Abstract: Apparatus and methods are described in which a namespace is protected against misleading registration of names within the namespace. A list of canonically expressed text strings is maintained. A concordancer is defined, which concordancer may be updated from time to time as, for example, characters are added to a permitted character set for the namespace. When a first user attempts to register a proposed name within the namespace, the proposed name is subjected to an attempted match to each of the outputs of the concordancer with respect to each of the canonically expressed text strings on the list. In the event of a match, the attempted registration is not permitted to proceed. The protection may be implemented simultaneously across multiple namespaces, each having its own respective concordancer.