This article sits under our pillar: Find a Startup Name You Can Own. It focuses on one problem — the ChatGPT → WHOIS → Taken loop — with a fixed-brief sample you can re-run.
Sample methodology (July 12, 2026).
Brief: “B2B analytics dashboard for indie SaaS founders.” We asked a general LLM for 10 short brand-style names, then recorded .com / .net outcomes from public DNS/RDAP-style checks the same day. Outcomes below are a methodology sample, not a live guarantee — re-check before you buy.
Sample check log
| Candidate | .com | .net | Registerable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| indiemetric | Taken | Taken | No |
| saaspulse | Taken | Taken | No |
| foundash | Taken | Available* | No |
| metricly | Available* | Available* | Yes* |
| shipcharts | Taken | Available* | No |
| bootstrack | Taken | Taken | No |
| mrrlens | Available* | Available* | Yes* |
| cohortly | Taken | Taken | No |
| indieboard | Taken | Available* | No |
| opsignal | Taken | Taken | No |
*Snapshot for the methodology test only. In this sample, 2/10 cleared both .com and .net — enough to feel hope, not enough to finish a naming night if you discover that after 40 minutes of tab-switching.
What the loop costs
Builder communities repeatedly describe 45 minutes to several hours (sometimes days) on the same loop. Price is not the blocker — ChatGPT’s marginal cost feels like zero. Time and false attachment to taken names are.
How to break it
- Stop treating generation and availability as separate apps.
- Use an explicit registerable gate (.com + .net).
- Prefer availability-first naming over generate-then-check.
- Compare tools on workflow, not “who invents prettier words” — see nameaha vs ChatGPT & Namelix.
Put the fix into practice in nameaha — domain checks free; credits only for registerable AI names.