What’s in a name? Pretty much everything.

Have you ever thought about what makes you unique, and how much of that has to do with your name? Does your name shape your destiny? If some academic studies are correct, a name can have consequences for a person’s job, location and even on his/her academic performance. These studies are not absolute. But one thing is clear: A name is more than just a name.

Have you ever thought about what a name means for your business? A name can be critical to the success or failure of a business. It is what customers will remember (good or bad) about your business that will either draw them to it or send them to a competitor’s business. Assuming your business survives and thrives, you will have invested a lot of time and money building it. So a meaningful part of the value of your business can be embedded in your name.

The common misconception has been that it is hard to own your ideal business name online because of the obvious trouble of securing the dot-com web address of your choice. There are already 117 million dot-com domains purchased which makes originality a challenge. And the alternative of buying an already owned dot-com from a domain name investor can be prohibitively expensive, particularly if you’re just launching your new business and every dollar matters.

Well finally there is a new solution — after nearly 30 years of stagnancy in naming on the Internet there are now hundreds of new “not-com” choices that make it much easier to find a unique name that perfectly reflects the personality of your business or brand. These “not-com” choices like .FLORIST, .GURU and .PHOTOGRAPHY can help you create a name that is meaningful, memorable, available and very importantly, searchable.

There are lots of myths and misconceptions about how new domain extensions like .NYC, .MOVIE, .EMAIL, .LIFE, and the hundreds of other new “not-coms” actually perform in search rankings. Some people even assume that Google doesn’t surface domains registered with these extensions at all. This is 100% false. Most simply the Google algorithm does not distinguish whether a word is to the right or the left of the dot in a domain name. So Fathom.clothing performs in every way like Fathomclothing.com, with the extra benefit of being shorter and simpler.

I like to analyze how new firms come up with their branding. Too often the constraint of availability has played an outsized role. Now these new “not-com” choices put creativity back in the driver’s seat. In 2015, we have seen this creativity spread across the small business community like wildfire, being exemplified by “not-com” small businesses such as Wyoming.fish, TheFlower.house, Driftaway.coffee, Artof.fitness and many more.

What do all these businesses have in common? They recognize the vitality of their name to their success. All have turned to “not-com” domains to unleash their creativity to create a winning name.

Ask any of them “What’s in a name?” and their answer is simple: pretty much everything.