How Do Famous Sites Get Their Names? Five Stories.

1. GoDaddy.com

Ever heard of Jomax Technologies? That was actually the original name of Go Daddy back in those days when founder Bob Parsons and his team were actually struggling to find a better name for their online business. A couple of brainstorming sessions all led to zilch--until someone jokingly suggested "Big Daddy" for their name. Fortunately for them, BigDaddy.com was already taken, so they settled with the now infamous GoDaddy.com. And the rest, they say, is history.

2. Google.com

Another one of those “unfortunate-domains-that-were-already-taken-but-led-to-a-much-juicier-name” story, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin first thought of adapting the name, "Googol" after their original name, "BackRub", got "rubbed" out of its existence. Googol is actually a mathematical tem that makes a million look as trifling as a penny (a miser's dream come true), and the two thought it sounded better than the last one. However, it turne d out that googol.com has been registered since 1995 to a certain "Mrs. Jello" of Livingston, New Jersey; and fate nailed the deal when Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote his $100,000 check to "Google" instead of Googol. Talk about bad spelling gone right.

3. Fark.Com

What the heck's name does fark mean, anyway? We don't know; and even Drew Curtis, the founder of the site doesn't know, either. So why that word? According to Curtis, he came up with the word while surfing the Net randomly in the early 90's. Whether or not it looked like some drunken bozo typed the word, or an angst-ridden schmooze wanted to substitute an "F" word, it stuck to Curtis; which later became the name of his site dedicated to wild and weird stories. Lucky for him, the name was available, unlike others we know of (sorry BigDaddy and Googol). Today, Fark is a great alternative to those boring news that needs some extra-odd zing. Sounds farking great, right?

4. Asus. com

And we thought Greek mythology is dead. Asus--created by ex-Acer wonder nerds--was named after the Greek figure, Pegasus. According to them, they used its last four letters as their name to "embod[y] the strength, creative spirit, and purity symbolized by this regal and agile mythical creature, soaring to new heights of quality and innovation with each product it introduces to the market." And of course, in a less romantic note, the word also has an advantage in search engines. Company founder Jonney Shih said in a 2008 interview that the Asus assembly decided that a name starting with "A" would be the best thing to do, obviously because it can be easily found in alphabetical name searches. So we’re now guessing that Xanthus and Zeus didn't make the cut, then.

5. Yahoo.com

It's only fitting for Yahoo to be called Yahoo, especially if you know what it really means. Co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo, who used to call it "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web", turned to the reliable dictionary and chose "yahoo" for its definitiion: "rude, unsophisticated, and uncouth." Merriam-Webster also lists it as "stupid", and is synonymous with "dimwit," "doofus," and "chucklehead." And with all its public goofs and hot, fresh-off-the-grill punchlines to date, it's no wonder they chose that name for themselves.

Dmitry Davydov works for PickyDomains.com, world's first risk-free naming agency. We can find a perfect domain for you or your business and you pay us only if you decide to use it.

What’s in a name? How five tech giants got their names

1. Yahoo.com
When the developers of “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web” needed to find a new, shorter company name, Jerry Yang and David Filo had already given themselves the titles of Chief Yahoos. In keeping with their many fun loving, albeit misguided business decisions, they decided to just shorten it to Yahoo. You might think if they had looked up the definition, they wouldn’t have chosen Yahoo for their new name. It turns out that they actually chose it in spite of its definition; “rude, uncouth, unsophisticated,” and according to Webster’s dictionary, is synonymous with “doofus, dimwit, and chucklehead.” As they say in the tech world today, only a real yahoo would choose that name!

2. Google.com
When Stanford students Larry Page an d Sergey Brin created their new search engine, they originally called it BackRub. When this failed to catch on (Gee, why?) the pair wanted something related to the mathematical term googol, which is a very big number – a 1 followed by 100 zeros. There are several stories as to how it became spelled the way we all know and love. Some say they just plain misspelled it, others say when the co-founder of Sun Microsystems gave them $100,000 to start their little side business, he may have misspelled it on the check and they then were forced to use “Google” in order to use the money. Urban legends notwithstanding, Googol was taken and Google was not, so you be the judge. Thank goodness, because who wants to look something up by BackRubbing? Since 1995, the domain name of Google has been in use. Here’s a little factoid: The domain name of Google shows as belonging to a Mrs. Jello of Livingston, New Jersey. You know what to do to che ck that out….Google it.

3. GoDaddy.Com
As inappropriate as GoDaddy sounds for an online business, it is certainly better than Jomax Technologies. Founder Bob Parsons and his staff realized they needed a better name for their online domain naming site if they were going to be successful in the over-saturated online marketplace. After several attempts at brainstorming led nowhere, someone on their team, who was trying to be funny, came up with BigDaddy. Believe it or not, and fortunately for them, BigDaddy.com was already being used. After playing around with the name it turned out that GoDaddy.com was not taken.

4. Asus.com
For those that took Greek mythology in school, Asus should ring a bell. Even though the founders worked at Acer, which sort of sounds the same, they claim the name of their company is taken from the last four letters of the mythological winged horse, Pegasus. They say they chose Pegasus because he embodi ed everything they wanted to bring to the market with their new company; the creative spirit, purity, and strength seen in such a regal creature. Sound like a myth? In addition, it turns out there is a memory advantage to having a name at the beginning of the alphabet. Founder Jonney Shih wanted an “A” name, so other mythological characters at the end like, Zeus, were out.

5. Fark.Com
We are all familiar with social networking sites that have cute names like Twitter, Facebook or the recently deserted MySpace. But how about Fark.com? If you ask the owner Drew Curtis, he will tell you that Fark is the fluff that news media outlets use to fill space when there is no actual news to report. Curtis says he started using the word fark in the early days if the internet. Again, local lore says that it may have been him substituting the word fark for a more colorful expletive. Or maybe one night while play ing drinking games and surfing the net, he simply made a typo. Whatever the case, he registered the name and it was one of the very few four letter words not being used. When he decided to devote a site to strange and weird stories, Fark was already his to use. A farking good idea, wouldn’t you say?

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Dmitry Davydov works for PickyDomains.com, world's first risk-free naming agency. We can find a perfect domain for you or your business and you pay us only if you decide to use it.