The name you want is taken. Here’s why that’s a good thing.

Let’s say you’re founding an AI company or launching an AI product. You’re going to change how people work, think, and create. And you know exactly what you want for your name: “short, memorable, punchy.” Ideally a real word. “Think Apple,” you say. “Think Stripe.”

I get it. I really do. I’ve lived versions of this scenario hundreds of times. 

Here’s where things get tricky: Of the 1,000 most frequently used words in English, 81% are already registered as trademarks. The ones that remain? They’re mostly words with negative connotations, like “died,” “disease,” and “problem.” Or, they’re words with questionable sales appeal like “least,” “perhaps,” and “probably.”

If you’re willing to work with the remaining words that don’t fall into those categories, you’ve got three options: “Although,” “Showed,” and “Seemed.” 

Not exactly what you had in mind, eh?

The uncomfortable truth about trademark classes

When you register a trademark, you claim it within one or more of 45 specific classes of goods and services. For AI companies, two classes matter most: Class 9 covers downloadable software, apps, and hardware. Class 42 covers web-based software, SaaS platforms, and cloud services. 

These classes aren’t just crowded—they’re a full-blown housing crisis. We can’t invent new words fast enough to meet the demand.

Since the 1980s, every software company, hardware manufacturer, app developer, and now AI startup has been filing trademarks in Classes 9 and 42. According to Harvard Law Review research from 2018, when you include words that are “confusingly similar” to existing trademarks—not just exact matches—97.1% of the most common English words are off the table. Of the top 10,000 U.S. surnames, all but 19 are taken. 

And that was before the AI boom even started.

Now, every company is an AI company. Your smart toaster remembers your preferences. Your self-cleaning litterbox has AI waste-detection. Your hairbrush connects to your weather app to predict frizz. This means that instead of a subset of tech companies fighting over naming rights in Classes 9 and 42, everyone is fighting over them.

What you think you want (and why you can’t have it).

I see this wish list all the time:

• Short (4-6 letters)
• A real word in English
• Easy to spell and pronounce
• .com available
• Means something relevant to what you do

Teenagers today may be making the same questionable fashion choices that I did, but it’s not the nineties and we shouldn’t be naming with a list of criteria from the era of Windows95. 

Creative workarounds: Some work better than others

Some approaches help you stand out. Others just make you look like everyone else who couldn’t get their first choice. 

• Portmanteaus. Also known as wordsmash. These can work, though they often feel dated and corporate. Think: Verizon. They were very popular in the 90s and early 2000s, and they carry that energy with them. 
• Misspelling. Dropped vowels or swapped letters create ongoing friction—you’ll spend years correcting people. I imagine folks at Lyft in the early days, spelling “el-why-eff-tee” every time they said the name. On top of that, they don’t help with trademark clearance. The USPTO evaluates similarity by sound, appearance, and meaning. So if the real world is taken, your “creative” spelling still creates likelihood of confusion. You haven’t really differentiated, you’ve just made a harder-to-spell version of the same concept.
• Empty vessels. Empty vessels come in many forms. Some are coined words, some are real. They may or may not have meaning at first glance. They might carry subtle associations—either on the surface or underneath it. Others are entirely blank canvases. Think: Etsy. These names might require more work to establish meaning, but once you do, the word becomes synonymous with your brand. 
• Longer names. More words mean more flexibility, and better success with trademark registration. More syllables, like Patagonia, or even multiple words like The North Face are not too long. They have a point of view and are more memorable because of it.
• Words from outside your industry. Names that bring unexpected associations, that surprise people, that respect people’s intelligence. Part of the magic of these names is the context. Think: Field Recordings for a winery or Lovemachine for surfboards. 

Setting realistic expectations

If we’re going to work together on naming, here’s what will help us do our best work:

• Let go of the “safe” choice. The name you think you want is probably the name everyone wants. That’s why it’s not available, and why it wouldn’t serve you well even if it were. These names aren’t safe at all. They carry legal risk and are generally forgettable. I know it can feel vulnerable to go somewhere unexpected, but trust the process. 
• The trademark search happens early. We don’t spend weeks falling in love with a name only to discover it’s unavailable. Classes 9 and 42 will eliminate most favorites—this pushes us toward better territory.
• Flexibility is your friend. Be open to the unfamiliar, the longer, the unexpected. The “perfect” name probably doesn’t exist. But the right name does, and it’s often something neither of us would have thought of at the start.
• Legal clearance ≠ domain availability. Both matter, but trademark protection matters infinitely more. You can negotiate for a domain or use a creative suffix or alternate extension. You cannot buy your way out of trademark infringement.

The companies that succeed aren’t the ones who got the “obvious” name. They’re the ones who went somewhere unexpected and made it work. They’re the ones who had the confidence to be different.

Our philosophy at A Hundred Monkeys is simple: Good branding is about differentiation. If you let us do what we do best, we’re going to find you a name that sets you apart. We’re going to push you toward something distinctive. And yes, it might feel uncomfortable at first. That discomfort is often a sign that we’re onto something. It means you’re not blending into the crowd. The trademark landscape isn’t going to get less crowded. But I’ve seen again and again that working within these constraints is where the most interesting solutions emerge.

Because at the end of the day, you don’t want a name that could belong to anyone. You want a name that could only belong to you.