Going loco over naming your company? Try the new .CO.

One of the most Advil-inducing aspects of my role as a Name Generator is divining the perfect domain name for a client and then discovering my brainchild is already registered. But considering that 90-million-and-counting .COMs have been snapped up in the 25 years since the extension’s introduction, it’s hardly surprising that the elusive search for an available dotcom is a namer’s nightmare. Doostang, twubs, oofio and Xe, anyone? Ever since the success of nonsense word, now-verb, Google, desperate companies and the namers they hire (moi) are mashing up the alphabet into a mescaline soup of vowels, consonants and dashes.

But at last, as of July 20, 2010, there’s some light at the end of the linguistic tunnel. Finally a new domain name extension, ideal for companies, commerce, corporations –the extension “.CO,” has officially entered the market after a ‘sunrise’ phase since February. CO Internet S.A.S. launched on Tuesday — and it’s been a name generation goldrush ever since. In fact, I’m pretty astounded by what’s already gone. I dilly-dally-ed on Tuesday on a name I liked — I dared to answer the phone. When I came back, one of my favorite travel site names (Boundless) had been snatched up during the few minutes I was chatting.

During the sunrise phase, domain seekers applied for more than 39,000 .CO’s. Naturally, first priority registration rights were offered to trademark holders. Big brands were among the first to grab: Amazon, American Express, Apple, BMW, Cartier, Canon, CNN, Coca-Cola, Disney, Ebay, Exxon, Ford, Google, Hilton, Honda, IBM, IKEA, Kodak, McDonalds, Microsoft, MTV, Nestle, Nike, Nokia, Panasonic, Pfizer, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, Toyota, Unilever, Visa, Yahoo. Twitter smartly nabbed T.co. The full list of early .CO adopters is here.

Get your CO domain via the usual domain registrars such as GoDaddy.com, Register.com and Network Solutions, etc. Prepare to pay big bucks — at godaddy, they’re hawking the new domains at $29.95 per (buy in bulk and get a smidgen off). But that pales compared to the $350,000.00 Overstock recently paid to acquire O.CO.

The powers-that-be are also withholding approximately 2,000 premium generic domains from general availability and will auction them to help promote and maintain the .CO domain. The auctions will take place at a variety of online and off-line venues over the course of the next 12 months.

Guru’s Note: So what should you do, O intrepid namer? If you’re searching for a name for a new company, site, product, or service, I’d absolutely get out the list of Dream Names you never could get as a dotcom or dotnet; check .CO availability and register them pronto. Obviously, do your legal due diligence and competitive analysis. If your #1 competitor owns the brand’s dotcom and dotnet, adding .CO is not likely to be a viable solution. But if the other extensions are registered to a company in a completely unrelated field or have been inactive/domain squatters, the .CO may make sense. I registered a .CO domain I liked — Innovation Institute — because the dotcom site lists the most recent post as June 8, 2001. Now this could change, so I will monitor before I actually use the .CO.

If your name is already well established, I wouldn’t be in a panic to add the .CO extension. The new extension is a smart-to-have — just like the .info, .biz and other existing extensions that should be in support of your brand and TM.

And remember . . .

Choosing a name is a delicate balance of art and science. Choose names that:

• Fit the concept
• Can be pronounced easily
• Are elastic across time, cultures and categories
• Are visual and create an instant picture of your product or business
• Create a memorable brand personality – zag while your competitors zig
• Connect emotionally with your target in a meaningful and experiential way
• Have the potential to be delivered via multiple platforms
• Able to scale as your business does
• And always, never ever be boring.