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by Mike Masnick


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Filed Under:
baby names, domain names

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Picking Baby Names Based On The Availability Of The Dot Com

from the a-sign-of-the-times dept

There are some really cool tools out there for people trying to come up with baby names, but apparently some parents are now mostly concerned about what names will have a URL available, so they can register it well before the kid is ever going to use it. This isn't too surprising as a sign of the times, but it does make you wonder if there will be fewer and fewer of stories like the one found recently in the Washington Post of a guy who tried to find all the people around the world who shared his name. Given the combination of a more global communications system and the desire to have a place of your own online, the quest for truly unique names may become even more important.

20 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 

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  1. by n3rdkw - Aug 22nd, 2007 @ 11:43pm

    Somone should name their kid Ephen

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  2. ROFL

    by Jeff - Aug 23rd, 2007 @ 1:35am

    Well, at least there's a simple solution to this. We just direct those sorts of parents to have abortions or to drown the children if they're religious, that way that child won't have to grow up as a personal fucking billboard for the parents. I'm sure being raised like that would at LEAST make you be into fucking corpses or get into crossdressing or something. We don't need those kinda people walking around.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  3. Parents

    by mk429 - Aug 23rd, 2007 @ 2:18am

    It's this type of thing that makes me wonder whether people should need a license to have children, or at least pass some sort of basic exam. Some people should really not be trusted to raise kids..

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  4. Re: ROFL

    by Yangyang - Aug 23rd, 2007 @ 2:26am

    What's wrong with crossdressing?
    Curious too why you would choose necrophilia as an example of a screwed up person.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  5. Re: Re: ROFL

    by CT - Aug 23rd, 2007 @ 2:49am

    Um, dude, you do know that necrophilia is the desire to have sex with dead bodies, don't you. That WOULD be pretty screwed up...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  6. Re: Re: Re: ROFL

    by Yangyang - Aug 23rd, 2007 @ 2:55am

    Yea Dude, I know this, but you can be screwed up without being a necrophiliac.
    Anyway, i checked my own name in google and my name came up first. How about that for an ego-trip.
    Btw, you did not say what was wrong with crossdressing.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  7. Re: Re: Re: ROFL

    by Yangyang - Aug 23rd, 2007 @ 2:58am

    Yea Dude, I know this, but you can be screwed up without being a necrophiliac.
    Anyway, i checked my own name in google and my name came up first. How about that for an ego-trip.
    Btw, you did not say what was wrong with crossdressing.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  8. Bonifa Latifa Sharifa Shar Jackson?

    by GoblinJuice - Aug 23rd, 2007 @ 4:47am

    bonifalatifasharifasharjackson.com

    is available!

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  9. by Rational Beaver - Aug 23rd, 2007 @ 7:28am

    Does-this-mean-that-people-are-going-to-start-adding-dashes-in-between-their-names?

    Oh wait...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  10. My name

    by Witty Nickname - Aug 23rd, 2007 @ 8:53am

    I am having a baby soon, I checked FirstnameLastname.com for hime. I have a semi-common last name (No Smith or Jones, but it is not Abbadulakabob) and I am giving my child a popular first name and it is not registered.

    Well, it wann't before I registered it - thanks for the tip.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  11. Re: My name

    by junior - Aug 23rd, 2007 @ 9:52am

    same here. did the same thing LOL

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  12. by Anonymous Coward - Aug 23rd, 2007 @ 10:28am

    Interesting post here on the "Branding Up of Baby"

    http://www.crucialminutiae.com/?p=559

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  13. Thanks for the baby name link

    by Alex Hagen - Aug 23rd, 2007 @ 10:43am

    I don't have any comment on the main topic of this article, other to say that the book Freakonomics shows an inverse correlation between wierd names and future earning. Maybe it is not a causal link, but you might want to name your babies carefully just in case.

    But I would like to thank Mike for the baby name website. That's a very cool application, and will probably be useful for me in about 7 months.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  14. Oh great...

    by Sanguine Dream - Aug 23rd, 2007 @ 10:54am

    I can already see a whole new round of domain squatting coming from this...

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  15. by Matt Bennett - Aug 23rd, 2007 @ 11:49am

    yeah, you can google me forever never find me. Common name and all. Conversely, google my screen name Sir_Prometheus, you'll find posts and such I made real easy. (mostly forums talking about dorky pursuits)

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  16. baby names

    by baby names and meanings - Aug 26th, 2007 @ 3:24am

    Most top domain names are not given name based. Short and memorable company names are really what people remember - such as Google, Yahoo, etc. It may be best to find one and register for it, instead of using a baby's name.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  17. by A Key - Nov 24th, 2007 @ 4:35pm

    Lots of great Angel names around, not just the usual Michael and Gabriel and Angela - thousands of them, just avoid the ones that are hard to spell.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  18. Baby name

    by cyclone - Dec 4th, 2007 @ 9:40pm

    I have never heard of this until now, that is checking the name against url's very interesting as we are planning on having kids soon. will have to check against some names.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  19. Choosing a Baby Name

    by Humble - Mar 14th, 2008 @ 8:16pm

    Whatever happened to showing respect for one's seniors by naming them after wise and revered predecessors? Now we look for something unique and odd and domain-worthy. We are indeed in the final days of humanity.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  20. how to get new variations?

    by Tam - Jul 14th, 2008 @ 9:48am

    Hmm, are there websites to check available domain names automatically for all variations of name? Most provide only a list of variations, like here: meaning of Shiloh

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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