Domain name for personal portfolio website. If your own name is gone!

Hi everyone, I’m thinking of buying a domain name and web hosting as I would to like to have my own site that not only will be my portfolio but also a place that I can use to test out other things on as well such as php scripts, web apps and so on…

The issue is I would love it just to be my name, of course Ive a massively common name and most respectable Top Level Domain names like .co, .net etc… are gone.

The question is if you couldnt have just your name, then what would you add to it?

for example, lets say johnsmith.com is gone, would you then do something like johnsmithdev.com, johnsmithdesign.com etc…

Naturally as the title would have to be relevent to being a web design and software developer.

What would you do…?

Have you tried a .me, i guess johnsmith.me looks more personalized!

As someone who actually has the last name of Smith, I’ve found it easier to omit it entirely. Do you know how many Greg Smiths there are in the U.S.? I think there’s over 100 in Colorado alone. Think laterally about your domain name. Try to make something clever with just your first name. Don’t just sit there staring out of a window hoping to be hit with inspiration, though. You need to be physically writing things out. Write down everything that comes to mind, even the stuff you know won’t work. Plow through the stuff that is boring, taken, or otherwise crappy. When you’ve exhausted the most obvious material, then your brain will start churning out the good stuff.

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I think that’s a great idea to get your own domain name and hosting for other projects as well.

As for the domain issue, you can even get creative with the extensions if you would like, I recommend trying Domainr - https://domainr.com/

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Thanks for the suggestions, its still a tricky one. Domainr looks really good, I’m giving that a try out for helpful ideas.