By Kanyon · Kanyon Studio · Updated November 12, 2026
Most of the obvious .com names are taken, but good ones become free to register every day. Around 100,000 .com domains reach the end of their life and are released daily, and most are never registered again. This is the process we use to find a short, available .com for a new brand, with the free tool we built for it, Domains Open.
What makes a name work
- It passes the phone test. Someone who hears it once can type it correctly. Hyphens, numbers and unusual spellings all need explaining.
- It is easy to say. People favour names they can process easily. A Princeton study found that shares of companies with easy-to-pronounce names did better in the days after their stock-market debut than those with hard-to-pronounce names.
- It is short. Fewer letters mean fewer typos and a name that fits a logo, a label and a social handle.
- It is a .com. At the middle of 2026, .com held 166.6 million of the 401.6 million domain names registered worldwide, about eight times the next largest extension. It is still the address people guess first.
- It leaves room to grow. A name tied to one product, one city or one trend is harder to outgrow.
More detail: what makes a good domain name.
Where good available names come from
A .com that is not renewed goes through a grace period of up to 45 days, a 30-day redemption period and five days of pending delete. The registry then releases it in a daily drop, which has started at 12:00 UTC since October 2026. Anyone can register a released name at the normal price. Here is how expired .com domains become available, step by step.
Most released names are not wanted by anyone. Researchers studying .com deletions found that only about one in ten deleted names is registered again on the day it is released. Domains Open checks the 400 best-scoring names of every drop with the registry a few hours later. In the week to November 11, 2026, about two in three were still unregistered. The numbers for each day are in the daily drop reports.
A simple process
- Write down the feel, not the name. Three or four words for how the brand should sound: calm, technical, playful, premium.
- Browse names that are open now. Good .com names available right now lists recently released names that are still unregistered, each scored out of 100 on the name itself. You can also browse by industry.
- Say the shortlist out loud. Cut anything you have to spell for someone.
- Check each name's history. An expired domain may have been used for spam. Five free checks take about ten minutes.
- Search for trademarks. Use the USPTO trademark search and the trademark office of any country you plan to sell in.
- Register it yourself. Any registrar works, at the normal price. Domains Open never buys or bids on names; it links you to registrars.
If the name you want is taken
Check the name. If it is on its way out, the registry record shows the stage, and once it reaches pending delete the release day is fixed. You can watch it and be alerted when it opens. For a name several people want, a backorder with a drop-catching service is how you compete. If the name is simply renewed every year, choose another one.
Then build the brand around it
A name that is easy to say does more work with a clear identity behind it: a logo that reads at small sizes, consistent colour and type, and a website that loads quickly. Kanyon Studio designs brand identities and builds websites for new businesses. Tell us about your new brand to request a quote within 24 hours.
Domains Open is a free tool built by Kanyon Studio. More are on the free tools page.