All about dead domain names

iGoldrush has put together a comprehensive piece on The Domain Name Expiry & Deletion Cycle. I found it very useful. Especially the tip off on how to track domain names that have expired in the last 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days or 60 days.

Here comes the name bot

Are you the type who loves plenty of name options? Are you the type who doesn't mind a meaningless new coinage? Are you the type who couldn't spare a paisa for a new name? Well then Rinkworks has a solution for you. They've created a fantasy name generator that can churn out short, long, mushy, serious, funny, idiotic and exotic names in a jiffy. All for free. Click here to check it out. For more such generators visit Name Development.

Which car is named after this French explorer?

Cadillac. Named after the founder of Detroit - Antoine Laumet, dit de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac!

Brand Names & Rivers

Okay. The task is to gush out names of all brands that have any direct or vague connect to rivers. Got it? Here's my seven bits to get you off the starting blocks.

Amazon (the name Jeff Bezos chose for cadabra.com)
Nyle (a shampoo from Cavin Kare)
Ganga (a soap from Godrej)
Brahmaputra (a brand from Tata Tea)
Viagra (vigor + niagra)
Avon (vague connect - there's a river in england by this name. the brand is named after the bard of avon.)
Nokia (nokia got its name from the town nokia which was named after the river nokianvirta)

How Ikea names its products

Nokia can learn a thing or two from Ikea. Instead of assigning eminently forgettable numbers, Ikea has a name for everyone of its products. Name Development did a piece on this Ikea quirk way back in 2005. I just discovered it. I learnt that bathroom items are named after Scandinavian lakes, rivers and bays; garden furniture after Swedish islands; dining tables and chairs after Finnish placenames and carpets after Danish placenames...

Did you know?

Picked two interesting nuggets, today. One, Camry is an anagram of my car. Two, nomatophobia is the fear of names. Got this from Namix.

What's in a brand name?

William Dillon, a prof in South Methodist Universiy's Cox School of Business, did a study in 2003 on a very simple question - what is it that makes people pay a premium for brands? The issue may seem very basic. But sometimes research can reveal the complex layers underneath a seemingly obvious query. Go chew on it.

Buy brand names off the shelf

If you're in a mood for some window shopping, check out NameSale. These blokes sell brand names for a price ranging from 5000 to 25000 USD. 'That's a lot of money', you may say. But they've done some basic ghodagiri. As in, they've booked the domains, designed logos and even trademarked a few names. Citagon, Offshoria, Aurance and Passandra are some of their better creations. I found it in an interesting concept. Dunno if it works. Let's wait and see.

Honey, the car name gave me a road rash.

Forbes reviews the best, the worst and the weirdest car names. Among the names flaunted, Daihatsu Motor Naked, Suzuki Cappucino & Honda Life Dunk caught my eye.

Who owns the iPhone domain name?

Iphone.com was first created on 24-Aug-95. It belongs to the Internet Phone Company based in Santa Rosa, California. Source: GoDaddy.

Iphone.net was first created on 28-Jan-98. It belongs to Cisco Technology. Source: Network Solutions.

Iphone.org was first created on 16-Dec-99. It belongs to Apple Computers. Source: Network Solutions.

Iphone.biz was first created on 23-Mar-05. It belongs to PARAVA NETWORKS, INC. Source: Network Solutions.

Iphone.info is for sale. It belongs to Sadasiva Ulaka of Bhubaneshwar, Orissa. Source: Network Solutions.

Appleiphone.com was created on 02-Apr-04. It belongs to A. Trachtman of GeeX Inc. Source: Network Solutions.

Clearly Apple is on a weak wicket. BTW, Iphonesucks.com and Appleiphonesucks.com have also been booked :-)

Four companies have a claim over iPhone.

While the mass media would like us to believe that Cisco is on the verge of sealing an agreement with Apple on the 'iPhone' usage, blogger Russell Shaw has provided us evidence that proves beyond doubt that 3 other companies (Teledex, Ocean Telecom Services & Extreme Mobile) have pending trademark applications for this rather generic name. Wonder how many millions will change hands.

Oddball Names # 1

The founders of Xora.com were all Ex-Oracle employees. So they called themselves Xora! I know at least one company that used the same logic - the Bangalore based 3xus.

The Name Fest

Cultural festivals in India are as abundant as, say poverty. Every Indian college worth its badge has a talent show with an inventive brand name. I've plucked a few good, bad and ugly names from memory. See if I've left out any juicy one.

BITS Pilani - Oasis (the best ever organised fest and what an apt name)
IIT Madras - Mardi Gras (the herbivores used to call it Mardi Grass)
IIT Bombay - Mood I (aka Mood Indigo – quite evocative, I must say)
IIT Delhi - Rendezvous (a South Delhish name for a very Dilli festival)
IIT Kanpur - Antaragni (a rather deep name for a fun fest)
IIT Kharagpur - Spring Fest (unimaginative but does the job)
ITBHU - Kashi Yatra (wonder why they ever chose the silly Spandan as replacement in between.)
REC Trichy - Festember (a smart port manteau for Festival in September)
St. Xavier's - Malhar (the name can mislead you into thinking it's a music show)
MCC - Deep Woods (an allusion to the campus, I guess)
Loyola College - Down Sterling (at one point in time, I found it interesting)
IIM Ahmedabad - Chaos (an oddball name for a show by an ivy league biz school)
IIM Calcutta - NBSM (before you rush to point out that Carpe Diem is the new name, let me record it for posterity that the Jokers from Joka till recently used to host a culfest with the bland name NBSM - an abbrievation for National Business School Meet)
IIM Bangalore - Unmaad (not unmad, my friend. that's unmaad, okay. and guess what, it means madness.)
IIM Kozhikode - Backwaters (a very oasis kinda name)
IIT Guwahati - Alcheringa (wikipedia tells me alcheringa is an aboriginal term for 'Dream Times')
Anna University - Kurukshetra (a pompous sounding name but at least catchy)
BIT Mesra - Bitotsav (in the nineties, they had a better name - Pebbles)
AIIMS Delhi - Pulse (not bad. doctors can name babies too!)
IISc Bangalore - Vibrations (same logic as the AIIMS name)
Mount Carmel - Cul-ah (very decent considering that it came from the Bangalore bimbettes)
St. Stephen - Winter Festival (is that all you guys could manage?)
Sydenham College - Brouhaha (that's a charming name. trivia - fest was called Rainbow Lane before Brouhaha)
IIT Madras - Saarang (man, somehow this name is so wrong!)
National Law School - Le'Gala (clever and nice, actually very nice.)

Which is the longest brand name?

Google failed to throw up a definite answer when I posed this trivial query. Looks like we'll have to do the job ourselves. Let's try and reach a conclusion by digging into the deepest crevices of our collective craniums. Let me set the ball rolling by rattling out all the long names I know. Then may be you can add yours and finally we can pull out the lurking rabbit out of the hat. Here's my shortlist (cut off criteria - 15 letters):

Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific! (25 letters)
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! (24 letters)
Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri (24 letters)
Encyclopaedia Britannica (23 letters)
Oxford English Dictionary (23 letters)
Screaming Yellow Zonkers (22 letters)
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (22 letters)
PriceWaterhouseCoopers (22 letters)
Oxford University Press (21 letters)
Fruitshop on Greams Road (21 letters)
Guinness World Records (20 letters)
The Wall Street Journal (20 letters)
Jacksons-of-Piccadilly (20 letters)
Alcoholics Anonymous (19 letters)
Jupiter Drawing Board (19 letters)
Just Around The Corner (19 letters)
Strawberry Shortcake (19 letters)
Ananda Bazar Patrika (18 letters)
Mad Dogs & Englishmen (18 letters)
Everyone's Connected (18 letters)
Vacheron Constantin (18 letters)
Standard Chartered (17 letters)
The Economic Times (16 letters)
Jean Paul Gaultier (16 letters)
Nantucket Nectars (16 letters)
Malayala Manorama (16 letters)
Sri Krishna Sweets (16 letters)
Market Salamander (16 letters)
Amar Chitra Katha (15 letters)
The Famous Grouse (15 letters)
GlaxoSmithKline (15 letters)
A Hundred Monkeys (15 letters)
Van Cleef & Arpel's (15 letters)
Crabtree & Evelyn (15 letters)
Daddy Buy Me a Pony (15 letters)
Turner Duckworth (15 letters)
Saks Fifth Avenue (15 letters)

And the winner is...Gee, Your Hair Smells Terrific! Also my gutfeel is Fruitshop on Greams Road is the longest brandname in India. Disagree? Then fire your list, will ya?

UPDATE-1: The Dzinebites Diva has rightly pointed out that the longest brand name in India is Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri. This brand now shares the top slot with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!

The Name Game

I played an old game, today. I just asked myself to spit out 26 top-of-the-mind brand names that strike me when I think of the 26 English alphabets. I was kinda surprised with the results. Take a look at it.

Adidas
Blackberry
Canon
Dell
Elle
Fcuk
Gatorade
HP
Iridium
Johnnie Walker
Kodak
Lenovo
Mcdonald's
Nike
Oracle
Pepsi
Qibla Cola
Reebok
Sun Microsystems
Tiffany's
Unisys
Vaseline
Wella
Xerox
Yahoo
Zune

There are some glaring omissions in this list. There's no Google - may be I didn't see it as a brand? There's no IBM either - Iridium over IBM, how could I? I spent more than 30 seconds on W and could just come up with Wella - did my mind see Wii as a sub-brand? No Apple - I use a PC! I chose Vaseline over Virgin - is that because Virgin is a small fry in India? And Canon over Coca-Cola - not a Cola person. But what about Pepsi then - why did I opt for it? Why did my mind pick Nike, Adidas & Reebok? Why did I choose of all the brands - Qibla Cola, Unisys & Elle? How did Zune, Lenovo, Fcuk & Blackberry get into my head so soon? Interesting questions. I am still searching for the answers...If I were you, I'll try out the same exercise and study my mind map. What sez you?

A brand named FAT Bastard!

Wine namers have all the fun. Not one client of mine has ever bought such a name. Lucky sods. Here's what I found in wikipedia about this curious brand: "FAT bastard is a French wine produced and distributed by a British and French partnership. A 2005 survey found that 72 percent of the adult French population finds it difficult to understand French wine labels, and the problem is not unique to that country. Research has also found that most American consumers, especially younger ones, dislike wine labels that picture chateaux, that appear elitist, and that are difficult to understand. FAT bastard appears to solve that marketing problem. The label reflects the fact that most New World (and many Old World) consumers prefer to buy 'brand name' wines that are labeled by the variety of grape from which they are made. The wine is reported to have started off as an experiment, and when Thierry Boudinaud tasted the wine he proclaimed 'now that is what you call a fat bastard'. The wine label says that it's 'named after a British expression describing a particularly rich and full wine'. FAT bastard is a fast growing brand, recently selling over 400,000 cases per year in the United States alone, shortly after its introduction."

Do you want a brand name or a pseudo brand name?

Everybody wants a snappy brand name, catchy logo and zippy tagline. But a brand is more than plain symbols. Most people don't realise that. They just see advertising and branding as a nice outfit to appear good. This all surface, no core approach is what Tenaya Group calls Pseudo Brands. Read it. The faqs might just open your eyes.

The risk of naming your brand after yourself.

Hotel Saravana Bhavan (HSB) is a huge brand in South India. When its founder Rajagopal was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment for a murder, I expected their sales to dip. I mean, who'd like to eat in a murderer's joint? But I was wrong. HSB went from strength to strength. Now, when I look back, I think the key reason for it was they didn't name themselves as Hotel Rajagopal. The woes of Martha Stewart the brand, has only cemented my belief that it is damn risky to go on an ego trip when you name your brand.

Skype doesn't mean anything

"Skype does not mean anything. It just sounds good, and the dot-com domain name was available. We hope people will start saying, 'I'll Skype you' instead of 'I'll call you,' which means 'I'll call you without paying any rip-off per-minute charges and with superior better-than-phone quality.'" Thus spake Janus Friis, Founder - Skype. For more of the interview, go here.

How to register a trademark in the US without using an attorney.

Simple. The US Trademark & Patent Office has a website where you can search & file trademarks online. But before you get started, I suggest you read up the basics first.