namehawk

How to find available .com domains in fan fiction

Updated · Edited and reviewed by the NameHawk editor before publishing. How we make these guides

Fan fiction communities have their own rich vocabulary: story formats, tropes and genres that millions of readers use daily, and that the wider internet adopts years later.

The trick is separating that shared vocabulary from the characters and places in any one story, which belong to someone else.

Where to look

Why this works

Fandom vocabulary is unusually durable because it names feelings and formats rather than products: a word for a kind of story people want to read keeps working as long as people want that story. Several terms that started in fandom, like 'shipping', are now general internet English.

The work is separating that shared vocabulary from story-specific names. Overview articles are the efficient place to find it; archive listings show you what's in use right now but are dominated by character names, as our scan of one tag shows.

Step by step

  1. 1

    Start with overviews of fan fiction culture, which collect its general vocabulary in one place.

  2. 2

    Scan a popular tag's works listing on Archive of Our Own to see which tropes are in use right now.

  3. 3

    Set aside anything that's a character, place or franchise term.

  4. 4

    Keep format and trope words ('ficlet', 'whump'): they travel across fandoms.

  5. 5

    Check their .coms, and search trademarks before you register.

What NameHawk found

A selection of the words NameHawk flagged as new on these pages when they were scanned on September 19, 2026. They are candidate words, not names confirmed available: that scan didn't check their .coms, and some are already registered. Scan the page yourself to see what's there today and which .coms are available now.

Wikipedia's Fan fiction article

  • darkfic
  • uberfic
  • fanworks
  • songfics
  • whump
  • hanahaki
  • dead dove

Archive of Our Own's Alternate Universe tag

  • fallen angel
  • tea parties
  • coastal village

What makes a good find here

  • Format and genre words that every fandom uses ('darkfic', 'songfic').
  • Trope names that describe a feeling or situation ('whump', 'hanahaki').
  • Community vocabulary about writing and reading itself ('fanworks').

What to watch out for

  • Character, place and franchise names belong to the franchise's owner.
  • Archive of Our Own's listings change by the hour and are mostly story-specific names; the general vocabulary is easier to find in overviews.
  • Some trope names refer to adult or dark content. Know what a word means before building on it.

Check trademarks before you register

  • Search the exact word in USPTO Trademark Search for US marks, and in the WIPO Global Brand Database for international and other national registers.
  • A trademark holder can challenge a domain it sees as an abusive registration under ICANN's Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP), a fast administrative process run by approved providers. See ICANN's UDRP page.
  • NameHawk can't tell you whether a word is protected. It only demotes words written like names. Ask a trademark lawyer before you build on a name that matters to you.

Common questions

Can I register a word that comes from a fandom?
Words that describe formats and tropes are generic. Names from the source material, characters, places, spells, belong to the rights holder; search trademarks first.
Why do archive listings look so different each time?
They show recent works, which change hourly. Scan a few times, and rely on overviews for the stable vocabulary.

The other nine methods

Scan a page for new words