Any way to check if a component exists?

I am dynamically inserting components into my main component.

The name of the component will be fetched from a config table.

Can we check if the component exists before we try to create it?

I mean something like : check_exists( name = <component_name> ) ?

I am not talking about the has_active_component( ) here. I just want to know if any component by that name exists in the workbench at all or not.

Thanks in adv.