Name Selection Poll for Root Certificate brand

[Rob Monster]

We previously announced a search for a great brand name for an online service for sourcing domain certificates. The thesis is that there will eventually be innovative alternatives to the likes of LetsEncrypt that empower more people to secure their sites with robust technology. That search was described here:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/ssl-root-certificate-authority-ca-brand-name.1158491/

In the meantime, we have had some great domain candidate submissions. In order to select a winning name, we welcome your input on name selection through poll and discussion as we make plans to co-create another tool that helps make the pie bigger.

As for the list of brand prospects, we used every slot allowed in the poll software. There were many good ones left out unfortunately, but it is still a long list from some very thoughtful submitters who I look forward to highlighting among the top contenders to the extent they choose to be identified!

 

[NameFather]

Interestingly, the current poll leader WebSeal appears to be an IBM linked product. Could lead to potential IP issues

Yes, WebSEAL is an IBM product.
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowled..._80/ameb_appl_guide/concept/con_overview.html

@Rob Monster

 

[Goldenmoney]

I voted for FullEncrypt.com. I like the name. Best of luck Rob.

 

[Vimal Kumar]

I am unsure why FullEncrypt is being liked by many.

If I google the keyword, I get references to disk/ drive encryption. Nothing related to Domain Certifcate/ Certification/ SSL/ Root Authority, etc.

Am I missing something here? Is there a link?

 

[INFJ]

I voted for FullEncrypt, however to be honest none of the domains in the poll would fit for this project, in my opinion of course.

WebSeal is nice too but I understand there might be TM issues.

All the names containing DN/Name/Domain are irrelevant imo, you don't encrypt a domain, you actually encrypt a web page or website.

The names with "crypt" - are kinda vague. It can mean crypto, crypt as a burial place, cryptic, not a good fit imo...

The names with "cert", same as above. The dictionary show several meanings for "cert", none of those relevant for a certificate.

Didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, have no names in this poll, just my 2c as always.

Small correction/addition to the above regarding SSL (TLS). SSL/TLS does not encrypt websites, it provides authentication AND encryption of the communication between the end-user and the server. Before a session can be encrypted, the end-user says to the server "give me your ID" (cert) so I know you aren't a rogue server. The server (attached to the DN) pulls out it's wallet and says "Here you go, I'm the real-deal, and here's the proof I'm not a fake/rogue server."

The server then says "you can see that my ID was issued by Epik." Since the end-user trusts Epik (the intermediate or Root CA), the end-user says "OK, I trust you Mr./Mrs. DN because I see your ID was issued or trusted (signed) by Epik." Then the encrypted chatter begins.

So yes, DN, Cert and Encrypt are all very relevant.

Disclosure: I'm in Information Security who has partnered with Comodo, Verisign and Venafi for PKI solutions for a Fortune 12 company.

 

[Rahul Sinha]

I would say many listed in poll suit ,it's just What Rob likes now is .

 

[karmaco]

I think you guys are somewhat overthinking this. Not every brand screams this is what I am about and alot of times a more open vessel is desired as opposed to something very standard and boring.

Its not simply the name its what you do with it is my point. I have seen names I would never look twice at or are downright weak or dull purchased for end user pricing and used well. We all have. There is no accounting for user TASTE when using a logical argument only. A great name is helpful for success but opinions on what is a great name are vast and varied. And the name ultimately does not guarantee success the effort behind it does.

I am sure a great choice will be made by Rob, as mentioned,these threads are great for discussion but certainly not the deciding factor. They are more for us to debate and learn than anything else.

 

[INFJ]

Currently, if you use Epik's premium landing pages, you will notice that Epik enrolls a digital certificate for your domain name (DN) for free using Let'sEncrypts' intermediate (or issuing) certificate authority (CA).

Let'sEncrypt's intermediate certificate authority (CA) or "issuing CA" is called "Let'sEncrypt Authority X3 ".

Let'sEncrypt Authority X3 is NOT a Root CA, rather it get's it's ability to issue (sign) certificates from Digital Signature Trust Company, who runs the Root CA called DST X1.

Epik has been issuing a TON of free certs lately from LetsEncrypt's CA (and subsequently the Root CA, DST X1) that Epik thought it'd be a great idea to become independent of these two CAs. I agree with this idea.

So in the end, which name from the list above best replaces "DST X1" and "Let'sEncrypt Authority X3".

I am confident that my suggested name is perfectly suited, and here is what an Epic certificate would look like if DNEncrypt is selected and issued a certificate to the DN "TheBitten.com". (a name I own)

@Rob Monster
@Abdullah Abdullah

 

[karmaco]

I agree the poll is likely just a small factor in decision making as are the comments and shameless promotion here, on other threads and in chat. In the future, I hope people will conduct themselves with integrity and let your name speak for itself. We are supposed to be adults here and Rob doesn’t have to call a vote or a thread to make a decision.

 

[Sumeeth]

Another alternative is to select 10 experienced and trustworthy members who are also experts in branding and have them (and only them) to vote on the names, everyone else can post their comments in support of their favorite name to convince the 10 member panel to vote for it. This way it will cut down greatly on manipulation by anyone (provided that the 10 member panel have been selected properly). IMO

Only 10 members? What's wrong in involving Domainers community to vote, may be they are not brand experts but they may have good knowledge on product or service .Rob is doing great thing that he is giving a chance to all Domainers from newbie to expert in domaining to submit/suggest/vote their domains. Irrespective of count of votes for each name getting, discussion through comments involving huge members always an advantage. I believe if only 10 brand experts vote, there is no guarantee that they choose the best name and there is no conflict. Of course if some name is good in the list, definitely you will see lot of positivity about name in discussion.. Anyway Rob is good enough in knowing which name is best and which is not after going through the comments and votes and other options or factors....

 

[Rob Monster]

As I mentioned previously, I voted for Digifender. I have no connection to the name/owner.

Many of the names will work for what Rob/Epik is planning. I like Digifender because I like brandable names that are cool/different/memorable and that one stands out to me. It's very easy to spell (although ironically it's misspelled in the poll) and passes the radio test, much more so than Toki from a previous contest. Or was that Tokey or Toky or Toaky or Toqui or ..... you get the idea. When there's strong misspells of a name I think it weakens the name.

As far as Rob is concerned regarding messages: If I was him I wouldn't answer messages that were offering names he didn't like - not answering IS an answer. It would be a time saver for him for sure. On the downside, I'd never get an answer but I could live with that.

Digifender - the digital defender for all
Digifender - defending the internet, one site at a time

I do try to answer everyone -- I am at almost 100% on that. It is sometimes a few days later but I value everyone and also respect people's time even if my response does not do justice to the create energy that sometimes get unleashed.

On the positive side, I am reasonably good at returning favors. So, even if I don't choose a name, I do get to know folks so that if/when you run into some challenge, there is prior context and relationship where I know with whom I am dealing.

At the end of the day, this is a community, and we are working together to make the pie bigger. I believe it is absolutely happening and I find that to be very worthwhile and encouraging.

As for the poll, I think we are just about there with the decision. We are just wrapping up some details and making sure we did not miss anything important. Thanks for your ongoing input and generous capacity for co-creation. It does come back.

 

[Rob Monster]

When you consider any name consider misspellings, including phonetic ones. Do people know how to spell "auth" once it is said? Oth? How about seal? Probably yes altho some will still misspell it seel. Encrypt, WE know how to spell it, but does the general public?

A lot of these names were just registered, that speaks for itself.

I think if someone knows what is an "SSL" or "TLS", or has heard of LetsEncrypt, we are most of the way there in terms of customer education. The objective here is to create a product that brings the benefit of free security certificates as a best practice, but does it a way that can scale more and where no tech skills are required to order, configure, install or monitor the cert.

 

[karmaco]

At 11:58 you wrote BIN will be set by the end of the day. There is no BIN price listed but the thread was closed saying sold at BIN. Maybe don’t auction your names in the middle of a contest.

 

[Rob Monster]

Yes, NameJi is right the BIN needs to be claimed by the winner per namepros rules, otherwise all those bidders were just wasting their time if you can close the auction, and end the process, nobody would participate in any auction. You really shouldn't have posted an auction if your names were in the running in this contest.

Now you make Rob look like a bad guy, and basically saying money can break the rules, and buy an auction bypassing any rules.

I understand you sitting at $32, and maybe having a bigger offer in play, but you should have placed the bin price at whatever you sold it at, and posted it in the thread, and first post, and then whoever claims it first takes it.

Regardless, hopefully you do better next time. Congrats on your sales.

Tin did get a lecture from me about gaming the poll. While I appreciate the inventiveness, it was actually a dodgy move. Since he is engaged to be married to an Epik staff member, I will give him an extra hard time about it. Someone has to straighten him out before he starts raising babies and what not.

Live and learn. This was an important lesson taught mostly among friends. I look forward to having some more coaching time with Tin in the coming months as we breathe life into this project. His background is super relevant. His evangelical/advocacy and guerrilla marketing skills are also relevant for this one.

 

[xynames]

Well in a way that makes the whole thing even worse it means that you sold it somehow not just outside of the auction but with terms that you couldn’t offer to the general public (to the NP members who could bid on your open auction). Anyway it’s not an egregious offense but two seasoned NP members like yourselves should have known better.

 

[NameJi]

At the end of the day its win-win for both @Rob Monster and @Tin Nguyen. If we keep auction out of context, @Rob Monster did a great job in taking submissions from fellow NP members and buying one from them. It's a great sign. That is the positive side of the story.

@Rob Monster thanks much.

 

[Mary Muse]

To compliment Epik's DNProtect.com, I vote for DNEncrypt.com. It builds upon a family or suite of Epik offerings. This provides some naming consistency, and customers are likely to associate it with 'Let'sEncrypt '.

You put this name on auction -- here at NamePros?

It's been up for auction and you and Epik are more than welcome to join in to add to the fun.

It just seems a bit convoluted to me, but good luck nonetheless.

 

[Samer]

3 names stuck out for me in no particular order:

DNEncrypt.com -(i like better than “letsencrypt”!)

EncryptHere.com (Another one i like, with bonus alph order “e” in encrypt comes before “h” in here
which i feel helps memory retention, and flow 2 word

ProtectSSL.com the only one with SSL i picked, other than the alphabetical order, “P” before “S”
I just worry about other versions of “protect” !! protecting SSL.. lol! Yours is shorter!

i personally would not buy any with abbreviation “cert, auth.. etc” this is personal preference, unless you own the full word, of that too! Good luck, Rob!

Hey Rob! yu know Encrypt.com is actively listed
I wouldnt go broke for that tho! Just thoug interestin

 

[Ategy]

Boy i feel you there @Ategy.com
A reminder If u lose, your name still got exposure; You can still utilize, Many were submitted, only 1 ...

It's all good .. I've had a couple debates with @Rob Monster a while back, and we most certainly don't see eye to eye on some things, I really respect the fact that he takes suggestions and criticism more constructively then most people. Now we mostly have good email exchanges on ideas for Epik. I think that him being open like that is a VERY big reason why Epik is growing so fast. Heck, I've suggested BUG FIXES to GoDaddy in the past, and not only did they not take the suggestion, but some bugs still remain sometimes YEARS later! The more I interact with Rob, the more I can figure out what he likes in terms of brands (even if I don't necessarily agree with his choices sometime technically or personally .. lol) .. so I'm not too worried, FullVenue most certainly won't be the last domain I sell him! lol

That being said .. my biggest regret here .. I grabbed RemoteWriters (in .com) at closeout while finishing today's auction list for my blog at NameCult .. then instead of going back to checking for other names and buying it, I came here and lost track of time. Seriously .. losing the chance to get RemoteWriters for $11 .. arrrgh .. that sucks .. I need to go on a holiday NamePros for a bit! lol

Back to the topic .. While there are a lot of fundamentals in branding (many which are being overlooked with most of the names above .. lol), there is also a lot of person choice involved. That being said .. the further I get as someone inundating myself with names and brands day after day, I'm gaining the capability of seeing beyond my personal choices and placing myself in the shoes of the end-user .. or more importantly .. the end-user's target-audience.

That's actually ironically a part of the problem in a lot of cases, because a lot of end-users don't even think about their target audience when choosing a name/brand (possibly the case here) .. when in fact they should be the ONLY people that should matter. The only exception is when recruitment is more challenging than sales, or in cases of many B2B businesses when your target-market is effectively people in the same industry who understand the terms/slang .. only then maybe go with the cool "only industry people understand the meaning" name. Otherwise it's a mistake to go with industry abbreviations or words that the "lowest common denominator" end user doesn't know.

 

[Blitzpotz]

The only thing I can imagine is that someone that didn't get mentioned used the report button because their feelings were hurt!?!

Seriously I cannot believe that. Mods are struggling with their objective to give the best possible freedom to discuss I suppose. This is a poll thread and most recent posts are about names that are not included.
We members are a crowd of ambitious, strange creatures. Everybody loves his/her handreg which is the best of all times. Nice.

 

[wolfis.com]

I voted for certifa.com ... as none of my domains where selected to the next round ( again ) ... one my list where domains like instalado.com , certificado.com , instala.com and many more ... no I'm not taking it personally ... no yet ..

 

[NamesCost]

DNCRYPT
(.com)

 

[Rahul Sinha]

Though I like encert and fullencrypt , encert.io is already developed .

 

[oldtimer]

As a former participant in some of these past contests I can tell you that good names go fast. DNcert is extremely short and the DN prefix was also part of the name for the last contest winner, so the fact that someone else would reg it for this one is almost a given.. 21 of the 40 names in this contest were regged just in this past week, and those are just the few that made it to the poll.

I voted for NameCert.com (not mine), old 1997 reg!

It's not a big deal now, @Rob Monster already explained to me in PM that he had so many domain submissions at the same time that he missed my suggestion, I am sure that he would have registered it if he had seen my PM on time. I only suggested this domain, it's not something that I would have normally registered for myself. Nevertheless someone else submitting it doesn't bother me as a name like that being available I am sure would have gotten someone's attention sooner or later. As long as @Rob Monster acknowledges my efforts in suggesting him a good name I guess I am happy.

 

[Sumeeth]

You're lucky you got a detailed response from Rob, imo. He doesn't need to answer, especially if your submissions weren't adequate.

Stop feeling entitled, and embrace the fact that the CEO of a major registrar is bringing the domaining community together, one way or another. This should be fun, not something you "take personally."

@Rob Monster is one of the active CEOs I have ever seen. Even in his busy time as a CEO, great to see he replies almost for every DM we send to him, atleast he says thanks when he doesn't like the domain

Regards,
Sumeeth

 

[NameFather]

Please only concentrate/focus the poll, and vote your favorite name.

Note: My suggestion and favorite is:
FullEncrypt.com
Reasons: Brandable, Comprehensive, Descriptive, Memorable, All-in-One;
namely very powerful, very ideal.