Timing is everything

Last night I thought of a cute name for my design studio: Sparkbug Design Studio. Foolishly, I designed a logo before checking to see if the domain name was available. Then I discovered that someone had already bought sparkbug.com but had not yet put up a site.

I emailed the owner and asked if she would be willing to sell. This person emailed me today and informed me that she would not sell because she owns a web design firm called Sparkbug Design Studio and will be putting up her own porfolio at this address. So not only can I not have my domain name of choice – someone else is using it for exactly the same thing.

Staying positive, I decide to make a list of other potential names and check their availability. It turns out that there is a web design firm with every name I like. And my list got pretty creative as the hous dragged on. Here are some of the names I thought of that were taken:

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  Hedgehog Design

  Porcupine Design (maybe they could battle…)

  Loose Leaf Design

  City Mouse Design

  Intelligent Design (yeah, I know it was a longshot)

  Hopscotch Design

Some of the names I considered were available with some creative variation, but I don’t want people visiting another web designer by mistake when they look for my site. The problem is that for as many words as there are in the English language, there is a web design firm to go along with it. Is the market really so flooded? Maybe I should reconsider my career path?

Any ideas for a name? If you’re bored, play the “domain name game” with me and try to find a word that is not associated with a web design firm.