Domain name ideas for a website: twelve naming formulas that still work

Domain name ideas for a website are easy to produce and hard to use, because the good ones went years ago and nobody tells you which is which until you have already decided. What follows is twelve formulas that still return free .com names, with a note on where each one breaks.

The one rule underneath all of them: for a website, the name and the domain are the same decision. A site name whose domain belongs to somebody else leaks readers forever, and no amount of good writing fixes it. Run any of these through the website name generator and every candidate comes back with a live registry verdict attached.

Twelve formulas

1. Subject plus a twist

The topic word, joined to something slightly off. It keeps the clarity of a descriptive name and loses the beigeness. Breaks when the twist is so clever that nobody can spell it.

2. Two ordinary words, fused

The workhorse. Two words that belong together in your subject, pushed into one. Reads instantly, spells itself, and there are far more free ones than people expect, because most searchers only ever try the single word.

3. The verb

What the reader does, rather than what the site is. Works well for tools and directories. Breaks for publications, where the reader is not doing anything except reading.

4. The place

A geographic anchor when the subject is genuinely local. Strong for trust, weak for ambition: the day you widen, the name argues against you.

5. The clipped root

A longer word cut short. Short is worth real money in a domain and costs nothing to try. Breaks when the clip lands on something that reads as a typo.

6. The compound with a small word

Adding a short functional word, the, my, go, in front of a taken name. Honest assessment: this is the weakest formula on the list. It tells every visitor that the plain name belongs to somebody else, and you will hand traffic to them for years.

7. The invented word

Sound first, meaning later. The largest untouched pool on the internet and the strongest position for trademark purposes. Costs you a few months of explaining what it means.

8. The number that is not a numeral

Spelling the number out, rather than using a digit. Avoids the classic disaster where half the audience types the digit and the other half types the word, and both end up somewhere else.

9. Subject plus format

The topic joined to what you actually publish: review, notebook, dispatch, ledger, atlas. Tells the reader what kind of thing they are landing on, and gives the name a bit of character.

10. The pairing from inside the craft

Two words that only somebody in your subject would put together. Instantly credible to the audience you want, invisible to everybody else, which is usually a good trade for a niche site.

11. The adjective that is doing work

Not a boastful one. A precise adjective that narrows the subject, and reads as a decision rather than as decoration.

12. The plain category

The exact thing you cover, if by some miracle the .com is free. Exact match domains stopped being a ranking shortcut a long time ago, so treat this as a clarity decision, not an SEO one.

Three tests before you register anything

• Say it aloud in a sentence. If you have to spell it, that is a tax on every conversation about the site, forever.
• Type it from memory tomorrow. A name you cannot reproduce a day later is a name your readers cannot reproduce either.
• Read it as one word without spaces. Compounds occasionally produce an unfortunate second reading. This is exactly the kind of thing everybody notices except the person who chose it.

What to do when the .com is taken

Look at the near neighbours first. A different clip of the same root, or one word swapped in a compound, is free far more often than the original, and it usually keeps whatever you liked. That is the fastest and cheapest route by a wide margin.

Changing extension is the fallback, not the plan. It works, plenty of good sites run on one, and you should be honest with yourself that whoever owns the .com will receive some of your traffic for as long as you both exist.

Buying the name from its holder is a negotiation with a person, not a purchase from a catalogue. Before starting it, weigh what the name is actually worth to you against a free alternative you have not thought of yet. The value estimator gives you a range to think with, and it is an estimate rather than a price.

Do the check inside the idea, not after it

The expensive version of this process is falling for a name, building around it, and finding out late. The cheap version is generating with the availability constraint switched on, so a name only becomes a candidate once the registry has answered. That is the whole difference between a list of ideas and a shortlist you can act on.