"What did you get for your birthdays this year?" I asked, two days ago, in my usual friendly manner. "A gun that shoots pellets," said Siddharth, resident sadist. "Two dolls," whispered Pooja, who was still in awe, apparently.

"And you, Solomon?" I continued. "My own Web site," he replied, and smiled.

That settled it, then. I was old. Who was I to imagine toys, dolls, puzzles and tickets to the next children's flick were possible gift ideas? How would these stand a chance against personalised slices of cyberspace called 'personal domain names' (PDNs)?

A peek at Pdom -- dedicated to the registration and trading of personal domain names - confirmed a dark suspicion. Yes, it's true. In the search for that 'shubh naam' for their cuddly-wuddly-roly-polies, people really have swapped astrologers for domain name servers around the world.

"Secure your baby's future net identity now!" reads the Pdom home page. Find the best baby boy and girl names. And it's catching on, too. According to the site, while personal domain names make up around one per cent (about 400,000) of all domains registered, an increase to 36 per cent has been predicted over the next three years: a figure of 50 million that will exceed commercial domains.

We are told that almost all common names have already been registered. In America alone (where else?), the top 6,000 surnames, 1,700 girls names and 1,200 boys names have been taken. You can use the site's 'baby name search wizard', and register one that's still available, if you're lucky enough. As Tejas proves, they're also popular gift ideas.

A number of other sites, like Iperdome also offer personal domain name services under the Top Level Domain (TLD) of '.per'.

Launched in 2001, Pdom mentions why the popularity of PDNs has soared and, among their uses, lists personalised email addresses, family homepages and the chances of their being an investment. The latter is a definite possibility, given the number of domain names currently up for sale. Some personal domains, according to Pdom, have exchanged hands for thousands of dollars, and may become increasingly valuable in future.

Robert Wiles, founder and CEO, Pdom, says that, with the Internet, the question 'what's in a name?' takes on a whole new meaning. There may be 89 million Zhangs, he adds, but, online, there can only be one Zhang.com.

Solomon may be on to something, after all. And, old as I may be, I may as well give his gift a second thought.

LindsayPereira.com, LindsayPereira.net, LindsayPereira.org, LindsayPereira.info, Lindsay-Pereira.com, LPereira.com, LindsayP.com, Lindsay-P.com, Lindsay-P.net and Lindsay-P.org are still available.

I checked. Just in case.