What's New in DNSLister for September 2026: Smarter Scores, an Easier Builder, and Two New Tools

September made DNSLister better at the hard part: not finding available names, but finding good ones. Here's what changed.

A Domain Score that knows real words

The Domain Score now looks at a name the way a person does.

• Real-word parts. A name built from real words earns a bonus. Chestnut is chest + nut, and it scores like it.
• "Does this look like a word?" Invented names now get a letter-plausibility score, so a made-up name you can actually say out loud ranks above a jumble of consonants.
• Fewer ties at the top. Fewer names hit 100, so the best ones stand apart.
• Junk hidden by default. Names with a negative score are hidden unless you ask to see them (you can change this in Settings).
• Scores on Quick Lookup. Every Quick Lookup result shows its Domain Score, and taken names still show what their words are worth.

The Search Builder has an Easy mode

The Search Builder opens in Easy mode now: a few clear choices and a Run button. Advanced is one click away when you want every setting.

Not sure where to start? Answer "What are you naming?" (a startup, a shop, a podcast) and the Random button rolls a word-list pair that fits.

Two new tools

• Acronym Maker. Type a club, team or company name and get acronym ideas to check as domains.
• Anagram Lookup. Type a jumble of letters and get the real words it spells.

Both are on the Tools page, which now has a Sort dropdown with the recommended tools first.

Favorites got a lot of love

• Search your favorites, and tag names right when you save them.
• Remove favorites by length, or clear out taken ones in one click.
• Empty the Recently Deleted trash when you're done with it.
• A favorite remembers which search it came from, even after that search is deleted.

Word lists

• Pin a list so it stays at the top of your pickers.
• Unique Words (Mine) collects every word from all your own lists, first in every picker.
• Related Lists on each list's page suggests lists that go well with it.
• Safe mode keeps mature topics out of lists and pickers by default for new accounts. You choose what to hide in Settings.

Smaller things worth knowing

• Premium trial in one click. "Start my 30-day trial now" on Premium turns it on immediately, no waiting for approval.
• Hyphenated names check each word alone too, so blue-fox also tells you about blue and fox.
• .at, .ie and .sk are back in searches.
• A blog. You're reading it. Posts like this one now have their own Feature Enhancements category.

Tell us what to build next

Most of these came from people telling us what got in their way. If something slows you down, send us a note. We read every one.