Apparently naming your kids just got more complicated. Prior to filling out your newborn’s birth certificate, you’d better check and see if the domain name is available. Wired News covers the story of how parents are snapping up domain names at birth “just in case:”
A small but growing number of parents are getting domain names for their young kids, long before they can do more than peck aimlessly at a keyboard.
It’s not known exactly how many, but the practice is no longer limited to parents in Web design or information technology.
They worry that the name of choice might not be available by the time their babies become teens or adults, just as someone claimed the “.com” for Britney Spears’ 11-month-old son before she could.
The trend hints at the potential importance of domain names in establishing one’s future digital identity.
Yikes. I barely registered mine a couple of months ago. I guess I lucked out that no one else with my name beat me to it. While I applaud parents for being forward-thinking, I’m not sure what to think of the parents who based their name choice on whether a domain name was available:
In fact, before naming his child, Mark Pankow checked to make sure “BennettPankow.com” hadn’t already been claimed.
“One of the criteria was, if we liked the name, the domain had to be available,” Pankow said. It was, and Pankow quickly grabbed Bennett’s online identity.
Personally, I think your children will appreciate you more if you check what kind of nicknames can be derived from a potential name and choose accordingly. The playground is much meaner than the Internet for most nine year olds.
Leave a Reply