All the one word domain names are gone.

After an hour or two of searching, you’ve come to that conclusion. There is no meaningful English word that hasn’t already been registered.

Well, you’re right. Give up now.

Unless you can embrace the concept of nonsense. In which case, great one word names are right there, waiting for you to pluck them off the tree. They’re screaming at you: “Pick me! Pick me!”

First of we’re assuming that the generic names for your project (let’s say shoes.com and shoes.net) are already taken. If not, buy them, and then please buy me a lottery ticket.

OK, now that we’re back in the real world, how about zazzer.com? Blastora? Quiklit?

“But, but, but…those don’t mean anything!” you protest. Stick with me here.

Take a look at this list of recent startups. Most of them look like the product of a child on Ritalin with a bowl of alphabet soup. Wakoopa? Twingly? Hoera? Zilok? Symbaloo? If those names don’t immediately lower your IQ, at least they should make you feel a whole lot better about your ideas.

Yes, they’re meaningless, but only because they don’t mean anything yet. If you believe it’s a word, it is a word. After all, language is only language because we collectively agree on its meaning.

So when is a name a name? When people recognize it. If I want to be called Zorak, I just need you to call me Zorak. Likewise, if we all say Flickr is spelled without an “e”, well then it is. Post-Flickr, dropping the final vowel quickly became a formula: Tumblr, Raptr, Feedalizr (Twitter didn’t get the memo). Success is always imitated, formulized, and then clichéd. But someone has to jump first.

If it expresses something, evokes something or just sounds good to your ear, then it works.

Likewise, if we believe that a name-number compound makes sense, it does. Especially with a meaningful or witty backstory. 30gms.com is the web site of a firm called Fibre, of which 30 grams happens to be the recommended dose. Clever, huh?

Although that number-noun formula is overused at this point, it demonstrates a key naming principle of our time: enigma is the new familiarity. Names like “Thunderbird” and “Zenith” were supposed to imbue products with the qualities of their namesakes. Those days are gone. Names no longer define products; products define their names.

And although shoes.com may have automatic traffic for life, zapatoo.com or 12toes.com are more memorable and more brandable. When the brain hears something unique that it doesn’t quite understand, it latches on and won’t let go.

After all, branding is differentiation. And isn’t nonsense is about as different as it gets?