As a blog owner, I have been called many names – by both my readers, as well as on other blogs, when making comments. Don’t worry, none of them have been bad! What I mean is, I have been addressed by different variations on my blog’s name:
- Squirrel
- Squirreler
- Squirreling
- The Wise Squirrel
- Mr Squirrel
- Sir Squirrel
Personally, I got a kick out of Sir Squirrel 🙂
Anyway, it begs the question: How did I come up with the name “Squirrelers”?
The Answer: I got the name from the concept of “squirreling away” money.
It has always been a saying that amused me, for whatever reason. Even though I thought it was a funny term, it did represent a part of my belief system with personal finance: saving money. It just seemed like a good fit. The final decision for me came as I was set to launch a blog, and I happened to see a busy squirrel as I glanced out the window. I paused for a second, and thought that it’s meant to be….and Squirrelers it was!
And then, the blog was born.
My questions for you:
- If you’re a blog owner, how did you decide upon the name of your blog? Did the name just come to you one day? Or, did you spend time researching possibilities?
- For everyone – what blog or website carries a name that strikes you as being memorable? It could be because it’s cool, funny, or just flat out wacky.
As you ponder those questions, here are my updates and favorites for the week:
Upcoming Announcement
Stay tuned for an announcement about something new here at Squirrelers. It’s currently in the works….
Squirrelers in Blog Carnivals
This week, Squirrelers was included in the following carnivals:
- 5 Benefits of Living Trusts was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance at Cash Money Life
- Squirreling Gone Wild #17: The Magic Gumball Machine and Free Cookies was included in the Festival of Frugality at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff (Editor’s Pick!)
- Check Diversification Within International Funds was included in the Carnival of Wealth at Personal Dividends
- I Thought Duke Graduates Were Smart was included in the Yakezie Carnival at Bucksome Boomer
New Website to Check Out
A new website called Pregnancy Pool has recently been launched. It’s from a fellow Yakezie network member who’s the same guy running My Journey to Millions. Very cool concept, in my opinion. I would have passed this on to family and friends with the birth of my kids, had this site been launched a few years back. Anyway, I think this is pretty cool, and suspect that it has a shot at succeeding. I’ll be following it, and will be passing it on to any fun people that are expecting.
Favorites from the Personal Finance Blogosphere
If you have time for some weekend reading, I suggest checking out these interesting articles:
- Early Retirement Portfolios at Early Retirement Extreme
- Tech to Keep Track of Your Kids at CNN Money
- Financial Planning Days – My Experience and Observations at Wealth Informatics
- How to Scout Real Estate in Space at Invest With Passion
- Would You Pay for an Extravagant Wedding? at Everyday Tips and Thoughts
- Why Gorillas Don’t Have 401(k) Plans at First Gen American
- The Comfortable Lifestyle Business or The Big Payout? at Financial Samurai
- His Wallet is Empty but What About His Head? at The Kitchen Sink
- Eight Win-Win tips for Boomerang Kids and their Parents at Personal Finance By The Book
- Improve Economics and Help Feed the Poor at the Same Time at Invest It Wisely
- Long-Term Care Insurance: Are Seniors the Only Ones Who Need It? at Christian PF
- Take a Personal Day to Fix Your Finances at Smart on Money
Greetings! First of all, thank you for including my link!
Second, I hope I never offended you by calling you ‘Squirrel’, I know I do it all the time.
Third, The name of my blog is pretty darn boring. I was just dreaming up names that would be generic enough where I could cover whatever the heck I wanted. I didn’t want to pigeon hole myself as I knew my blog would cover just about anything. I love the name of yours because I can totally picture a squirrel grabbing a ten dollar bill and burying it somewhere…
Have a great weekend!
Everyday Tips – I’m glad to have included your link! I enjoyed that discussion, which was typical of the quality stuff you post. Your blog is like a thought-provoking voice of reason, which is cool. By the way, I had to really stop myself and re-think the wedding expense answer. I actually do have a streak in me that would do absolutely anything to make my daughter happy with something like that, but rational thought prevails in the end, as that’s ultimately what’s best for her.
As far as offending – no, definitely not! I get a kick out of it. It’s what I signed up for when naming my blog ‘Squirrelers’. Kind of like how I’m addressing you as ‘Everyday Tips’, it’s just how things roll for us bloggers:)
My blog name just popped into my head and it was done. It was a mistake because later on when I did some research it appeared that there are quite a few Kitchen Sinks out there. So I added Life At A Glance to somehow distinguish myself. It was too late by then to change the name. So, my advice to new bloggers – make sure to research your possible blog names.
Thank you for including me in your reading recommendations!
Aloysa – you’re welcome on the link. I liked the article, and the tone of fairness expressed within it.
It’s always good to get tips based on experience, so your blog naming advice is wise. I do find your blog name to be easy to remember, so that’s a good thing.
My blog name “Personal Finance by the Book” is boring, but pretty well defines my site in few words. I love “Squirrelers” and, because I knew you were writing about personal finance, correctly deducted the rationale behind it. I like “Punch Debt in the Face” – both the name and the actual site crack me up, especially the stick figures. “Moolanomy” proves that a very successful blog is possible even with a weird made up word.
Thanks for including my post in your recommendations!
Joe – my pleasure including your article. Your site name seems to work well, and fit the content, from a reader’s perspective.
My husband and I bounced ideas off each other when I was trying to think of a blog name. The whole reason I was starting a blog is because I thought that there was an opening for a personal finance blog that wasn’t extremely frugal-oriented. We actually decided on Budgeting in the Fun (or Budget in the Fun)…I just forgot and screwed up when I signed up for a domain name and added the “Stuff”, lol. Oops. Hence the long name, lol.
Crystal – I didn’t know that you accidentally added the word “Stuff” in your domain name! Your naming story is one that I had read you talk about before, though apparently I missed this part you shared here. Anyway, your blog is fun yet pragmatic, as you’re not advocating doing things like spending 5 hours making homemade dishwasher detergent:)
I had an old blog and I quickly realized that you get more attention with an interesting name (what a concept right?) I knew I wanted to right about budgeting, as well as everything else in our life that comes with being newlyweds, like home decorating, etc. and newlyweds on a budget just came to me! hehe
You didn’t miss it, I just didn’t know it until a couple of months ago, lol. I came across the voice memo in my phone (the one I put there when we decided during a car trip)…it didn’t have “stuff” in it, lol. I must have gotten it stuck in my head while we were brainstorming, hahaha. I didn’t bother checking the memo when I signed up for the domain since I thought I remembered what we decided on correctly. My husband still teases me for that…
First of all, I love the name Squirrelers. It makes total sense and goes so well with your Squirellers Gone Wild feature. I’ve been blogging exactly a year as of today, and I really can’t remember how long it took to come up with a name or whether I had any other names in the running. Wow, what a horrible memory. 🙂
iamtheworkingpoor – congrats on 1 year of blogging! Great that you have stayed with it.
I wonder if I should put this in a separate blog post… but here’s the transcript of our birth:
….
me: sometimes one just talks to a reporter and it goes nowhere
I feel grumpy and irritable
I have so much crap to do
…
Maggie: hahahahaha I was reading GRS comments without looking at the names– and I saw one and thought, “That really sounds like nicole! I wonder if she wrote it?” and I scrolled up and you did. Haha.
me: I’m a grumpy gus
a negative nelly
….
Maggie: HULK SMASH REGISTRATION SYSTEM!
…
Maggie: oh dear. Now I just got angry and posted a tart comment on someone’s blog.
Everyone has a blog. My adviser’s son has a blog about cooking.
me: gasp!
I didn’t know you posted to blogs
which one which one?
I don’t have a blog
Maggie: we should start a blog called nicole & maggie
me: ha!
yes
it can be totally grumpy
but you know
that would like take time and effort
Maggie: I even know how to make blogs now, thanks to a summer service project…
me: bah to effort
oooh
can you monetize them?
‘cuz I do like money
we can have it be the grumpy rumblings of the untenured
“Grumpy rumblings by Maggie and Nicole”
Maggie: I’m not sure about monetizing; but how hard can it be?
me: we can complain about other people being stupid
people will have flame wars in our comments sections and totally dis us
but so long as there’s money…
Maggie: hehe
I think the title of the blog should be “Nicole & Maggie” and the tag line should be “Grumpy rumblings of the untenured”
me: excellent
I can complain about people who complain about things and don’t do anything to fix them
Maggie: I can complain about EVERYTHING
we can of course have an extensive blogroll on the side
me: and I can complain about mothers who think that anybody who does anything different than they did is destroying their child
and oh, the complaints about students
Maggie: yes
me: and heat
Maggie: YES
….
And thus our little blog was born.
Nicole – I enjoyed your transcript. I have been curious about the blog’s name, and know I have further insight:)
Squirrelers, thank you. I had no idea you have only had this site for eight months. Great work!
iamtheworkingpoor – thanks for the kind words!
My previous personal blog was caled “Something That Doesn’t Suck.” When I decided to drive a stake into the heart of my debt, including transitioning to a personal finance blog, my first thought was “Debt Sucks.” However, this also depended upon domain name availability. debtsucks.com and it’s variants were already taken, but lucky for me, my current domain name was available. Lucky because I didn’t have to think of anything else.
Jake – thanks for coming by. I too have seen someone take my idea, at least on Facebook. Someone else has a “Squirrelers” page….grrrr. Anyway, I might have to do the same thing as you, and call my page “Squirrelers Blog”, or some variant of that.
I’m not really sure why she made me first author… I would have gone alphabetical…
Good question! I think you go with what the majority of readers are calling you!
Mr. Squirrel seems good!
Sam – life is funny sometimes…one day I’m just plain old me, and the next day people want me to be addressed as Mr. Squirrel:)
I have loved your name since I first heard it. And, I must be extra smart 🙂 because I got the meaning immediately. And, it’s very memorable. Obviously, I got my blog’s name: Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance since my husband liked it the best! Oh, I liked it too!! I figured it would not get confused with any other sites!
Barb – good job on deciphering the meaning. I got your site’s name right way too. I suppose that’s not as impressive 🙂
I like the name Sir Squirrel-a-lot. 🙂
Biz – is this as in Sir Mix-a-lot? Otherwise known as the baby got back guy…:)
Thank you SO much for highlighting the new site! It really means a lot
Squirrely- Thanks for the very kind words you said way up above. You know I love your posts – I can always identify with what you write, and usually have a laugh or two also! Must be our Midwest minds and humor! 🙂