vanity domain

vanity domain
 n.

   [common; from `vanity plate' as in car license plate] An Internet
   domain, particularly in the .com or .org top-level domains, apparently
   created for no reason other than boosting the creator's ego.
    

vanity domain

   <networking> A {domain} you register for the sole purpose of
   having your own domain so you can have an easily remembered
   {URL} and {e-mail} address.  The domain is usually served
   (often {vhost}ed) off someone else's machines.

   This is as opposed to a domain you register because you have
   machines of your own which are already on the Internet and
   which you want to make addressable via something other than
   {dot address}es.

   Whereas vanity domains were almost unheard-of in 1980s, since
   the invention and popularisation of the {Web} in the mid-1990s
   and the desire for {URLs} which consist only of memorable
   domain names (e.g., "http://pbs.org") for everything from
   movies to car wax, vanity domains have come to be the rule
   instead of the exception.

   (1997-09-11)