Forget the old days when you picked a baby name from a baby book. That’s archaic. There’s a new way to pick your baby’s name today – see what domain names are available.
According to research from OnePoll sponsored on behalf of GoDaddy, as many as 1-in-5 millennials said they changed or considered changing their baby’s name based on what domain names were free.
Compared to Generation X, today’s parents are prepping their kids for life online before they are even born.
The research looked at 1,000 millennial parents from 24-38 and 1,000 Gen X parents from age 39 to 53. They found that the importance of having a strong internet presence for children has risen dramatically. In fact, 48 percent of millennials believe it’s important for their child to have a presence online early in life. This compares to just 27 percent of Gen X parents who have the same views.
Since millennials have grown up with technology at their fingertips, it makes sense that their children would too. More than 50 percent of the millennials surveyed reported getting their first social media account between the ages of 10 and 17. About 20 percent of Gen X parents make the same claim.
But when it comes to buying a domain name for their new bundle of joy, millennials have the future in mind. The most important reason for creating a website for their new or still womb-bound baby? Forty-eight percent claim it’s for future job searching purposes. This is closely followed by 47 percent of parents who created the website for college application purposes.
More than a third of the parents that were surveyed (37 percent) believe that personal websites will take the place of social media in the future and want to be prepared.
Children of millennials have an average of 107 photos posted online before they can even take their first steps. Gen X parents reported posting only about half that number of photos in the same time period.
“More than ever, it’s essential to own your own identity on the internet, and millennials know that better than anyone else,” Schneider said. “Today’s parents know that the internet is woven into the fabric of our daily lives, and teaching them how to show up well online is vital.”
Parents in both groups were conscious of their children’s digital footprints and 94 percent of them said they would be speaking to their children about how to properly mange their online presence.
“The internet is where so much of life happens, and we’re seeing parents in today’s world make sure their children have a place for themselves online,” Schneider said. “Whether it’s to give them a leg up on school or work, or just to hold their spot for some future use, we expect to see registering for a domain become as common as registering for a stroller for new parents.”
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Picking a baby name is serious business. When I had my first, Justin was my first name choice, but that was right when Justin Timberlake had Sexy Back out and he was super popular, so I decided to go with something else so no one thought I named my child after a pop star LOL.
My kids don’t have really that much of an online identity yet. I have sort of shielded them from this a little. As they get older I will let them! I am just not there yet! It took my hubby and I forever to agree on a name for our kiddo! I love the names we picked and I hope they are strong names!
Wow … this was a fascinating information. I am not mom but I am a millennial. Don’t know if this would have been my criteria for picking a name 😀
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We never used a baby book just discussed names we liked. In today’s world I can see this being popular way to look for names
A name should always have a special meaning.
I don’t even it is nice to how we picked our kids names I know we had no book. There are so many good names but you want to make it fit for his entire life.
I have a rather unusual name so I really wanted common names for our kids. We picked out each of kid’s names to pay homage to family members and it fits each of them perfectly.
I’ve never even thought about having a domain for my child or checking to see what domains were available before I named him. Interesting! I went with a family name 🙂
There are so many wonderful names. I don’t have a common name and wanted common names for my children.
I had no idea this was a new thing when it comes to picking out names! I always had to check what a name meant before I settled on it and how it would sound as a grownup name. My youngest grandson has his own Instagram. He’s 8 months old, but his name was chosen the old-fashioned way.
This was an interesting post. I think more and more people are making up names, too. As an educator I saw this trend starting 10 years ago.
It was easy to name my son since he was named after his Dad and Papa.
But my daughter was tricky. I read a lot of books, so I would suggest names from characters I loved over the years. I also preferred the “old fashioned” names, which is how I came up with Natalie. My husband liked it too, thank goodness! Her middle name is Elizabeth, after Queen Elizabeth I, King Henry VIII’s daughter. I liked how she kicked butt and didn’t let the men boss her around.
This is new information for me! We did not use a name book, but we also did not check to see if our daughter would have a domain name free. She has a pretty old fashioned name, so even though its simple, it is unique for her age bracket.
This is very interesting. I didn’t think about online presence when I was choosing a name for my ow 2-year-old, but I did secure a gmail account for him as soon as his name was picked.
Wow – those are some crazy statistics! Things are so much different now than when I was a kid…. even how to name your own baby!
Everything is so different now that people live a lot of their lives online. Baby naming is always going to be a big responsibility though.
That’s so cool. we name our first daughter after us. My older one chose the name of my second one.
I guess it makes sense in this day and age. I know I used a book when naming my daughter and for my son it came down to family names.
I have to say, I never thought to look at what domain names were available when picking my kids names a few years ago. We just went with the names that we liked the most together and that was it!
I love the 3 names I chose for my kids. They are not too unique but they are spelled differently.
It’s such a difficult decision sometimes to find the perfect name for your baby. It makes sense in today’s technology age that that would become a factor in choosing the name.
Loved all the info you’ve shared! So hard to pick a name these days!
Crazy how times have changed since I had babies! We had such a hard time choosing our son’s name!
Wow. Domain names. Really. That’s very interesting! Talk about being a digital generation. I think my uncle picked my name out of a magazine, it was very random and so very analog lol!!
That is really interesting!! I had no idea there is a lot you should consider nowadays when choosing a name for your baby.
We chose our baby’s name based on my in-laws names. It actually came out really cute and I am glad!
This is the first time I have heard about this. I am an elder millennial, but I have my children young. This concept of creating webpages for your kids? I believe that some are thinking of that but what about the psychological impact digitial and social media is having on our children? We are just now starting to see the effects. I will admit. I am a little scared.
Wow. Never would have thought of this. Maybe that’s why parents choose such weird spellings these days haha
Whoa, this is so weird and strange to me that someone would even take this into so much consideration when naming their children.
I am actually floored to hear that so many millennials are basing their babies’ names on what domain names are available. It is a whole different world now!
Baby name trends have changed sop much. My name used to be rare, but now more common place. So much choice and very hard to decide x
Wow! I wasn’t even aware about this. I think it’s definitely something that the younger generation would come up with. Time have changed, indeed!
Times sure have changed in a rather short period of time. My oldest is 13 and I picked his name from family names and he still isn’t on social media, I do like the idea of getting them there own URL now though that seems like a cool idea.
Talk about a modern twist on things, this is really something I’ve just learned after reading this post. I guess you could say that they’re embracing technology!
This is crazy! An online presence at such a young age scares me. I had no idea people were so concerned with their children’s names and what’s available for domains??
Picking names is one of our favorite things to do when we find out. We have picked out all unique names for our kiddos
This is such an interesting article. As I was reading I called my husband and shared it with him. He enjoyed it too. I have to say, it’s a clever idea.
These are some amazing tips! As parents we put so much pressure on ourselves. I think picking out a name was the hardest.
Our kids were named with a pattern in mind. All the boys start with J all the girls end in A. Interesting concept though.
It’s amazing how much of life is on the internet even at a young age.
Naming a baby is a big job. lol. No matter what, there will be someone who doesn’t like the name!
It’s amazing how times have changed. I’m pretty sure I secured a domain for at least one of my kids, but never renewed them.
Wow its interesting that people are creating websites for their babies! Technology has really gone far.
So are these parents registering the domains? Otherwise someone else might pick up the domain eventually.
When my wife and I were trying to figure out a name for our son, we checked out the Social Security’s website. They have a list of names based on popularity over the years.