July 12, 2004

4:24 AM

I am looking to create a domain name. I have researched the general rules for choosing a good name, but I am wondering if there is any research or any information out there on how to create a name (prefix and suffix examples maybe?) that are as phonetically unambiguous as possible. For example, woo.com could also be spelled wu.com, and I would want to create a name that avoids as many of these ambiguities as possible.
posted by banished to (1 comment total)

As it happens, I'm a published expert on this topic.

:-)

My personal suggestions would be:

Short abbreviations trump long full names, as long as they're not confusing; make sure it's pronounceable. (And thank your god that you don't have to register a domain name for Trenam, kemker, Scharf, Barkin Frye, O'Neill, and Mullis -- whether before *or* after Old Man Simmons retired.)

You can StudlyCapitalize it in ads if you want (since domain names, though not the *rest* of the URL, are case-insensitive), but make sure you don't end up with whorepresents.com or agedwards.com (that is: write it down in all lower case and look at it; dipthongs are your enemy).

And finally, remember: if you propose to use it in radio or tv, or indeed, tell it to people on the phone, *it has to be pronounceable* -- preferably without embarassing people. This means avoid silly punctuation, as well as name components which are homophones in the language groups of your target audience.

Checking to make sure it doesn't accidentally include swear words from other cultures would probably not be bad, either.
posted by baylink at 5:58 PM on July 12, 2004