GoDaddy... what a terrible domain

[DomainVP]

I thought to myself today... "GoDaddy" is such an awful name for a business. It says nothing about what the product is, and it just sounds plain creepy.

As it turns out...

"The one thing we knew for sure was that no one would remember a name like Jomax Technologies. So we decided to dig in and try to come up with a better name. We worked for about a week and came up with nothing we liked. Then one day our new name literally fell out of the sky. Barbara Rechterman (my right hand person to this very day) and I were in my office. Someone said "How about Big Daddy?" A quick check revealed that it was taken. Then I said "How about Go Daddy?" And by golly, the name was available, so we bought it. "
- Bob Parsons, Founder of GoDaddy

GoDaddy is a domain empire, built on a hand reg. Fun fact of the day.

 

[AFernald]

I thought to myself today... "GoDaddy" is such an awful name for a business. It says nothing about what the product is, and it just sounds plain creepy.

As it turns out...

"The one thing we knew for sure was that no one would remember a name like Jomax Technologies. So we decided to dig in and try to come up with a better name. We worked for about a week and came up with nothing we liked. Then one day our new name literally fell out of the sky. Barbara Rechterman (my right hand person to this very day) and I were in my office. Someone said "How about Big Daddy?" A quick check revealed that it was taken. Then I said "How about Go Daddy?" And by golly, the name was available, so we bought it. "
- Bob Parsons, Founder of GoDaddy

GoDaddy is a domain empire, built on a hand reg. Fun fact of the day.

Wow who would have thought!

 

[mad409]

Just goes to show it's not all about the name but whats built with the name.

 

[UltraNames.com]

Hah! What a noob...

 

[mad409]

Hah! What a noob...

Who's a noob?

 

[UltraNames.com]

Who's a noob?

It was sarcasm, and according to this sarcasm GoDaddy is noob.

 

[forge]

Go daddy has a back story in the "old time" rock n roll lexicon, as in "Go, daddy, go!", so I think it's fairly catchy. Big Daddy, not so much IMO.

 

[Joseph Green]

Source: http://www.bobparsons.me/archive_article.php?entry_id=9

Fascinating!

 

[Kate]

Google is a creepy name too.
But this was not a regfee domain. They paid something like $500 if I remember correctly.

 

[RU]

I thought to myself today... "GoDaddy" is such an awful name for a business. It says nothing about what the product is, and it just sounds plain creepy.

As it turns out...

"The one thing we knew for sure was that no one would remember a name like Jomax Technologies. So we decided to dig in and try to come up with a better name. We worked for about a week and came up with nothing we liked. Then one day our new name literally fell out of the sky. Barbara Rechterman (my right hand person to this very day) and I were in my office. Someone said "How about Big Daddy?" A quick check revealed that it was taken. Then I said "How about Go Daddy?" And by golly, the name was available, so we bought it. "
- Bob Parsons, Founder of GoDaddy

GoDaddy is a domain empire, built on a hand reg. Fun fact of the day.

I disagree with you, 'Godaddy' is a really nice name (for me) - easy to remember, short and pronounceable.

 

[Plato]

As far as I can remember google was a typo They wanted to reg GOGGLE

 

[tomcarl]

Interesting story.

I always thought there was deeper intentional wordplay involved.

Go Daddy or God Addy

Back in the late 90s/early 2000s, I remember it was a common abbreviation online, in chat and on forums to use "addy" instead of 'address'. "What's your email addy?" or "What's the addy to the site?"

So God Addy, or King Address *shrugs*

I thought it made sense. And I always thought their logo with the star near the ear was meant to representing a figure that is Zeus-like but in the cheap cartoony microsoft paint style

 

[GBA]

Just goes to show it's not all about the name but whats built with the name.

Agree, building the name sounds better than being built by the name.

 

[Paul]

"Google" is a misspelling of "googol", which is the number 10^100 (a number consisting of a 1 followed by one hundreds 0s). Their headquarters, Googleplex, is a misspelling of googolplex, which is the number 10^(10^100) (a number consisting of 1 followed by googol 0s).

From Wikipedia - Googolplex:

In 1920 Edward Kasner's nine-year-old nephew, Milton Sirotta, coined the term googol, which is 10^100, then proposed the further term googolplex to be "one, followed by writing zeroes until you get tired".[1] Kasner decided to adopt a more formal definition "because different people get tired at different times and it would never do to have Carnera be a better mathematician than Dr. Einstein, simply because he had more endurance and could write for longer".[2] It thus became standardized to 10^(10^100).

 

[Kiln Media]

that's a great funny fact for some reason, dont overthink it folks!

 

[newshunter]

i see that GoMommy.com redirects to GoDaddy.com

 

[DNVantage]

I thought to myself today... "GoDaddy" is such an awful name for a business. It says nothing about what the product is,

It is an odd name for a domain/website/hosting company but now it is a successful brand, so that's what matters! Though pretty much every non-techie, I mention the website to, gives a blank look trying to figure out what the company does, like HotMail.com in early days.....sounds more like,yeah, Hot 'Male' :P How come they never thought of any other word than Hot?

Just like a recent startup, Magic, which raised $12 million in funding. looking at their name, one would never figure out what the company does!

Who's a noob?

noob also means inexperienced or less experienced.

 

[abaiti]

The name with Big potential... GOD Daddy

 

[NameFit]

We always have to look at the history of anything. GoDaddy was incorporated back in 1997, and similar names like eBay, Amazon back in 'the years'.

Do you think anyone 'today' can build a successful brand with a name like 'GoDaddy'. Today, it is much more competitive, many more established players in the market, and much more expensive to get into the race and reach high. Users are exposed to hundreds of names everyday, and when you look at the name, it is just not 'catchiness' or 'stickiness' that matters. What matters to your brain (the part that remembers) is that 'what was that about' and not 'what it was'. It is way much easier to recollect the name or guess the name in close range if you can associate a name to what it does.

In Summary- I think keyword names (that signify what they do) are good return on the money, unless you have $$$$$ and you are willing to churn out majority on marketing. To add to that, if the user can associate a name to what they do, it is always good for the business. It just leads to more 'faith' in the business and user is more likely to trust them than others.

 

[Kate]

We always have to look at the history of anything. GoDaddy was incorporated back in 1997, and similar names like eBay, Amazon back in 'the years'.

Do you think anyone 'today' can build a successful brand with a name like 'GoDaddy'.

Yes and no.
What is surprising is that they settled for that kind of domain, while plenty of good domains were still available back in 1997. Perhaps they should done some more brainstorming, or bought something else direct from owner.
What counts is that they are where they are now.
But you need to spend a lot of money on advertising/branding when you have a poor made-up domain, while a compelling domain does the promotion for you - not the other way round.

Few people understand the benefit of buying a domain name on the aftermarket. It's precisely because a good domain works for you while a bad domain will drag you down.

 

[bashishtha]

Never heard this story but trust me as a domainer it gives me lots of motivation. GoDaddy is really a weird name but the weirdness is the thing that is also a part of making what GoDaddy is today

 

[900Worldwide]

Interesting story.

I always thought there was deeper intentional wordplay involved.

Go Daddy or God Addy

Back in the late 90s/early 2000s, I remember it was a common abbreviation online, in chat and on forums to use "addy" instead of 'address'. "What's your email addy?" or "What's the addy to the site?"

So God Addy, or King Address *shrugs*

I thought it made sense. And I always thought their logo with the star near the ear was meant to representing a figure that is Zeus-like but in the cheap cartoony microsoft paint style

God Addy

 

[laladomains]

I just wondering when Daddy will by a Gradnpa - GoGrandpa.com. Only $1,795 at sedo
And no, it's not mine...

 

[DN Playbook]

I remember back when I started online back in the late nineties. GoDaddy did not look like a company to be taken seriously. What made that company rise to the top was providing the cheapest domain registrations anyone heard of. At the time the cheapest registration was like 15-20 bucks a year. Then GD introduced 10 dollar registrations or something like that. Of course, the founder had received a lot of capital from the sale of his first company, Parsons Technology, to be able to become a registrar. GD is not a great name but it does stick in your head.

 

[iowadawg]

Now there is an old company, Parsons Tech.
Used their tax software in my business back in the day.
Oh, home office was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Then intuit bought them and crap, the decent tax software became a piece of bloated shit.