About List Finder

List Finder opens ready-made web searches that turn up word lists saved as CSV or TXT files. Pick a topic, press a search, and the search engine opens in a new tab. When you find a list you like, bring it back here and check which of its names are free as domains.

A "dork" is slang for a search that uses operators: short commands that tell the search engine exactly what to look for.

• filetype:csv asks for CSV files only.
• site:github.com keeps the results to one site.
• A minus sign, as in -filetype:pdf, leaves something out.

Finder writes these for you, so you don't have to remember them. Hover any search button to see the one it will use. The Operator library lists every operator we know.

No. Operators are an ordinary search feature that Google, Bing and the others document for everyone. The word "dork" comes from security researchers, who use the same tricks to find files that were left public by mistake. Finder only looks for word lists that sites publish on purpose, and the Operator library leaves the security-style searches out.

It's a searchable list of the search operators we know, with what each search engine says about them. A "Documented" badge means the engine's own help pages describe the operator. "Works" or "Does not work" is what we saw when we tested it ourselves. Open the Operator library.

More search helpers are coming soon: more ready-made searches, and more search destinations to send them to. Is there a list you could not find, or a site you would like Finder to search? Tell us.

We support Google and SearXNG, and we're still testing other engines. That gives three buttons: Google Search, Google AI and SearXNG. Not every search has all three: Google AI appears only on searches that can be written as a plain sentence.

• Google Search opens Google's plain web results, without the AI Overview, so the operators do their job.
• Google AI opens Google's AI Mode. It gets the request as a sentence ("pet names as a csv list") because AI Mode doesn't follow operators.
• SearXNG is our own search page at search.dnslister.com. It asks Google, Bing, Brave and DuckDuckGo at the same time and combines what they return.

They're settings at the end of a Google address that choose which Google tab opens.

• udm=14 opens the Web tab: plain links, no AI Overview. The Google Search button adds it, so the operators in your search do their job.
• udm=50 opens AI Mode. The Google AI button adds it, along with your request written as a sentence.

Google doesn't document either one, and it could change them. We keep them in a setting rather than in the site's code, so the buttons can be updated quickly if that happens.

Yes, and you don't need Finder for it. Run any Google search, add &udm=14 to the end of the address in your browser bar, and press Enter. For example:

https://www.google.com/search?q=dog+breeds+filetype:csv&udm=14

To make it stick, add a custom search engine in your browser's settings with this address: https://www.google.com/search?q=%s&udm=14. Use &udm=50 instead to go straight to AI Mode.

We're still testing other engines, and more search destinations are coming soon. DuckDuckGo, Bing and Brave are already set up but switched off, because they don't all honour the same operators:

• Bing doesn't document inurl:.
• DuckDuckGo's filetype: officially covers PDF, Office and web pages, not CSV or TXT.

Until they're ready, the SearXNG button already brings back their results. Which engine do you use? Tell us.

Each option adds a few words to the search:

• Hide PDFs adds -filetype:pdf.
• Reduce domain-sale listings leaves out "domain for sale" pages.
• Reduce password/security lists keeps out the security word lists that crowd the results.
• A naming style (Bold, Playful, Elegant and so on) adds phrases such as "power words" or "rare words", to find lists in that mood.
• Match these words as an exact phrase puts your own words in quotes, so they're found together and in that order.

The Preview box shows the full search before you run it.

Try these, one at a time:

• Press Broaden the search, which drops the file-type rule.
• Use fewer words of your own, or untick the exact phrase box.
• Run the same search on another engine. Each engine indexes different files.

Save the file to your computer, then import it on the Lists page. We check which of its words are free as domain names.

Yes. Open it, keep only the column you want, and save it as a CSV file with one name per line. Then import that file.

Check the licence or terms on the page where you found it. Using a list to come up with names for yourself is different from republishing the list. If you plan to share it, follow its licence. And before you register a name, make sure it isn't someone else's trademark.

The account is free. It keeps the buttons for people rather than bots, and it's how My searches remembers what you ran. The Preview works without an account, so you can always copy a search and paste it into a search engine yourself.

No. The search opens on the search engine's own site in a new tab, and we never see what it shows you. We keep a record of the search we sent (the topic, your words and the finished search) so it can appear under My searches. With SearXNG, Google and the others receive the search from our server instead of your browser.

Under My searches, which you can see when you're signed in. It shows your most recent 30.