Ask HN: How do you come up with your domain names?
5 comments
Eight to twelve characters. Pronounceable in English. .com for any projects I care about getting traction. Not copyrighted or trademarked in the primary jurisdictions I care about (US).
Lower priority: If it's mis-spellable can I grab variants on the name myself? If I am grabbing a non .com/net/org is the registrar in a jurisdiction I have any enforcement rights in? Do they seem above board? Are they in danger of getting taken over by private equity goons who will quintuple the registration costs? If it's a country .tld what happens if that country collapses? What happens if that country becomes hostile to my country? I used to say you want a domain name that if someone hears it over the radio or in conversation it's memorable enough that they don't have to do cerebral gymnastics to use it to find your site. Less of an issue with QR codes and the demise of radio as an outreach.
Lately I've been grabbing names based on vaguely Dutch/native American place names where I live.
In 30+ years of dealing with this I’ve learned almost no one but marketing types and CEOs truly care about the domain name. Well, people will say they don't care but I can guarantee whoever owned "flicker.com" circa 2004 got a lot of traffic they didn't know what to do with, same with twitter.com before the guys got the money to buy the "e".
Lower priority: If it's mis-spellable can I grab variants on the name myself? If I am grabbing a non .com/net/org is the registrar in a jurisdiction I have any enforcement rights in? Do they seem above board? Are they in danger of getting taken over by private equity goons who will quintuple the registration costs? If it's a country .tld what happens if that country collapses? What happens if that country becomes hostile to my country? I used to say you want a domain name that if someone hears it over the radio or in conversation it's memorable enough that they don't have to do cerebral gymnastics to use it to find your site. Less of an issue with QR codes and the demise of radio as an outreach.
Lately I've been grabbing names based on vaguely Dutch/native American place names where I live.
In 30+ years of dealing with this I’ve learned almost no one but marketing types and CEOs truly care about the domain name. Well, people will say they don't care but I can guarantee whoever owned "flicker.com" circa 2004 got a lot of traffic they didn't know what to do with, same with twitter.com before the guys got the money to buy the "e".
Pretty much this. I’ll go up to about 16 chars, personally. 20 is too much.
There should be one and only one obvious way to spell it, and preferably one obvious way to pronounce it. (If reasonable people could disagree about pronunciation, the different options should at least be easily recognizable as variants on one another.) There shouldn’t be any alternative pronunciations that resemble anything negative, or any component of the name that can be confused with something prurient or scatalogical (unless the site is porn-related, of course).
The .com should be available, and preferably the .net and .org tho I usually won’t buy those unless I already have funding or significant income from the project.
For names, I like to mine non-English vocabulary for terms that are metaphorically or mythologically connected to the problem or solution the project is about. I have a soft spot for Greek vocab/etymology, and it’s usually the first place I turn; but I’ve also used German, Hindi, Hebrew, and others.
If I’ve got a fantastic name but the domain is taken, I’ll still use the name but with a `-app`or whatever suffix only if the site at the desired domain without that suffix is very clearly not software related (for instance a pest control service or an industrial parts manufacturer or a self-published fantasy novel).
There should be one and only one obvious way to spell it, and preferably one obvious way to pronounce it. (If reasonable people could disagree about pronunciation, the different options should at least be easily recognizable as variants on one another.) There shouldn’t be any alternative pronunciations that resemble anything negative, or any component of the name that can be confused with something prurient or scatalogical (unless the site is porn-related, of course).
The .com should be available, and preferably the .net and .org tho I usually won’t buy those unless I already have funding or significant income from the project.
For names, I like to mine non-English vocabulary for terms that are metaphorically or mythologically connected to the problem or solution the project is about. I have a soft spot for Greek vocab/etymology, and it’s usually the first place I turn; but I’ve also used German, Hindi, Hebrew, and others.
If I’ve got a fantastic name but the domain is taken, I’ll still use the name but with a `-app`or whatever suffix only if the site at the desired domain without that suffix is very clearly not software related (for instance a pest control service or an industrial parts manufacturer or a self-published fantasy novel).
What's your idea about the new .app or .dev .tech or other tech specific domain names?
Would you still go for the .com? Because I feel all the .com domains are currently taken or parked by someone out there
Would you still go for the .com? Because I feel all the .com domains are currently taken or parked by someone out there
I'd still go for the .com. There's just too much stuff biased towards the holy trinity (.com/.net/.org). If you're ok with a country .tld then they're an acceptable second tier to me. There's an entirely undeserved reputation boost to .com domains over pretty much every other TLD that non–technical people believe in (the same people who genuinely think the US Postal Service is telling them to go to www.usps-delivery-confirmation-change-app.xyz to pick up a lost package).
I think if necessary I'd build the thing under a throwaway name (much like how many movies are made by some variant on "Working Title Productions" and not "Batman vs Thor: The Ultimate Crossover"), keep an eye on the parked .com and try to suss out if it's actually acquirable or if the hoarder is delusional.
If you have a name you want use something like SnapNames to try to grab it if it expires (this only works if the domain isn't listed for sale on SnapNames or its affiliates). It can take some time.
Another technique is to look for stale domains (nothing resolves, not even MX records) and see if the registrant records point back to the domain (not as easy with widespread privacy masking) or point to some other dead domain. Assuming they expire before the end of time, when they expire the notices will bounce and the domain will expire.
I think if necessary I'd build the thing under a throwaway name (much like how many movies are made by some variant on "Working Title Productions" and not "Batman vs Thor: The Ultimate Crossover"), keep an eye on the parked .com and try to suss out if it's actually acquirable or if the hoarder is delusional.
If you have a name you want use something like SnapNames to try to grab it if it expires (this only works if the domain isn't listed for sale on SnapNames or its affiliates). It can take some time.
Another technique is to look for stale domains (nothing resolves, not even MX records) and see if the registrant records point back to the domain (not as easy with widespread privacy masking) or point to some other dead domain. Assuming they expire before the end of time, when they expire the notices will bounce and the domain will expire.
But more about how you come up with the domain names.
- Do you like short names? - Longer .com domains?
What do you think about before you buy the domain name?
Given the fact that you don't have a huge capital to buy any domain name.