Chicken vs. Egg (Company vs. Domain Name)

[jdlk]

This is a fairly straightforward topic. Just curious how other members of the board go about it. I'm of the Domain Name school.

[PhoenixDown]

I dont believe that the company name has to be domain name but I would pick the domain name first to ensure that it is available.

[Drewkerr]

How about Product name?

That should be number one. The company really doesn't matter. Then pick a domain name around your product name & type.

Drew

[jdlk]

Great point. If you're in the situation of selling a unique product you'll want to have a great name. If you're a reseller, having a catchy/meaningful domain is still more important than a company name. Maybe gone are the days of branding through company name.

More and more the domain name inherently becomes the unoffcial company name. I onced had a dialogue with a friend that went something like:

Me - "Hey [friend] have you ever travelled with Zoom Airlines?"
Friend - "Huh?"
Me - "You know, flyzoom"
Friend - "Oh yea, the cheap flights to London people, yea"

[wildsoul]

Here is what I do to see if a name is available (in this order.)

1. Check for domain availability.
2. Do a Google search to see if the name comes up.
3. Check the US patent & trademark search engine.
4. Check my state corporate name search engine for LLC's & S/C corp.

If it meets all 4 of those, I consider it good to go! (In other words, I don't hire an attorney to formally check on my behalf.)