To choose a personal domain name, try yourname.com first, because your own name is the clearest, most memorable address you can own. If it is taken, add your middle name or initial, or use a modern extension like .me or .dev, or add your craft such as janedoedesign.com. Keep it short, easy to say out loud, and free of hyphens and numbers, then confirm it is not someone else's trademark before you buy.
The stakes
You are naming the one asset you keep for a decade
A domain name feels like a small decision because it costs about the price of a coffee a month. It is not a small decision. It is the address every future employer, client, and collaborator will type, the handle you print on a business card, and the root that every backlink and search ranking will accrue to for as long as you renew it. Change it later and you throw away all of that authority and ask everyone to relearn where you live.
That is why the goal is not the cleverest name available today. It is the name you will still be comfortable saying out loud in five years, after a career pivot, a move, and a dozen new projects. A personal domain should be as durable as your own name, because in the best case it is your own name.
The rest of this guide is a priority order. Start at the top, and only move down when an option is genuinely unavailable. Most people overthink this and end up with something worse than the obvious choice they skipped.
The order
Work down this list until something is free
Do not brainstorm forty ideas. Go through these in order and stop at the first one that is available, sayable, and not a trademark. That is your domain.
Try yourname.com first.
firstlast.com is the gold standard: it is unambiguous, it matches how people already refer to you, and .com is still the extension everyone assumes by default. If janedoe.com is free, stop here. You are done.
Add your middle name or initial.
If your name is taken, janemariedoe.com or janemdoe.com keeps the whole thing recognizably you. A middle name reads more naturally than an initial, but both beat bolting on a random word.
Use a modern extension.
jane.me and janedoe.dev are clean, credible, and widely understood. .me suits a personal site, .dev signals an engineer, and .design, .studio, or .co all work when they fit your craft. A short name on a good extension beats a long name on .com.
Add your craft or role.
janedoedesign.com or janedoewrites.com adds one meaningful word that also tells a visitor what you do. Pick a word about your work, never a filler like "official," "real," or "the," which read as the runner-up prize.
Say the finalist out loud, then buy it.
Read your top choice to another person and have them spell it back. If they get it right the first time, register it. If they hesitate, go back a step. The phone test decides more than your own eye ever will.
The rules
Five tests every good domain passes
Whatever candidate you land on, run it through these before you pay. Each one is a way a domain quietly fails in the real world.
Short
The fewer characters, the better
A shorter domain is easier to type, easier to remember, and harder to typo. If you can drop a word without losing meaning, drop it. Length is the most common regret people have about a name they picked in a hurry.
Sayable
It survives being spoken
You will say your domain in interviews, on calls, and at events far more than anyone will click it. If it needs spelling out or an "all one word" caveat every time, it is costing you.
No hyphens
Hyphens vanish out loud
jane-doe.com sounds identical to janedoe.com when spoken, so people land on the wrong site or someone else's. Hyphenated domains also carry a whiff of "the good one was taken." Avoid them.
No numbers
Numbers are ambiguous
Is it jane4design or janefordesign, "2" or "to" or "too"? Numbers force a decision every listener has to guess at. Unless a number is literally part of your name, leave them out.
Clear extension
Pick a TLD people trust
.com, .me, .dev, .io, .co, and .design are all clean and credible. Avoid the bargain-bin extensions that read as spam. The extension is part of the name, so choose it as carefully as the word in front of it.
Unowned
It is not a trademark
Before you buy, search the name as a company and a product. If it belongs to a brand, especially in a field near yours, a personal site on that name is a rename waiting to happen. Your own name is the safest ground.
The judgment call
A name you keep versus a name you replace
Two people with the same name, taken, make opposite choices. Here is what separates the domain you keep from the one you quietly re-register a year later.
| Capability | Folio | The one you replace |
|---|---|---|
| Base choice | yourname.com, or the closest recognizable variant | A clever coined word unrelated to your name |
| When the name is taken | Middle name, initial, or a modern extension like .me or .dev | Hyphens, numbers, or filler words like "official" |
| Said out loud | Spelled correctly on the first try | Needs "all one word, no hyphen" every single time |
| Length | Short enough to fit on a card and in memory | A mouthful you shorten when you tell people |
| Legal footing | Checked against trademarks, safely yours | Borrows a brand name and hopes nobody notices |
The test is simple: would you still be happy printing this on a resume after a career change? If not, pick again now, while it is free to.
When your name is gone
What to do when yourname.com is already taken
Common names get claimed early, so plenty of people never get their exact match on .com. That is not a problem, it is a fork in the road, and the good branches are all still short and sayable. In priority order: add your middle name (janemariedoe.com), then your middle initial (janemdoe.com), then move to a strong extension where the bare name is free (jane.me, janedoe.dev), then add one word about your craft (janedoewrites.com). Any of those beats a mangled .com.
Resist two tempting dead ends. The first is buying the name plus a hyphen or a number to force the .com, which trades a clean address for one that fails the moment it is spoken. The second is paying a reseller a large sum for a premium domain you do not need, when a .me or .dev version is free and reads just as well. A short, honest name on a trusted extension outperforms an awkward name on .com every time.
One more move worth making: if you land on jane.me, glance at whether janedoe.com is parked or genuinely in use by another real person. If it is simply parked, you can note it and revisit later, but do not let the wait stall you. The site that is live on a good-enough domain always beats the perfect domain you are still negotiating for.
The payoff
Buy it, then put something worth visiting on it
Once the name passes the tests, register it and move on. Domains are cheap, and the real cost of this decision is time spent deliberating, not money. Lock in the one that is short, sayable, hyphen-free, number-free, and clearly yours, and you have made the one branding choice that follows you across every future role.
The name is only half the job, though. A domain pointing at nothing, or at a half-built page, undersells the good decision you just made. Connect it to a real portfolio: a clear pitch, a few outcomes with numbers, your resume, and a way to reach you. With Folio you connect a domain you own, the certificate is handled for you, and your portfolio, resume, and cover letter all live behind that one address.
That is the whole exercise. Choose the most recognizable name you can own, prove it out loud, check it is not someone else's, and put work worth reading behind it. Do that once and you never have to think about your address again, which is exactly the point of owning it.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best domain name for a personal website?
The best personal domain is yourname.com, because it matches how people already refer to you and never goes out of date. If it is taken, the strongest fallbacks are your middle name or initial, a modern extension like .me or .dev, or your name plus your craft, such as janedoedesign.com.
Should I use hyphens or numbers in my domain name?
No. Hyphens disappear when a domain is spoken, so people land on the wrong site, and numbers are ambiguous because listeners cannot tell "4" from "for." Both read as a second choice. Keep the name to plain letters that survive being said out loud.
What should I do if my name is already taken as a domain?
Work down a priority list: add your middle name, then your middle initial, then use a strong extension where the bare name is free like .me or .dev, then add one word about your craft. Avoid hyphens, numbers, and filler words like "official," which all read as the runner-up.
Is a .com domain still better than .me or .dev?
A short, clean name matters more than the extension. .com is still the default people assume, but a bare yourname.me or yourname.dev beats a long or hyphenated .com. Match the extension to your work: .me for a personal site, .dev for an engineer.
Do I need to check trademarks before buying a domain?
Yes. Search the name as a company and a product first. If it belongs to a brand, especially one near your field, a personal site on that name is a rename waiting to happen. Using your own name is the safest ground because it is unmistakably yours.