My wife, Lorna Harris, has been busy the past few months with a project she launched in beta last week: Boudica.com, a social news site for women.
Years and years ago, when we were both doing internet marketing, we got the Boudica.com name thinking it might be good for building a Yahoo-like directory of sites for women. Boudica was the queen of the Iceni tribe that fought the Romans when they came into England. She didn’t win that fight, but she has remained a woman icon over the centuries.
We never got that directory going — and as things have changed on the web, Lorna thought a social news site would be fun to try. It’s been great to watch her pull it all together on her own — finding the developer, working out the design and so on. Check out the site!
FYI, Boudica.com is the second of two “queen” domain names that we own. The first is Calafia.com, the name of the consulting company I started just before I left California back in 1996.
California takes its name from the heroine of a Spanish novel from the 1500s, Queen Calafia, who ruled over the mythical island of California. When Cortez discovered the Baja California peninsula, he apparently thought he’d found the “real” island of California.
Anyway, knowing I was leaving California, I figured naming my company after the state’s namesake was a way to take it with me (plus, the domain was available!). One more coincidence — former Google chef Charlie Ayers has a great love of California as well, so he’s also named his forthcoming restaurant after Calafia, too.
