What’s in a Name?

I’ve never really liked my first name.

Grant.

verb (used with object)
to bestow or confer, especially by a formal act:
to grant a charter.

noun
something granted, as a privilege or right, a sum of money, or a tract of land:
Several major foundations made large grants to fund the research project.

A long time ago I complained to my mother about my name.  When she asked what I’d rather be called, I suggested Kirk and Scotty.  (I watched a lot of Star Trek reruns in those days.)  I definitely would not want either of those names now.  Maybe I’d go with William, which is my middle name.  At least it’s not in the dictionary.

“Grant”, as a name, supposedly means “great” and began as a nickname for “a large or tall person.”  That still doesn’t convince me to like it.

A year or so ago I registered a domain name to possibly use in promoting my writing.  I’m terrible at self-promotion.  I prefer to be as invisible as possible.  And so I never really built any content for my website.

The domain name was grantwsmith.com. That’s remarkably fitting, considering my name is Grant William Smith.  The e-mail address just seemed all wrong: grant@grantwsmith.com.  That’s redundant.  I considered me@grantwsmith.com, but that’s not much better.  The domain name is just too “me” – literally.  It’s my first name, middle initial, and last name.

So I started searching for domain names, again.

The idea in finding a personal domain name is to look for something short and unique.  A common phrase or quote is preferred.  And it has to be somehow related to you or your interests.

The first phrase that came to mind was, “for granted.”  Yeah, it’s taken.  I could have gone with for-granted.com or forgranted.io, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are a dozen similarly named websites out there.

I needed a more obscure phrase.

grantnoquarter.com – Available, but too long.  Also it sounds like I’m a commanding sort of person, which I’m definitely not.

I considered grantthis.com.  Not only is it a phrase, but “this” is “Smith” backwards, without the “M”.  However, it looks too much like “grant his”.

“faster than Grant through Richmond” is an expression – although I’ve never heard it before.  fasterthangrantthroughrichmond.com is available, and probably will be for a very long time.

tnarg.com – Taken!  Can you believe it?  Someone is more desperate than me.

Also on the chopping block: grantthat.com, grantsquarter.com, takegrant.com, granttaken.com, etc, etc.

Then I happened to think of a partial phrase: “granted that.”

grantedthat.com

It’s perfect.  It’s not the main subject, and I always prefer not to be.  Those two words serve on the sidelines, deflecting attention to something more important.  That’s totally me.