The millennials who check domain name is available before naming baby, and would rethink if it isn’t
Compared to Generation X, millennial parents are far more focused on securing a personal online presence for themselves and their children, with some buying domain names for their future offspring
One in five of 1,000 millennial parents canvassed in a recent survey said they had changed – or thought about changing – their baby’s name based on available internet domain names.
This suggests that millennials – those aged 24 to 38 years old – understand the importance of truly “owning” a personal online presence, and are taking their children’s future digital identity into account when selecting a name. That’s according to Roger Chen, senior vice-president of Asia-Pacific for GoDaddy – the world’s biggest domain name registrar, with 17 million customers and 70 million domain names – which commissioned the survey.
As an example, take fictitious parkerfuller.com. Parker’s parents can grow the site with family photographs or a blog “to share the family’s journey”. Then, some day when Parker is older, the site will morph into his own and he can use it as a professional platform.
GoDaddy’s survey, Chen says, indicates that “seven per cent of millennial parents bought their child’s domain name before they were born, and nearly 19 per cent bought their child’s domain name after they were born”.
It is an increasingly competitive world and millennials are reacting to it
Their responses were compared with those of 1,000 Gen X parents (39- to 53-year-olds) also questioned. Gen X were less inclined to worry about whether the relevant dotcom was free; 48 per cent of millennials felt it important their offspring have an online presence early in life, compared to just 27 per cent of Gen X respondents.