Domains for Your Children

It doesn't end with their names

[Webwork]

Sure, it's a good idea and, perhaps a nice gift, to register your child's name as a domain name.

Have you done that? If not, do it.

Did you stop there? Maybe you should pause to ponder the role of the WWW in your child's future.

What about their favorite hobby, pasttime, talent? Might it be natural for your child to someday want to have a website or blog about their favorite activity? Perhaps in the future (like now) kids won't be flipping burgers at Mickey D's or delivering newspapers, like I did when I was 12. Maybe they are future affiliate marketers? At least for making money for car insurance . . .?

What about their career? Are your children of the age where they are talking about a career path or career ideas? Might you do some good by picking up a domain or two related to their possible career interests?

I know. Things change so you don't know for certain what domains to register and you might not know what domains to register for a 2 year old. Still, if you register a domain that's not your kid's love later in life maybe someone else might someday inquire and reimburse your costs.

While you are busy encouraging your children to study hard and all that other stuff you do as a parent you might consider whether having the right website name - today, in 2007 - might afford him or her a bit of a marketplace advantage later in life - in next year.

Domains for kids: It's not just about the names your chose for them.

[jdancing]

Definitely, if available register your kids firstlastname.com

Chances are when they are older it won't be available. I was lucky enough to get my lastname.com about 5 years ago. I am sure it would be long gone by now.

[reprint]

I picked up a couple that i thought my kid might get into. She expressed some mild interest but when it came time to do some work, it wasnt happening. Shes just entered her teens so there is still time and perhaps its the blank canvas effect, so i might fill in a little and let her try taking it from there. Also thought perhaps stopping the allowance or pointing out the extra clothes that she could by with some extra cash but shes young yet so i will give it some time and she may not even take to it. I can develop the sites myself if shes not interested anyway. Its worthwhile making the opportunity available at least.

[rich_b]

Has anyone named their kid based on what domain names were still available?

[vincevincevince]

Has anyone named their kid based on what domain names were still available?

Don't forget that you can bypass trademark restrictions if a trademark is your name. e.g. if I called a kid 'Webmasterworld', he'd be able to register and use any unregistered WebmasterWorld.TLD ...

[Marshall]

Has anyone considered online predators with this?

Marshall

[reprint]

Marshall:
I think the point was to buy firstnamelastname.tld now as an investment so it is available to your child later in life. Personally I would not put anything on such a domain for an underage child.
For any of the domains I got for my daughter, there was nothing to identify her or identify her age and she certainly wouldn't be doing it without my help.

Having said that, there are plenty of family websites with photos etc out there and you will find plenty of photos of kids both with and without their parents posted by their parents on dating websites.

Common sense (often not so common) should prevail.

[Marshall]

Common sense should prevail.

Wishful thinking!? I'm just playing the devil's advocate. I am sure people on this forum are wise enough, but the same cannot be said for the general public. If that were true, there would not be so many successful email scams and such.

Marshall

[Matt Probert]

Regarding children and web sites, I started a web site with my nine year old daughter, the domain name is not her name, but the site was designed by her with me, for her and other cjildren, but I maintain a tight reign. Emails are accessible only by me, the site doesn't promote the child as a child, but rather I hope makes it clear that there is an adult behind it at the helm.

Not only was I concerned about nasty grownups preying on children, but I was also oncerned about parents suspecting I was such a predator.

All I can say is parents have a duty of care. We don't allow our children to play near busy roads, not should we allow them unbridled access to the web.

Matt

[Receptional Andy]

I have a domain name for my son - I monitor the stats closely and have also ensured that personally identifiable information is not published. This is also one of the times when anonymised WHOIS has a genuine use.

Certainly, the ease with which home addresses can appear in WHOIS is a bit of worry for me as far as Joe Public is concerned.

[callivert]

My son is currently three. I can't imagine him being interested until he's finished college and got serious about life. By then, will domains still matter?
I see four possible scenarios in 2027;
1) the relationship between browsers and search is completely blurred. new technologies that have no relationship to domain names increasingly drive navigation. domains are no longer relevant.
2) there's a kind of inverse power distribution of domains, with .com king, followed by .org, .net, but but a long tail of TLDs, and the public are more aware of the wide range available;
3) local dominates domaining, no point in generic .coms.
4) domains are totally locked down. The only people in the game are corporations, obscenely rich individuals, and those "lucky #*$!s" individuals that bought in way back around the turn of the millenium.

Of course, we all hope that it's (4), or at least (3).

[Laker]

Has anyone named their kid based on what domain names were still available?

Reuters carried a story [uk.reuters.com] a couple of weeks ago:

"A Chinese couple tried to name their baby "@", claiming the character used in e-mail addresses echoed their love for the child, an official trying to whip the national language into line said on Thursday." [Aug 16, 2007]

[jcoronella]

I registered my son's name ON the day he was born. I think it's cool that he has a domain creation date on his birthday... hope he does too. ;)

I'm lucky he was born in the wee hours of the morning, and I had all day. My wife didn't really appreciate that I had a brand new son, and I scurried off to register a domain.

[Trax]

got some names registered already... now all i need is kids!

[edited by: Webwork at 1:54 pm (utc) on Sep. 8, 2007]
[edit reason] Tidying up [/edit]

[nomis5]

Just registered my son's name as a domain name. Thanks for the idea. Yes, domain names will still be important in 20 years time. The speed of change in life gives the illusuion that basic facts change as fast as the tittle tattle of life. They don't change at the same speed. I remember 30 years ago the introduction of programs which promised that computer programmers would be redundant in 5 years time. 30 years down the line we still have computer programers writing the same old spaghetti code. The languages have changed but the basic need for a computer programmer is still here. We're still driving cars, still cooking meals, still having kids etc etc.

Domain namess will be important for a long time to come.

[buckworks]

I bought a domain name for my oldest son, but he was well past childhood.

He had plans to buy the company he was working for (the owner wanted to retire), but they didn't have a website or even a domain in waiting. I was able to pick up the perfect domain on a drop catch. It made a really cool Christmas gift a couple of years ago!

[farmboy]

I registered my son's name ON the day he was born. I think it's cool that he has a domain creation date on his birthday... hope he does too. ;)

Another cool thing to do when a child is born is to go out and buy as many different newspapers as you can for that day and buy current issues of leading magazines. Put them in an archival box. The child will enjoy reading about the world when he was born later on in life.

FarmBoy

[jdancing]

I registered my son's name ON the day he was born. I think it's cool that he has a domain creation date on his birthday...

Very cool

[pageoneresults]

I registered my son's name ON the day he was born. I think it's cool that he has a domain creation date on his birthday.

It was my goal to register my daughter's name on the day she was born but I was just too caught up in the moment to think about anything but her. It took me three days before I came to my senses! Not only did I get her firstnamelastname.com, I secured all the other major TLDs. That way she's covered depending on what she decides to do. ;)

I also went one step further and got firstnamemiddlename.com. She'll like that. All of them are registered in 10 year intervals. I'm not taking any chances.

Don't forget, this not only applies to children. It could apply to your parents, grandparents, etc. firstnamelastname.com TLDs are a one time deal. To receive one as a gift is priceless.

If you really want to go overboard, just by an entire TLD portfolio for the recipient! Get all the TLDs while they are still available. Register them for 10 years (or whatever the max available) at a pop.

Presentation

Go to your local office supplies store. Find the preprinted bordered certificates. You know, they have them with gold leaf and other intricate designs. Get a few of them. Next time you purchase a TLD for someone as a gift, present it to them in certificate form. You could even go as far as framing it. Again, these are once in a lifetime gifts.

Someone also needs to make sure that the registration of the domain remains in force at all times. You don't want those expiring. Since I manage the ones I've purchased, when renewals come up, I'll just send another card with a confirmation that I've renewed the domain for 10 more years as a gift. At some point they will want me to develop a website. :)

[encyclo]

I have a hyphenated surname, and one which most people tend to write as one word. This complicates matters as I have to buy both the hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions to be sure. :)

I paid little attention to buying personal domains until recently, and I severely regret missing out on registering the .com of my surname (registered in 2004), and worse, the .ca of my son's first name - which was registered three months after his birth. I own the .ca of my surname (hyphenated and non-hyphenated) which is absolutely perfect for use as my personal email address: firstname at last-name dot ca.

[edited by: encyclo at 7:12 pm (utc) on Sep. 8, 2007]

[waynet]

I was lucky enough to get my lastname.com about 5 years ago.

That's pretty lucky. My lastname.com was registered in 1989 so no chance for me on that one. Best I could do is my firstname-lastname.com.

[sugarrae]

I own firstnamelastname.com for my two youngest children. My oldest son, I could only get firstmiddlelastname.com because he has a common first and last name. My middle daughter also owns several domains related to her interests (she is the only one who has any atm)... I've always said my kids will blog to earn allowance when they're old enough... anything made over their allowance from profits goes into college funds. Sounds nuts to some, but perfectly logical to me.

[Laker]

I also went one step further and got firstnamemiddlename.com.

I know two teenage girls who are now using their first name - middle name as their "name of choice" -- I dunno if this is the "latest new name" ;-) or just a coincidence. (I don't have daughters.)

First name - middle name for daughters also allows for marriage name changes :-p

[2oddSox]

I went for the 'lastname.tld' option (the .com was long gone, but I found a pretty good alternative) and then set up a subdomain for each member of the family. This gives everyone an e-mail address of [e-mail] and it's a lot cheaper.

[wedmaster]

good idea.but i don't have a child yet,so if i have a child,check the domain if it's viable befor give him a name.

[Laker]

good idea.but i don't have a child yet,so if i have a child,check the domain if it's viable befor give him a name.

heh ... whois could come to replace the ubiquitous "100,000 Baby Names" books.

[Habtom]

good idea.but i don't have a child yet,so if i have a child,check the domain if it's viable befor give him a name.

It seems we got one more factor in selecting baby names.

[amznVibe]

You know what the "coolest" thing will become to do when you get self-aware and are internet savvy?
Stop using the domain name your parents gave you.

I can see parents eventually doing UDRP to get the domain name back :D

[edited by: amznVibe at 1:07 pm (utc) on Sep. 9, 2007]

[hannamyluv]

my kids will blog to earn allowance when they're old enough

Sounds logical to me. I have web lessons with my oldest son every Monday. He is 11 now, so he is starting to learn PHP. The deal is that when he turns 12, I will teach him to make money from his site.

I bought aboutfirstname.com for each of my kids. I felt a bit nervous about the firstlastname.com because of the perdator threat online. I figured just having the first name gave some anonimity.

[HelenDev]

Don't forget that you can bypass trademark restrictions if a trademark is your name. e.g. if I called a kid 'Webmasterworld', he'd be able to register and use any unregistered WebmasterWorld.TLD ...

But can you call a kid 'Webmasterworld' knowing it is already trademarked by someone else, and then claim rights to the domain name?

Will it have to go to court where both the ownership of the name and the kid will be legally awarded to Webmasterworld? ;)