HOW
I CAME UP WITH THE NAME, "JINGULAR.COM"
(Essay broadcast by KUNM-FM 03-28-06)
© 2006 LISTEN
If you’ve never
thought about it, or tried it, finding a good name for a website is
a fascinating exercise. There are websites which sell these domain
names, as they’re called, and which can instantly look up any names
you have in mind, to see if they’re taken.
For every name
that someone has purchased to use for an actual website, there are
probably five that have been bought to speculate with, to try to sell
to someone else who comes along later and might actually need it and
will pay top dollar for it. So when you're trying to find an original,
catchy, memorable domain name at this point, the pickings are slim
because most names you're likely to think of, have been taken.
What’s fun about
it, though, is that as you tear through the possibilities to see what
might still be available, you get the feeling you’re matching wits
with other would-be marketing geniuses out there, almost like you’re
playing a real-time, on-line chess game.
I recently looked
for a name for a website I was putting together for my radio jingles,
and the first one I tried, the most obvious one for me, JingleJim
(dot-com), was of course taken. JTJingles and JimJingles were available,
but not too compelling. So I checked out a few others, all of which
were taken: SingleJingle, Jingler, RadioJingles, JingleJungle, and
Jumpin Jingles. A few which WERE available were Jingle-Minded, JingleJive,
and Jingular.com – which made the final cut which I later put out
to my friends for a vote.
OK, now I’m really
getting into it. I thought of names that are puns or references to
other things and other phrases. JingleFever, JingleBells and JinglesAllTheWay
were taken, but JingleFile, JingleHanded, JinglesWild, JingleBook,
and Jingleheimer were available. As were TinyJingles, -- get it? (sing:
“TinyJingles…”), JinglePiper (a reference to Peter Piper – I think),
JinglesMalone (referring to Potatoes O’Brien), and JingleWeed (a reference
to – well, I’m not sure). JingleShot, JinglesAway, WholeLottaJingles,
and JingleBoogie WERE available, and also made it to the final nine
for voting. At this point I sent a preliminary poll out to friends,
and a friend of mine, a pretty big radio talk show host, suggested
It’sAJingleOutThere, perhaps a little too cute for me, but which I
did include in the final ballot.
Then there’s the
sort of generic category, little added-on phrases that you could apply
to anything you’re selling – gift cards, kitchenware, pet supplies.
Like JingleCity, JingleWorks, JustJingles, JingleJoint, JingleThing,
JingleHound, JinglePie, MisterJingles, DoctorJingles, BigJingles,
and JingleBarn – yech!! -- all taken – and the following which WERE
available but also too insipid to use: JingleJar, JingleJug, JuicyJingles,
UncleJingles and JinglePark.
Finally those
that were just plain stupid and don’t ask me why I even considered
them: JingleJuice, JingleJustice, JingleSprings, JingleSwings, JinglesWithHam,
JinglesWithFries, JingleBoat and EternalJingles.
When I put the
finalists out to friends for a vote, it was pretty much a tie between
JingleBoogie, It’sAJingleOutThere, and Jingular – dot com.
As is my prerogative,
I broke the tie, and the winner is..., let’s see... opening the envelope
here... www.Jingular.com ! A
singular choice, I’m so honored, and I’d like to thank my… oh well,
never mind.
This is Jim Terr.
