Parents Are Picking Baby Names Based On Available Domains. I Give Up

Some parents are consulting a website that generates available domain names so parents can be sure that they can dot com their baby. It never even occurred to me to dot com my baby. Clearly, I am not of the future.

Awesome Baby Name is a new tool parents can find online that helps them pick a baby name based on the availability of domains. You plug in your last name, choose “boy,” “girl,” or “whatever,” and a list of totally random names come up. But they happen to have open domains attached to them – so, bonus! You can be sure that your baby has their own domain. Not sure why a parent would register a domain for a baby. People don’t usually use those until they are adults. I guess if you are a fan of setting money on fire, you can pay to maintain the url just in case your kid wants to use it one day.

I plugged in my last name, chose “girl,” and this is what I got:

Screen Shot 2014-08-07 at 10.37.58 AM

Hmm. There were about six more options in addition to these. Adison, Allison, Iris, Caitlin, Cara and Skye. If I liked any of these and was expecting a baby – which I don’t and I’m not – I could hit the “get it” button and purchase little Hayden Guido‘s domain immediately.

Look at the boys names it generated:

Screen Shot 2014-08-07 at 10.49.55 AM

Do you know what name was next, that I couldn’t fit into the screenshot? Alan. Bentley, Soloman, Cooper, Bryson or Alan.

Business partners Karen X. Cheng and Finbarr Taylor were inspired to create the site after Cheng complained that her name was so common, she’ll likely never get to own the domain. She joked with her partner that she wanted to ensure the domain name was available before naming her future child – and the idea for the site was born. Taylor told The Huffington Post:

“It’s important to give your children a fighting chance of having good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in the 21st century. We use search engines all day long to answer our questions and find things, including people. Imagine being called John Smith and trying to get a ranking on Google search. It’s important to give your child a unique name so that people, like potential employers, will be able to find them easily in the future.”

If you were inclined to give your newborn a website, it seems easy enough to actually think of a name that you like, go to Go Daddy or wherever, and plug it in to see if it’s available. I seriously doubt anyone is going to be saying, “Well, Grandfather’s name is Charles, but the url isn’t available so we’ll go with Bentley to ensure a good SEO future.”

I don’t like the future. I would never consider SEO rating when naming a child, so I guess I’m the cyber-parenting equivalent of the old lady who refuses to use the ATM.

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