When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge welcomed the newest addition to the British royal line on Monday, July 22, the youngster didn’t have a name yet. However, he did have a title: the Prince of Cambridge.
Given the magnitude of the media coverage surrounding the event, it may come as a surprise that the domain name princeofcambridge.com was only registered last week. (It led to a placeholder site, TheDomains.com reported.) By contrast, other domain names with royal associations had been registered well in advance: princegeorge.com (1995), princehenry.com (1999) and princejames.com (2001).
Following the July 22 birth, a number of .com and .net domains were snapped up as people tried to guess the matching royal’s name, reasoning that such an acquisition might prove profitable. Shortly after the newborn’s name, George Alexander Louis, was announced to the world on Wednesday, July 24, it appeared that the domain name georgealexanderlouis.com had been registered to a third party.
Naturally, Prince William and Catherine have more important things on their minds than whether they own their child’s domain name.
On the other hand, companies that launch new products without registering the relevant web resources beforehand can face a lengthy and expensive process when trying to reclaim them.
“This event demonstrates how important it is for individuals and organizations to consider their web presence during key events or when naming upcoming products or services,” said Vincent D’Angelo, director of CSC’s Digital Brand Services’ Brand Advisory Team. “If someone buys up the domain and registers the matching social media usernames beforehand, it can be very problematic.”
At the time of this writing, the name George Alexander Louis was also registered on Facebook (www.facebook.com/georgealexanderlouis), most likely by a third party as well. Interestingly, the Facebook profile was created by someone different than the registrant of the actual domain name.
The race to get the Prince of Cambridge’s domain names has been intense and illustrates the importance of “getting in early” when it comes to registering domains and social media usernames for your organization.