What’s the Story Behind Your Site Title?

New to WordPress.com and not sure what to name your site? Has your blog evolved after a few years and are you ready for a change? Many people find inspiration for their site titles from their lives, favorite things, and quotes. These six writers share how they decided on their site titles.

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We Are the Mutants is a magazine devoted to Cold War–era sci-fi, fantasy, genre, pulp, cult, occult, subculture, and dissident media. Founder and editor-in-chief K.E. Roberts discusses the quote that inspired the magazine’s name.

We Are the Mutants comes from graffiti seen at the University of California at Berkeley in the late 1960s: “The bomb has already dropped, and we are the mutants.” It was quoted at the beginning of Theodore Roszak’s Unfinished Animal: the Aquarian Frontier and the Evolution of Consciousness (1975), and I think ultimately comes from philosopher Herbert Marcuse, who taught at the University of San Diego at the time and was a favorite among young radicals (Angela Davis among them).

Reading that quote in Roszak’s book is probably what convinced me to commit to We Are the Mutants. It was such a perfect distillation of what I wanted to focus on: the weird and wonderful, and largely disregarded, cultural artifacts of the Cold War. The conceit is that we, the writers, are mutants living in a nuked-out future world, our mission to dig up (literally) the “old world,” piece it together, analyze it: everything from the influence of the first Lord of the Rings paperbacks, to the visual foundation of 1980s futurism, to the life and death of PBS, to the subversive undercurrents of Saturday Night Fever, to the philosophical differences between Star Trek and Star Wars.

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Fiction writer Jenny Maloney shares the quote that inspired her blog’s title, Place for the Stolen.

Once upon a time the poet T.S. Eliot said that: “Good writers borrow, great writers steal.” That quote ran through my head while I was creating my blog, Place for the Stolen, which is a collection of my own 100-word stories and posts that analyze great authors’ works and lives to learn more about writing. Since there’s so much to learn (ahem, steal) from more experienced authors, I thought, “well, this is the place where I’m parking the stolen tidbits from authors I admire.” And there was the title.

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Writer and poet Susan Briscoe started her blog, The Death Project, after she was diagnosed with advanced terminal cancer. She passed away in August 2018.

My decision for the site name was quite spontaneous: titles either come to me in a flash or not at all (that is, in an agony of prolonged indecision and dissatisfaction). I did, however, have many second thoughts about this one. I know The Death Project sounds harsh and even off-putting to many readers, which is certainly not what site owners want! But I really wanted to confront people with our cultural fear and denial of death. I wanted to say, this is what is happening to me, and I challenge you to not look away. I challenge you to look more deeply with me. Because while I’m the one dying at the moment, you too will die. We all have a death project, whether we want to engage with it or not. That death project is life.

So I think the name speaks well of that aspect of the blog. People might think it sounds negative, but my posts are gentle and focused on the positive in death and dying, exploring how embracing our mortality is what truly makes life meaningful and beautiful. Death is what makes love so crucial. The title doesn’t do much to articulate these other themes that I explore, but I hope it brings people in. Maybe I need a subtitle!

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Crank and Cog is a cycle touring and outdoor lifestyle blog by Ciarán and Laura from Ireland. Ciarán tells us why “crank” and “cog” were the perfect pair of words for their site title.

We decided on our name Crank and Cog because the bicycle was at the heart of most of the content we produced on our blog. Both the crank and the cog are integral parts of the bike that allow it to travel. We felt the name Crank and Cog had a nice ring to it and rolled off the tongue. The content on the blog is light-hearted. We often get asked which one of us is Crank and which one is Cog, so that’s kinda amusing for us!

We started the blog in the summer of 2015 to inform and share photos with friends and family as we cycled home to Ireland from Mongolia. On returning to Ireland, we’ve continued to share our experiences and travels on the bicycle that frequently incorporate foraging, recipes, tips, and advice. For us, the journey is more important than the destination.

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Travel blogger Nicole Melancon recounts the trip that inspired her site title, thirdeyemom. (She has another blog, the thirdeyeworld, which showcases her photography.)

In 2010 I went on a life-changing trip to India and Nepal where I trekked the Annapurna Circuit with my father. As an adventurous, stay-at-home mom of two young children, the trip felt like an impossible dream come true.

Despite being an avid traveler, I was completely unprepared for what I saw in India. The chaos and utter poverty was greater than I ever imagined, making my heart sink. The cultural shock hit me like a punch.

When we arrived at our hotel, I fearfully wondered how I’d handle the trip. Then we met the owner who welcomed us with a traditional marigold necklace and dotted a third eye on our foreheads.

In Hindu and Buddhist religions, the third eye is a symbol of enlightenment and wisdom, represented by a dot, eye, or mark on the forehead of deities or “enlightened beings.”

The third eye was to remind us to view India and the world with an open mind and heart. This was the most valuable piece of advice I’d ever received while traveling and was so powerful that when I returned home, I became “Third Eye Mom” and launched my blog. My life changed into one of giving back through my voice as a blogger, advocate, global volunteer, and as always a mother.

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Melissa Kandel, the founder of little word studio, shares how she chose her site title and how the writing has evolved over time.

For my blog, little word studio, I wanted to create something like a digital artist’s studio, and I knew the name had to be evocative of that concept. My site, as I first imagined it, would be my space to craft short stories from little words. Originally, I only posted 1,000-word fiction pieces to the blog then eventually started writing more personal articles. Now, I’ve returned full circle to the idea of posting nothing but strange, little stories in my studio made from words.

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Need more ideas? Read these tips as you brainstorm a site title. You can update the title at any time at My Site(s) → Settings → General → Site Title.

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