The Hall of Unwanted Dotcoms
Anyone who has ever tried to register a dotcom will tell you that all the names are taken. Even the most unlikely ones.
Either there’s an organisation somewhere for whom the name is perfect, or the professional dotcom squatters have snapped it up in the hope of a future bid. If you’re after a short, one-syllable, easily pronounceable name, there is simply nothing left.
Or very nearly nothing.
There's a certain sub-group of domain names that remain available for a minimal fee, even two decades into the age of the Internet. They are all one syllable, easy to pronounce and seven letters or fewer: qualities that are gold dust in normal circumstances. Yet they are presumed so awkward, ugly and uninspiring that nobody – not even the dotcom squatters – can bring themselves to go near them.
This post is a testimony to those names. By the truest test of all – the market – these are the ugliest monosyllables in the language.
gludge.com
blorph.com
frunge.com
splegg.com
thrord.com
gruld.com
brolge.com
crench.com
klorp.com
throdge.com
skrolch.com
wrimb.com
strebb.com
blarse.com
phlut.com
sprolge.com
thlunk.com
plooped.com
prork.com
grulch.com
These names are all available for a minimal fee from any domain registration service as of 18 September 2012. There are more out there, though I have tried to stay as close as possible to relatively straightforward words. I will add more from time to time – please let me know if you find any particularly good ones (one syllable, fewer than seven letters, easy to pronounce).
More importantly, let me know if any of these are taken off the market, especially if it’s as a result of seeing them on this site. I have no commercial interest, but would like to track the fate of these sad monosyllables.
UPDATE:
This post has been republished on Creative Review. Since then, over the course of 20-21 September, many of the names have been taken, although content has yet to go up.
As far as I can tell, klorp.com and grulch.com now belong to the same guy in Germany. Brolge.com has an owner in New Jersey. And gludge.com belongs to Marcus in the UK, who has done this with it. Others have gone to anonymous owners elsewhere.
It remains to be seen if these are (possibly automated) domain squatters or people with interesting plans. If you’ve bought one of the domains and are reading this, it would be nice to hear from you.
As of 14.30 on 21 September 2012, these eight names remain unclaimed:
splegg.com
thrord.com
throdge.com
skrolch.com
wrimb.com
sprolge.com
plooped.com
prork.com
Seriously, guy in Germany, what’s wrong with throdge.com?
