defect: plenty of strong brands are ordinary words that earned their meaning over time.
• Phonetics and readability Covers length, syllable count, ease of pronunciation, typeability, and the radio test: can someone spell your name correctly after only hearing it? This is the check that predicts a decade of small daily friction: every phone call, every conference introduction, every time a customer tries to find you and lands somewhere else.
• Cross-language safety Screens the name for awkward or negative meanings and unfortunate substrings across major languages, weighted toward the markets you named. It is the cheapest expensive mistake to avoid: a name that is fine at home and unusable in a market you plan to enter next year. A clean result is reported as “no flags in the languages checked”, never as “safe”.

Each category is scored and explained on its own, so the overall number never flattens the detail.

How the scoring works

Every category is scored from 0 to 100, and the overall Namoly Score is a weighted mean of the four. The weights are fixed and public: domain availability counts for 0.30, memorability and distinctiveness for 0.25, phonetics and readability for 0.25, and cross-language safety for 0.20. They sum to 1.00, so the overall score sits on the same 0 to 100 scale as the parts. Domain carries the largest share because it is the constraint most likely to be binding in practice.

Scores map to four verdict bands, and the same scale applies to every category score and to the overall score: 80–100 is Strong, 60–79 is Good, 40–59 is Fair, and 0–39 is Weak/Risk. Reading a report is mostly scanning the bands, then dropping into the one or two categories that scored worst to find out why. The band is a verdict on the score, not a statement of certainty, which is why confidence is reported separately.

Alongside its score and band, each category gives you two pieces of prose. The justification explains why the score came out where it did, in specific terms rather than adjectives. The tip gives you one actionable next step: which of the checked domains looks most worth pursuing, what to try if the name is hard to spell, how to read a distinctiveness result for a real word.

The whole analysis is deterministic. Every score comes from code and data lookups, with no AI anywhere in it, so the same name with the same context always produces the same scores. Run it today, run it again tomorrow after your co-founder pushes back, and you get the same numbers rather than a fresh opinion. The only thing that legitimately changes between two runs is the world itself, most often a domain registered in the meantime, which is why each report is stored as a dated snapshot rather than a live view.

Honest by design

Deterministic does not mean infallible, and a tool that hides its uncertainty behind a confident badge is worse than useless. So every category reports a confidence signal alongside its score: high, medium, or low, plus the reasons behind it. The report surfaces these as confidence chips, so a shaky result never gets to look like a confident verdict just because the number came out high.

Three examples of that in practice. A domain lookup that fails is reported as unknown rather than quietly counted as available or taken, and enough unknowns drag the category confidence down and say so. A clean cross-language result is capped at medium confidence by design, because a finite screen can tell you nothing was found in the languages checked but can never prove a name is safe everywhere. And a name that is a single dictionary word gets a disclosed caveat on memorability, because the distinctiveness model under-rates real-word brands and you deserve to know that before you discard a good candidate.

The same care goes into the wording. Domains are described as likely available or worth checking, never as available full stop, because registry data can lag and the only definitive test is trying to register the name. None of this is hedging for its own sake. It is the difference between a tool you can rely on and one that sounds confident until the first time it is wrong.

The most important limits are the ones we state up front. Namoly does not check trademarks, and it does not check social handle availability. Both are real, separate exercises, and a report carries a standing note saying so. A Strong overall score means the name reads well, sounds well, and looks obtainable. It does not mean a competitor has not registered a confusingly similar mark in your class.

How you actually use it

There is one input and one button. The path from “I have an idea” to “I have a report” is deliberately short.

1. Try one, free, with no account Type a name on the home page and run it. You get the complete report, not a teaser: all four scores, every justification and tip, and the confidence signals. Nothing useful is held back behind a sign-up wall.
2. Sign in to keep your analyses Signing in with Google (no password to set, no card) saves every analysis to a private history that is yours permanently. Each entry is a dated snapshot of what the checks found at that moment. Re-running a name later is free, and if you re-analyse something already in your history, Namoly points out that you analysed it before and lets you choose.
3. Compare two names side by side When it comes down to a final two, put them next to each other. The compare view shows both reports in parallel so you can see where one wins and by how much, which is usually more decisive than two overall scores four points apart. Either side can be swapped for another analysis.
4. Let your AI agent run the analyses If you work with an AI agent, you can connect it to Namoly so it runs analyses under your own account, into your own history, using the same four checks. It is useful when you are scoring a batch of candidates rather than one. The setup is covered in connect your AI agent to Namoly.

A practical habit: run your whole shortlist before you fall in love with one of them.

What Namoly is not

It is not a name generator. Namoly will not invent candidates for you, and that is a choice rather than a gap. The hard part of naming was never generating options, it was judging them. We wrote about why that approach disappoints in why AI name generators fall short. Namoly takes the name you already care about and tells you something true about it.

It is not legal advice, and it is not a trademark search. No part of the analysis touches a trademark register, and no score should be read as clearance to use a name. Trademark conflicts are decided by class, jurisdiction, and similarity of goods, none of which a name checker can assess. When a shortlist survives Namoly, that is the point to bring in a professional search.

It is not a domain registrar or a live availability oracle. The domain check uses authoritative registry data with a fallback path and discloses what it could not confirm, but it cannot promise a name will still be free by the time you reach checkout. Treat a promising result as a prompt to go and try registering it. The companion guide on how to check if a brand name is available walks through the full sequence of checks, in the order that saves you the most wasted effort.

It is not the final word. A score is one input into a decision that also involves taste and strategy. Namoly is deliberately narrow: it does the objective part well so you can spend your judgment on the part that needs it. If you want to know what we plan to add next, that lives in where Namoly is headed.

Frequently asked questions

What is Namoly?

Namoly is a free brand name checker. You type a candidate brand name and it returns an explained report in seconds, scoring the name out of 100 on four categories: domain availability, memorability and distinctiveness, phonetics and readability, and cross-language safety. Each category comes with a plain-language justification, one practical tip, and a confidence signal, and the four scores combine into one overall Namoly Score.

Is Namoly free?

Yes. Running an analysis is free, and there is no paid tier to unlock, no credit balance, and no card to enter. You can run one analysis without an account at all. Signing in with Google keeps your analyses in a permanent private history, and re-analysing a name later is also free.

Does Namoly use AI?

Not in the analysis. Every score, justification, and tip is produced by deterministic code and data lookups, which means the same name and the same context always produce the same scores. Nothing is generated on the fly and nothing is guessed by a model. That is a deliberate design choice: a naming decision deserves a result you can re-run and get again.

What does Namoly check?

Four things. Domain availability tests the name across the key TLDs and, when you give target markets, the relevant country domains. Memorability and distinctiveness looks at whether the name is coined and ownable or a generic dictionary word. Phonetics and readability covers length, syllables, pronounceability, and the radio test. Cross-language safety screens for awkward or negative meanings and unfortunate substrings in other languages.

Does Namoly check trademarks or social handles?

No. Namoly does not run any trademark search and does not check social handle availability. A strong Namoly Score is an objective read on the name itself, not legal clearance, so a clean report is a reason to keep going rather than proof you are free to use the name. Run a trademark search and check the handles you care about before you commit.

Do I need an account to use Namoly?

Not to try it. Anyone can run one analysis without signing up and read the full report. An account, created by signing in with Google with no password to set, is what saves your analyses to a permanent private history, lets you compare two of them side by side, and lets you connect an AI agent that runs analyses under your own account.