Buying Baby's Domain Name? Here Are 6 Things You Should Know

Are you a totally tech savvy parent-to-be? Register your baby's domain name online! Learn more about how to buy a domain name, domain name lookups, and securing your little one's future online presence.

What Exactly is a Domain Name?
A domain name (also called a domain URL) is basically a website address. My personal website for my own name is simply www.keikozoll.com. When researching your baby's domain name, it would look something like www.yourbabysname.com.

Related: 20+ tech-inspired baby names your inner "nerd" will appreciate!

Why Should I Buy My Baby's Domain Name?
As we live in an ever-connected, always-online world, it's important to stake out your online territory. You don't want your name appropriated online by someone else, do you? The same goes for your baby, whether your little one has a common or unique name. The cost of most .com websites is fairly cheap on an annual basis; usually, the more years you buy at once, the cheaper the annual renewal cost each year. Domain names must be registered with a domain name registrar, and there are plenty to choose from, such as GoDaddy, 1and1, or Network Solutions. Shop around and see who offers the best price with the best customer service and reliability.

How Do I Look Up My Baby's Domain Name?
You'll need to perform a domain name lookup (called a WHOis lookup) to find out if your baby's name is available. You can easily look up available domain names here. Simply type in yourbabysname.com into the search field and you can see if it's been registered. If it hasn't, you can buy it through any number of domain name registrars. Make sure you check to see if your baby's name (firstnamelastname.com) and full name (firstmiddlelast.com) are available. You can also try looking up baby's first name with a middle initial (firstmlast.com).

Oh No! My Baby's Domain Name is Already Taken!
There are a couple of options. First, you can see if a variation is available, as noted above. If you're still running into issues, consider purchasing a different domain label instead of .com, such as .net, .us., or .me. Also check to see if someone actually has a webpage built at the domain name you want; someone could just be squatting the domain name, especially if it's a common name. In that case, you'll have to contact the person who's registered the domain name directly to see if they'd be willing to sell and transfer the domain name to you.

I Have My Baby's Domain Name… Now What?
You have a few options. You can simply pay the annual fee to hold the space and gift it to your child when they're old enough to create a website of their own, or maybe create a website for them right now with baby pictures and a blog of their milestones. If you're not terribly web savvy, consider hiring a web designer to build a site for you. There's also lots of free services like Blogger and WordPress that make setting up a website pretty simple and quick and they each have plenty of tutorials to show you how to make your blog/website work with your newly purchased domain name.

What About Email and Social Media Accounts?
Here's where I caution eager web savvy parents from snapping up all of your baby's future webspace. Buying your baby's domain name is one thing, but creating social media or email accounts through email providers like Google or Yahoo for your baby steers into some very rough waters. Sites like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter all have age requirements stating that users must be at least 13 years old to sign up for any of these services. Falsifying your baby's birth date could land you in hot water with these sites, in which they could shut down your account so that you can never gain access to it again, thereby voiding all attempts at reserving your baby's name in online properties in the first place. As tempting as it may be, it's really not worth risking the possible loss of a social media or email account registered in your baby's name.

- By Keiko Zoll

For 23 of the most popularly viewed baby names of 2013, visit Disney Baby!

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