Choosing Your Own Domain Name
One of the questions I see the most is “Help Me Find a Domain Name” and it annoys me to no end. Not only are the people who ask that question usually too lazy to find one for themselves they’re usually too stupid to even find their asses with both hands (not including newbies). Fortunately I’m here to provide all the answers.
So what should you look for in a domain name? Someone once told me to never choose a domain name with more than two words and to stay away from dashes/hyphens. Someones-Too-Stupid-To-Think-For-Themselves.com isn’t something you want to be caught dead with.One of the best ways to figure out what you should look for is to look at what others already have.
- Jemjabella.co.uk – This is a rather well known blog, it’s an odd name (who here has heard of a Jemjabella before?) but it’s easy to remember and spell.
- A List Apart – So this doesn’t exactly fit under the “no more than two words” rule but I think we can look the other way for ALA. It’s relatively short, there aren’t any dashes in the domain name itself (alistapart.com) so it’s still fairly easy to remember and write.
- 3till7 – I’m not an advocate of using numbers in domain names (hu5h.org is an example of one that I wouldn’t choose). It just has a teenybopper feel to it, remember when we used to throw in random numbers and letters to ‘set ourselves apart’? It reminds me of a clock which, I believe, was the owners wish.
- Moosh.nu – It’s unique, it’s one word and above all it’s memorable. Moosh, I like the sound of it.
- Beccary.com – Not only do I love the .com extension this domain name reminds me of my own name (although I use Becky and Becca) so that makes even easier for me to remember. Like Jemjabella, Moosh and 3till7 it’s simple, it’s easy to remember and easy to spell.
- Enlumina.org – This is one of those words that make you feel all warm and fuzzy just from saying it. Again, and maybe it’s just me but I’m definitely starting to see a pattern, it’s simple, it’s one word, it’s easy to remember and spell. Can’t ask for much more than that; can you?
See the recurring trend there? Short simple names that are easy to remember and spell are what you want. Who’s going to remember wicked-thoughts-of-mine.com? That’s just too many words and too many dashes. Wicked.com, on the other hand, is easy to remember and will stick in peoples heads.
To choose your domain name I would highly recommend you invest in a good dictionary and thesaurus, on the off chance you have no other need for either of those books (which is unfortunately all too common) then there are several online thesaurus’ and dictionaries that will suit our purpose just fine.
I went to answers.com and started browsing through various words; I already had an idea of what I wanted in my head. I wanted something that made me think of me, something short and easy to remember and something that would stick in people’s heads. Babble caught my eye, but it wasn’t really all that unique, at least not for me. So I kept browsing and I eventually came across a page that caught my eye, Obscure Words, ooh now, I thought, that’s better! After browsing through the A’s I came upon Babblative in the B’s and the description fit me perfectly:
given to babbling; prattling, prating, loquacious
The rest is, as they say, history. My domain name found I set off to find the perfect extension to go with it (Alex said that Babblative.com’s initials were the initials for Birth Control and the initials of Babblative.org were body odour, that sealed the deal for me).
Hi I'm Becky, often referred to as The Knitting Hillbilly and Pussybear, owner of this site and general nuisance. I'm a knitter, serial complainer, known whistle blower and I run the ever popular