Your name in .ca (1.Viewing)

I don’t have my first or last name in .ca, but thought about purchasing it. Despite people telling me that it does not make any difference when it comes to contacts, I believe that if it looks good on paper, it’s something nice to have.

So I wanted to ask your opinion on this matter and how much you are willing to spend for it.

I don't have my first / last name in .ca. I do have it in .com. I use the shorter form of the last name in .com for e-mails.

It’s nice to have. You can always get a nice short domain which will always stick out. I own my name in .ca which I was able to acquire through TBR.

I don't have my first name, but I have my initials which is kind of nice. Depends on what niche of business you are in. It works well for a singer, author, real estate agent, mortgage agent or a politician etc, to have their first name, but not for a Doctor or other consultants, since a Doctor would like to addressed as DrXXX or others by their company or business name. Hope it's helpful.

I tried to buy my last name more than a decade ago, but they were using it... I offered a very fair amount for it too.

I'd say its always cool to have your name, can't dispute that. Having your last name is especially nice because its like your legacy to leave to your kids/family, and you can share email services with your family members right now too.

I'd say the need for your name domain is more based on how you want to market yourself. I think that if your in an industry where you are the product or key to the entire business, for example, any kind of consultant, designer, realtor, lawyer, artist, politician, etc, then I think its necessary.

You could say its very smart for the people who recognize this and brand themselves with their domain name. I'd re-word it as: Its incredibly stupid for those people who DONT brand themselves. If you're an agent or agency, why help Remax? You pay them a cut already for that purpose, let them pay for their own branding. You should be paying for YOUR own branding, not theirs. So if you're going to have a website, it should be in your name. If you're going to advertise anywhere, on a flyer, bench, bus, billboard, commercial, radio, etc, it should be in your name, and it should be the shortest easiest to remember (and spell) variant possible.

I was driving the highway 97 by Williams Lake BC this past week and you know those stretches of highway where there will be groups of big billboards? This one realtor lady had both the first and third out of a group of 4 billboards. Her website was her first and last name dot com, which was kinda long and within a minute of passing it, I couldn't remember what her name was any more, just that the first name was Susan. I couldn't help but think I would have easily remembered her website if it was Susan.ca instead.

It's much like @rlm said. It would always be cool to own either but "how important" would usually entirely depend on whether you have plans or a practical use for it. And while it's not better, it's obviously much more common for people to own domains that include both their first and last name as those are much easier to obtain.

Having a common name is a double-edged sword. It's way tougher / more expensive to get your name. But if you get it, people are like "wow, how did you get that?" or "wow, I guess you were smart enough to register that 25 years ago!"

I don't have either my first or last. I have my wife's first name from TBR for $60, not that she gives a crap or will ever use it. I tried to buy my daughter's first name, but the owner wants $20K for a mediocre first name as far as popularity goes. I offered to trade 3 more popular women's first names in exchange for the one, but they declined, likely because the broker never even passed the offer on. I suspect Schilling is the owner too, but am not positive.

And yes, {first}{last}.{ca,com} is the cheap route. Or is it? I drove past two full sized billboards with that realtor's {first}{last}.com and couldn't remember her domain 1 minute later. How effing expensive are two large billboards EVERY MONTH? How much money is being wasted on advertising when a passerby cannot remember your name or domain?

So if you don't advertise, then whatever, its no out of pocket loss. But if you do advertise, don't flush that money down the drain. A relatively small upfront investment brings a lifetime of returns.

I have my last name in a few TLDs. But generally I prefer my i@m.fm, especially for email

I had my full name in .com and dropped it but I kept it in .ca.

Funny thing is, years later the .com is still owned in China and forwards to a different spam site every week. How many clicks must it get, like 3 all from me?

Would I buy it again if dropped?

Nope, the only reason I visit is out of curiosity, I have no intention to ever buy it again.

I forward the .ca to different project in my coding circle but that is about it, I see no reason to own my name unless I was famous or something.

Would I buy my last name?
Maybe for a couple of hundred bucks but again me@mylastname.ca sound stupid if used for email so again it has limited appeal to me.

MapleDots said:

Maybe for a couple of hundred bucks but again me@mylastname.ca sound stupid if used for email so again it has limited appeal to me.

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I think {firstname}@{lastname}.ca sounds perfect for anyone. Completely professional. I would never use "me".

rlm said:

I think {firstname}@{lastname}.ca

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That is what I meant by me@lastname

Personally I dislike that and I would never use it.

MapleDots said:

That is what I meant by me@lastname

Personally I dislike that and I would never use it.

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Huh. Weird. I don't think I've ever heard anyone dislike that format - unless you like being anonymous, but then that eliminates the whole concept of using any name based domain.

I have seen way too many people use me@mydomain so that's why thought that's what you possibly meant. But that's often when the domain is {first}{last}.{tld} - and I assume they do that to be clever and avoid redundancy of {first}@{first}{last}.{tld}.

I don't know it just sound a bit odd to me, every time I see it in use I cringe.

I love me@business.com or if I use anything else at my last name.

Something like mail@lastname.com but firstname@lastname.ca is cringeworthy for me.

I can't explain it, I remember the first time I ever saw it in use I said I would never do it, just a personal decision I guess.

Ok, well, don't try and spread your beliefs, I'm trying to sell some of those domains!

My first name in .ca was registered for a while till it dropped in early 2020. I didn’t realize it but Rob (RLM) was kind enough to message me to let me know so I grabbed it.

Nafti said:

My first name in .ca was registered for a while till it dropped in early 2020. I didn’t realize it but Rob (RLM) was kind enough to message me to let me know so I grabbed it.

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I remember that, you are probably lucky your first name obscure and not John.

MapleDots said:

I remember that, you are probably lucky your first name obscure and not John.

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Or Frank.

FM said:

I have my last name in a few TLDs. But generally I prefer my i@m.fm, especially for email

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I just realized that you have a singe letter domain for a personal email. That’s awesome! If you don’t mind me asking, did you pay a premium to the registry or was it won from an auction?

X.de got up to $80K USD in the Namescon Auction - but didn't hit reserve.

rlm said:

X.de got up to $80K USD in the Namescon Auction - but didn't hit reserve.

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What happens if a reserve is not met? The domain gets sold to the highest bidder? Or it goes back to the owner and they can then negotiate with the bidders?