diff --git a/internal/daemon/vm_create.go b/internal/daemon/vm_create.go
index 1ed4e85..08302c7 100644
--- a/internal/daemon/vm_create.go
+++ b/internal/daemon/vm_create.go
@@ -115,9 +115,12 @@ func (d *Daemon) reserveVM(ctx context.Context, requestedName string, image mode
 		}
 		name = generated
 	}
-	if _, err := d.FindVM(ctx, name); err == nil {
+	// Exact-name lookup. Using FindVM here would also match a new name
+	// that merely prefixes some existing VM's id or another VM's name,
+	// falsely rejecting perfectly valid names.
+	if _, err := d.store.GetVMByName(ctx, name); err == nil {
 		return model.VMRecord{}, fmt.Errorf("vm name already exists: %s", name)
-	} else if !errors.Is(err, sql.ErrNoRows) && !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "not found") {
+	} else if !errors.Is(err, sql.ErrNoRows) {
 		return model.VMRecord{}, err
 	}
 
diff --git a/internal/daemon/vm_create_test.go b/internal/daemon/vm_create_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..81b1fe3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/daemon/vm_create_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
+package daemon
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"path/filepath"
+	"strings"
+	"testing"
+
+	"banger/internal/model"
+	"banger/internal/paths"
+)
+
+// TestReserveVMAllowsNameThatPrefixesExistingVM is a regression for a
+// correctness bug in the name-uniqueness check: reserveVM used to
+// route through FindVM, which falls back to prefix-matching on both
+// ids and names. That meant a perfectly valid new name like "beta"
+// could be rejected simply because an existing VM's id or name
+// started with "beta". Exact-name lookup via store.GetVMByName fixes
+// it. The test seeds a VM whose id and name are long strings, then
+// tries to reserve a new VM with a name that's a prefix of each —
+// both must succeed.
+func TestReserveVMAllowsNameThatPrefixesExistingVM(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	tmp := t.TempDir()
+	d := &Daemon{
+		store:  openDaemonStore(t),
+		layout: paths.Layout{VMsDir: filepath.Join(tmp, "vms"), RuntimeDir: filepath.Join(tmp, "runtime")},
+		config: model.DaemonConfig{BridgeIP: model.DefaultBridgeIP},
+	}
+
+	existing := testVM("longname-sandbox-foobar", "image-x", "172.16.0.50")
+	upsertDaemonVM(t, ctx, d.store, existing)
+
+	image := testImage("image-x")
+	image.ID = "image-x"
+	image.Name = "image-x"
+	if err := d.store.UpsertImage(ctx, image); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("UpsertImage: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	// New VM name is a prefix of the existing id (which is
+	// "longname-sandbox-foobar-id" per testVM). Old FindVM-based check
+	// would reject this.
+	if vm, err := d.reserveVM(ctx, "longname", image, model.VMSpec{VCPUCount: 1, MemoryMiB: 128}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("reserveVM(prefix of id): %v", err)
+	} else if vm.Name != "longname" {
+		t.Fatalf("reserveVM returned name=%q, want longname", vm.Name)
+	}
+
+	// Prefix of the existing name ("longname-sandbox") must also work.
+	if vm, err := d.reserveVM(ctx, "longname-sandbox", image, model.VMSpec{VCPUCount: 1, MemoryMiB: 128}); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("reserveVM(prefix of name): %v", err)
+	} else if vm.Name != "longname-sandbox" {
+		t.Fatalf("reserveVM returned name=%q, want longname-sandbox", vm.Name)
+	}
+}
+
+// TestReserveVMRejectsExactDuplicateName confirms the uniqueness
+// check still catches actual collisions after the FindVM → GetVMByName
+// switch.
+func TestReserveVMRejectsExactDuplicateName(t *testing.T) {
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	tmp := t.TempDir()
+	d := &Daemon{
+		store:  openDaemonStore(t),
+		layout: paths.Layout{VMsDir: filepath.Join(tmp, "vms"), RuntimeDir: filepath.Join(tmp, "runtime")},
+		config: model.DaemonConfig{BridgeIP: model.DefaultBridgeIP},
+	}
+	existing := testVM("sandbox", "image-x", "172.16.0.51")
+	upsertDaemonVM(t, ctx, d.store, existing)
+
+	image := testImage("image-x")
+	image.ID = "image-x"
+	image.Name = "image-x"
+	if err := d.store.UpsertImage(ctx, image); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("UpsertImage: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	_, err := d.reserveVM(ctx, "sandbox", image, model.VMSpec{VCPUCount: 1, MemoryMiB: 128})
+	if err == nil {
+		t.Fatal("reserveVM with duplicate name should have failed")
+	}
+	if !strings.Contains(err.Error(), "already exists") {
+		t.Fatalf("err = %v, want 'already exists'", err)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/internal/store/store.go b/internal/store/store.go
index 7ddc941..f87b559 100644
--- a/internal/store/store.go
+++ b/internal/store/store.go
@@ -203,6 +203,20 @@ func (s *Store) GetVMByID(ctx context.Context, id string) (model.VMRecord, error
 	return scanVMRow(row)
 }
 
+// GetVMByName is the exact-name lookup used for creation-time
+// uniqueness checks. Unlike GetVM (which matches id OR name) and
+// Daemon.FindVM (which also falls back to prefix-matching), this
+// returns sql.ErrNoRows for anything except a literal name hit, so
+// a new VM can't be rejected just because its name prefixes an
+// existing VM's id or an existing VM's name.
+func (s *Store) GetVMByName(ctx context.Context, name string) (model.VMRecord, error) {
+	row := s.db.QueryRowContext(ctx, `
+	SELECT id, name, image_id, guest_ip, state, created_at, updated_at, last_touched_at,
+	       spec_json, runtime_json, stats_json
+	FROM vms WHERE name = ?`, name)
+	return scanVMRow(row)
+}
+
 func (s *Store) ListVMs(ctx context.Context) ([]model.VMRecord, error) {
 	rows, err := s.db.QueryContext(ctx, `
 	SELECT id, name, image_id, guest_ip, state, created_at, updated_at, last_touched_at,