Getting a Good Web Address for Baby

Luke Seeley, 22 months, has two Web sites of his own, including lukeseeley.com, a domain his father purchased soon after an ultrasound showed that his first child was a boy, four months before the baby was born. Sarah Kershaw writes in the NY Times Style section Sunday.

“Carter and Luke are pioneers in the latest technobaby twist to hit the Web, as parents snap up Web sites and e-mail addresses in the names of the next generation, long before their children can read, eat solid food or, in some cases, have even left the womb.

“It’s like owning a piece of real estate online for him,” said Mr. Seeley, 34, who lives in Vancouver, Wash., and specializes in Internet sales for an advertising firm. “By the time he’s a teenager and he’s really into the Internet, who knows what’s going to be left in terms of domains?”

The motivation, parents and other experts say, is akin to securing a good street address in a fast-developing city a decade early, so the children do not have to live on virtual Main Street, stuck when they eventually develop the motor skills to log on, with an obscure domain name like lukeseely.ce, or a pedestrian e-mail address like lukeseeley@hotmail.

“Why would anyone do that?” asked Donna M. Stewart, an aspiring artist who lives in Seattle and heard about the baby e-mail fad from a friend. “That’s like getting e-mail for your dog.”