Check if a Taxonomy Term exists by Term Name

checkTermExistsByName.php

<?php 

/**
*  This helper Drupal 7 function can look up if a term exists and is useful
*  if adding terms in a postImport() method on a migration or
*  if needing to avoid duplicates or relate entities to the term.
*/

public function checkTermExistsByName($name) {
    $query = new EntityFieldQuery();
    $entities = $query->entityCondition('entity_type', 'taxonomy_term')
      ->propertyCondition('name', $name)
      ->range(0, 1)
      ->execute();
    return $entities;
  }