diff --git a/scrapy/commands/startproject.py b/scrapy/commands/startproject.py
index c266f75c4..5c8783ceb 100644
--- a/scrapy/commands/startproject.py
+++ b/scrapy/commands/startproject.py
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 from __future__ import print_function
-import sys
-import string
 import re
 import shutil
+import string
+from importlib import import_module
 from os.path import join, exists, abspath
 from shutil import copytree, ignore_patterns
 
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ from scrapy.command import ScrapyCommand
 from scrapy.utils.template import render_templatefile, string_camelcase
 from scrapy.exceptions import UsageError
 
+
 TEMPLATES_PATH = join(scrapy.__path__[0], 'templates', 'project')
 
 TEMPLATES_TO_RENDER = (
@@ -22,6 +23,7 @@ TEMPLATES_TO_RENDER = (
 
 IGNORE = ignore_patterns('*.pyc', '.svn')
 
+
 class Command(ScrapyCommand):
 
     requires_project = False
@@ -32,17 +34,33 @@ class Command(ScrapyCommand):
     def short_desc(self):
         return "Create new project"
 
+    def _is_valid_name(self, project_name):
+        def _module_exists(module_name):
+            try:
+                import_module(module_name)
+                return True
+            except ImportError:
+                return False
+
+        if not re.search(r'^[_a-zA-Z]\w*$', project_name):
+            print('Error: Project names must begin with a letter and contain'\
+                    ' only\nletters, numbers and underscores')
+        elif exists(project_name):
+            print('Error: Directory %r already exists' % project_name)
+        elif _module_exists(project_name):
+            print('Error: Module %r already exists' % project_name)
+        else:
+            return True
+        return False
+
     def run(self, args, opts):
         if len(args) != 1:
             raise UsageError()
         project_name = args[0]
-        if not re.search(r'^[_a-zA-Z]\w*$', project_name):
-            print('Error: Project names must begin with a letter and contain only\n' \
-                'letters, numbers and underscores')
-            sys.exit(1)
-        elif exists(project_name):
-            print("Error: directory %r already exists" % project_name)
-            sys.exit(1)
+
+        if not self._is_valid_name(project_name):
+            self.exitcode = 1
+            return
 
         moduletpl = join(TEMPLATES_PATH, 'module')
         copytree(moduletpl, join(project_name, project_name), ignore=IGNORE)
diff --git a/tests/test_commands.py b/tests/test_commands.py
index f7710f03b..eefda833e 100644
--- a/tests/test_commands.py
+++ b/tests/test_commands.py
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@ class StartprojectTest(ProjectTest):
 
         self.assertEqual(1, self.call('startproject', self.project_name))
         self.assertEqual(1, self.call('startproject', 'wrong---project---name'))
+        self.assertEqual(1, self.call('startproject', 'sys'))
 
 
 class CommandTest(ProjectTest):