Your family's own .ke name: what it is and why it matters

You have probably seen web names like bahati.co.ke or amanifamily.ke on a shop sign or a matatu. A family can have one too. It is a small thing to own, but it decides what everyone types, prints on a funeral programme and reads out at a reunion for the next twenty years. It is worth choosing carefully.

What a .ke name is

A web name (also called a domain) is the address people type to reach a website, like a house number for the internet. The ending tells you where it belongs. .ke is Kenya's own ending. .co.ke is the same country with a "co" in the middle, and it is the one most Kenyan businesses use. Both work in exactly the same way for a family.

A name is not the same as a website. The name is the address; the album is the house at that address. If you ever change where the house is built, the address can come with you.

Why a name of your own is better than a long link

• It is easy to say. "Go to bahatifamily dot ke" works over the phone, on the radio at a funeral announcement and in a church notice. A long link full of letters and numbers does not.
• It belongs to your family. It is registered in your family's name, not in a company's.
• It lasts. A name is renewed each year, so it can outlive any one phone, WhatsApp group or social media account.
• It looks trustworthy. Older relatives are rightly careful about strange links. A name with your family's name in it is one they can recognise.

How to choose a good name

Sit down with a pen and a cup of tea and try these steps.

1. Start with what your family is called. The surname, or the grandfather's name that everyone shares, is usually the best base.
2. Keep it short. Under fifteen letters is easy to type on a phone. Every extra letter is another chance for a typing mistake.
3. Say it aloud. If you have to spell it twice, it is too hard.
4. Avoid hyphens, numbers and odd spellings. Nobody remembers whether it was "bahati-family-2" or "bahati2family".
5. Think of the whole clan. A name like bahatifamily.ke welcomes cousins and in-laws. A name with only one person's first name may feel like theirs alone.
6. Have two or three choices ready. Short names are popular, so your first choice may already belong to someone else.

Do not put in a year, a town or a baby's name. The family will still be here when the year is long past and the town has changed.

.ke or .co.ke?

For a family there is no wrong answer. .ke is shorter and easier to say. .co.ke is more familiar to many older people because they have seen it on business signs for years. Pick whichever sounds more natural when you say it out loud, and if both are free, choose the shorter one.

What happens when you buy an Album

You do not need to buy a name first and then work out how to connect it. With Album, every family chooses a .ke or .co.ke name when buying, and the name is registered for you in your family's name.

• It usually starts working within a day.
• Until then your album opens at a temporary address. Once your name is live, that temporary address simply takes people to it, so nothing you have already shared stops working.
• You do not need to type any settings or copy any codes.

If your family already owns another name, an owner can connect it later under Settings. Album shows the exact records to add at the company where you bought it, and a button to check when it is ready.

Email at your own name

A name can also give your family email addresses like mama@bahatifamily.ke. The name does not come with email, but it can have it. Album's help page explains how to add it through a Kenyan email host and how we connect it for you. It is optional, and the album works perfectly without it.

A short checklist before you decide

• Does it include your family's name, spelled the way everyone spells it?
• Can your oldest relative type it from hearing it once?
• Would you be happy to see it printed on a funeral programme or a wedding invitation?
• Have you asked the elders of the family? A name chosen together gets used.

A kind word about timing

Do not wait for the perfect moment. The names people want do get taken, and it is easier to choose one calmly now than in a hurry after a sad event, when relatives suddenly all need one place to go.

Album gives your family a private home on its own .ke name for photos, stories and the family tree, and you can look around a finished one in the demo.