The right name for your business

Posted on March 31, 2008 - Filed Under Marketing |

Parents have various reasons for the name they finally decide for their newborn child. Names such as “Dick” or “Bob” or “Delores”. Any parent may think of those names as innocent. After serving 12 years in public school, my experience with the constant abuse such names can inflict sends shivers up my spine.

Business owners are much the same. Naming a business can be fun, if not exciting. What about the domain name? Is it easy just to grab the domain which matches the business name? Furthermore does that domain name do your business justice? Or perhaps a large unintentional disservice.

Below is a listing of legitimate businesses and their domain names. My commentary has been added. But of course, feel free to let your imagination wander. Think of what your reaction would be, as a customer, if handed a business card with these domain names.

To repeat: these are legitimate businesses

Please note: this list has been rated PG-13.

Domain Name Peanut Gallery Thoughts
www.penisland.com An island of customizable pens. Or it is a land of weewee’s.
www.therapistfinder.com Need a therapist? The Rapist Finder can help! Huh?
www.cummingfirst.com Me too! Oh wait, that’s a church. Sorry God.
www.speedofart.com As if the image of a speedo wasn’t bad enough but a speedo fart? Oops! It’s ‘Speed of Art’. Sorry. My bad.
www.whorepresents.com Need a present for that special whore in your life? Or who represents which celebrity? Maybe one in the same?

Hat Tip to Tim over at MarketMe.com

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Comments

2 Responses to “The right name for your business”

  1. Matt on March 31st, 2008 6:35 am

    This was great! I needed a laugh this morning. It just goes to show that the naming system needs to be chosen very carefully.

  2. Clifford on March 31st, 2008 7:12 am

    Agreed.

    In no way do I think these owners deliberately picked their domain names to be vulgar. The conversation was probably something like:

    Owner: Check to see if Pen Island dot com is available.
    Web Dude: Yes, Pen Island dot com is available.
    Owner: Cool! Buy it!

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