How We Got Our Name
We needed a word that means "name" but isn't just... name. Moniker fit: it's a word for a name or alias that appears about 0.2 times per million words in English. Common enough that people recognize it, uncommon enough that it seemed like a reasonable app name.
The Obvious Choice Was Taken
First thing we checked: moniker.com.
moniker.com is an ICANN-accredited domain registrar that's been around since the early days of the internet. They specialize in domain investing and manage over 1,000 TLDs. Not for sale.
The TLD Hunt
So we checked the alternatives:
Active domain registrar. Not for sale.
Parked with a bad SSL certificate.
For sale: $34,888
Old blog. Last updated 2015.
Parked. Redirects to landing page.
Parked. Someone's sitting on it.
Taken. Connection refused.
For sale: $250,000
Parked with sketchy redirect.
Parked. Redirects to landing page.
Taken. Connection refused.
Taken. Connection refused.
Taken. Connection refused.
Parked. Redirects to landing page.
Parked. Redirects to landing page.
Taken. Connection refused.
Taken. 404 error.
Taken. The irony.
Out of 18 domains, one is actually being used. The rest are parked, for sale, or returning connection errors.
The Alternatives Were Also Taken
We tried the usual tricks. Add "get" or "use" to the front. Add "app" or "hq" to the end.
Taken. Connection refused.
Taken. Connection refused.
For sale. "Make an offer."
Taken. Connection refused.
Parked. For sale.
For sale. "Make an offer."
Taken. Connection refused.
Taken. Connection refused.
Taken. Connection refused.
For sale on BrandBucket.
Every reasonable variation was either taken or priced like they knew we were desperate.
The Pivot
We build a file renaming app. We look at filenames like these all day:
If we can't have a clean domain, might as well match the problem we're solving.
The Domain
finalfinalreallyfinaluntitleddocumentv3.com
42 characters. Impossible to type correctly on the first try. But it was available, and it's the exact kind of filename Moniker exists to fix.