New Year’s Day I spent hours searching for just the right domain for this blog. Early on I realized that I wanted something with marker or mark in it. I wanted marker because it means so many different things depending upon the context. Perfect for the personal blog I had in mind but impossible to find.
Frustrated I resorted to combining words that might go together. Finally I tried day + marks. Daymarks was available, short, and memorable. Perfect.
Better yet when I Googled “daymarks” I found that daymarks are real and important in navigation. Why didn’t I learn about these when I studied geography in grad school?
According to the Wikipedia:
A daymark is a structure such as a tower constructed on land as an aid to navigation by sailors. While similar in concept to a lighthouse, a daymark does not have a light and so can only be used during the day.
Lighthouses often are painted with distinctive patterns so they can serve as daymarks. The distinctive markings keep a lighthouse from being confused with others nearby or at a distance.
Cabinfield sells a variety of decorative lighthouses for lawn ornaments. This image shows some of the distinctive daymark patterns used on the Eastern seaboard.
Further investigation found that daymarks are also simple signs like the ones at the top of this page.
While the term daymarks isn’t quite as good as marker, it works nicely for this project. And daymarks really do “just show up.”