Finding the right domain name isn’t always as simple as it seems. Here’s my journey to landing a domain that perfectly fits the Lurp vibe.
May 3, 2025, Arvid Renestam
When I first started building this app, I had the name Lerp in mind. It was short, memorable, and even had a neat connection to linear interpolation—something that felt a bit nerdy in the right way. Naturally, I went straight for lerp.com.
But no luck. It was already registered, sitting unused (in fact, the 456,976 possible four-letter .com domain combinations are all taken.) There was no website, just a parked domain. I hoped maybe I could buy it later, but in the meantime, I had to keep looking.
While lerp.com was still a maybe, I started exploring other options. I looked at different TLDs like .app and .io, but nothing really clicked. Then I tried .it—and suddenly it made sense. “Lerp it!” had a fun ring to it, and the domain lerp.it was available.
It felt right for the brand—short, easy to say, and was gonna work well in social handles like @lerpit. I grabbed it.
It wasn't until many months later that I started to see the huge problem with the name. Naming an app after an existing, well-established term like lerp felt like a nice thing to do, but there was one thing I failed to consider: SEO. For a web-based app like Lurp, ranking highly in search engines was crucial. I would tell my friends about the app I was making, they would search for it, and they would find nothing related to my app. At first, I thought I simply had to be patient and that the algorithms would eventually pick up on my website. But when months had passed and I still hadn't seen any improvement, it was clear that wasn't the case. Linear interpolation, and its abbreviation, completely owned that specific search keyword—it was time to accept that this was a battle I simply couldn't win.
This realization was made less heartbreaking by the fact that I had already felt some doubts about the name. It felt maybe a bit too technical for what I was making, and most of all, I couldn't really get the e to look great in the logo. So I played around with the letters and tried swapping the “e” with a “u”. Lurp instantly felt better—friendlier, more playful, and way more in line with the vibe I wanted for the app. The u was also much easier in logo design. Most importantly, the name sounded the same as before. If you want more insights into this, read the blog post dedicated to this name change.
But then came a new challenge: lurp.com was also taken. This time by a company actually trying to sell it—probably for a small fortune. I wasn’t about to pay hundreds of thousands for some random domain name. Well, not really random, I suppose, but you get the point!
Thankfully, lurp.it was available. It was a smooth switch from lerp.it, and it still had that playful energy. I decided to stick with it.
There were two main reasons:
Some people associated .it with Italy (understandable), but to me, it reads more like a fun action—lurp it. That felt on brand. Though, I still have to correct some people pronouncing it “lurp dot IT” instead of “lurp dot it” 😣
I thought about other options too, like getlurp.com. It has a clear call-to-action, which works for a lot of apps. But for this project, it didn’t feel as natural. I preferred something that felt more like a standalone name, not a command. Like, you're not supposed to *get *the app; you're supposed to *use *it.
But since I’m based in Sweden, I also made sure to grab lurp.se to catch any local traffic and redirect it to the Swedish version of the site. It just made sense.
I also considered lurp.io and lurp.app, but they didn’t feel essential. For now, lurp.it and lurp.se are enough. That said, I’m keeping an eye on other TLDs—just in case I need them in the future.
Another surprise was just how much social media handles influenced things. @lurp was taken basically everywhere. But @lurpit? Totally available—and a perfect match for the domain. It was an easy decision. Though, not exactly totally available. For Instagram I had to turn to the @lurp.it username instead, which still hearts a bit to be honest.
As for lurp.com, I’ve accepted that it’s not going to happen—at least not anytime soon. The domain is being squatted on, and the asking price is out of reach. Unless things change drastically, I’m happy sticking with lurp.it.
This whole experience taught me a lot:
In the end, lurp.it feels like home for the app. I love the way it sounds, the way it looks, and the way it connects everything—from the name to the domain to the handle.
Would lurp.com have been nice? Sure. But the brand is more than a domain—it’s about what I’m building. And for that, lurp.it is the perfect fit.
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