A name is only yours if you can get it everywhere: the domain, the social handles, and the developer namespaces. Check them one at a time and you will miss one. A name sits free as a .com and is already gone on Instagram, GitHub or npm, and you only find out after you have built around it.
So check all of it at once. Type a name into account.name and you see the domains (.com, .ie, .io and more) next to 27 social and developer platforms, from Instagram and TikTok to GitHub and PyPI, on one screen, in seconds.
Why checking one site at a time costs you the name
Here is how it goes wrong. You find the .com is free, you buy it on the spot, and a week later the Instagram handle turns out to belong to someone else. Or you see the .com is taken, you walk away, and you never learn the handle was wide open on every platform your customers actually use.
Both mistakes come from the same habit: checking surfaces in isolation. One free result tells you nothing about the other 27.
If your domain is example.com, your Instagram is @example_official and your GitHub is example-hq, you do not have a brand. You have three strangers wearing the same word.
The three places a name has to be free
| Where | Examples | "Available" means |
|---|---|---|
| Domains | .com, .ie, .io, .co | Unregistered. You can buy it from a registrar today. |
| Social handles | Instagram, X, TikTok, YouTube, Bluesky | No account holds the username. You can claim it free. |
| Developer namespaces | GitHub, npm, PyPI, Docker Hub | No user, org or package owns the name yet. |
Check a name the right way, once
- Search the name in one place. account.name reads domains and 27 handles together, so a single search covers all three surfaces.
- Pick the extension you will actually use. .com is the default. A clean .io or a country domain is often the stronger play.
- Scan the handles that matter. Focus on the two or three platforms your audience lives on, not all 27.
- Claim every free handle now, even on platforms you will not touch for a year. Reserving a username costs nothing and shuts the door on squatters.
- Register the domain once the name holds up across the surfaces you care about.
When the name is taken
A taken name is rarely a dead end. Switch the extension, since a clean .io often beats a compromised .com. Add a short, natural word in front, like get, try, hq or app. Or adjust the spelling, as long as it still says itself out loud.
Pick the name you can hold everywhere, not the one you have to explain.
Whatever you land on, run it through one more check before you commit. One search is the whole point. You only have to do this once.