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Name stories · eBay · 1997

A gold mining company owned the domain, so Echo Bay became eBay

Pierre Omidyar started his auction site in 1995 as AuctionWeb. He wanted to call it Echo Bay, after his consulting firm, but echobay.com belonged to a gold mining company. So he shortened it to eBay, and in 1997 AuctionWeb became eBay.

How Pranced grades both names
First choiceechobay.comB 76
Chosenebay.comA 93
Pranced appraisals of both names (Sep 30, 2026). Grades judge how a name is heard, said, and remembered, not the company.

When your .com is taken, a shorter form of the same name can be the better one.

Sources (3)

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