When a domain comes before the name
Add one more factor when deciding on your child’s name - whether or not the domain is available.
Take the case of baby Bennett, before naming his child, dad 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.
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. Although some parents have yet to use the domain names they’ve bought, others are sending visitors to baby photos, blogs and other personal sites.
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.
Even though currently, the number are very low, the trend hints at the potential importance of domain names in establishing one’s future digital identity.
Others like Melissa Coleman of Springfield, Mass., grabbed Hotmail addresses for her two kids.
Given the emphasis on privacy, I wonder how many people would actually use the domain for putting up information about themselves, which might just defeat the purpose.
[Via]
Filed under: Digital culture, Trends