Your Own Domain

Pick a good name, understand DNS, and register your first domain with your parents.

What is a domain, and what is DNS

A domain is your website’s address: google.com, hawkseagles.com. You buy it (more precisely: you rent it, usually for a year) from a registrar – domains typically cost somewhere around $10–15 a year.

So how does a domain find your website? Through DNS – the internet’s phone book:

Browser: "Where does hawkseagles.com live?"
DNS:     "At the server with address 93.185.102.11."
Browser: "Thanks!" → goes to that server for the page

When you buy a domain, you set up a record in DNS that points to the server where your website lives (your hosting, from the next lesson).

💡

How to pick a good name: short, easy to type and say out loud (test: dictate it to your grandma over the phone), no hyphens or numbers, no special characters. hawkseagles.com – yes. hawks-eagles_team2012.com – no.

Show me: is the name available?

You can check if a domain is available at any registrar (Namecheap, GoDaddy, Google Domains…) – they all have a search box. For an official record, you can also check registries like icann.org.

If it’s taken, don’t panic: try a different ending (.dev, .online) or tweak the name (ourschool.com → myschoolsite.com).

Now it’s your turn 💪

⚠️

Registering a domain is a job for your parents. It’s paid for with a card and requires personal information – that’s their part. Your part is having a good name ready and being able to explain why you want it.

Take the 3 domain ideas from your LAUNCH.md and check which ones are available.
Pick a winner using the rules for a good name (the grandma test!).
Prepare a “presentation” for your parents: what the website does, why you want your own address, how much the domain costs per year.
Once your parents register the domain, store the registrar login somewhere safe (your parents’ password manager).
No domain yet? No problem – everything in the upcoming lessons can be done on your GitHub Pages address too, and you can connect a domain later, anytime.

✅

Check: You know what a domain, DNS, and a registrar are. You’ve picked an available name and made a plan with your parents (or decided to stick with your GitHub Pages address for now).

What to take away from this lesson

A domain is rented from a registrar; it typically costs about $10–15 a year.
DNS is the internet’s phone book: domain → server address.
A good name passes the grandma test: short, no hyphens, easy to say out loud.

This lesson is part of a paid level

What is a domain, and what is DNS

Show me: is the name available?

Now it’s your turn 💪

What to take away from this lesson