YourFutureMarriedName.com - When Is It Okay?

Recently, I decided to get my little sister an early wedding present - her future married name, as a domain.  Given that her future name is fairly common, I was surprised to see it available - and it wasn’t at all difficult to imagine that it might not be available by the time of her wedding.

Now, she can enjoy the security of knowing that she’ll always have her name as a domain.  At present, it’s just an empty page with a countdown to the wedding.  She’s a pre-k teacher,  so she may want to put up a personal introduction for parents of her students, an album of her family and future kids, or even a professional site if she ever decides to write a book or pursue a different career.

Buying the domain for her made me wonder, though - at what point it is acceptable to buy the domain for a future married name?  If you’re serious about your web presence and you want to ensure that you always control the .com version of your name, you may not want to wait around through a couple years of dating to make sure your domain will still be there.

So - is it completely insane to check on domain availability or even make a purchase if you’ve been on a few promising dates with a guy whose last name is something like Brown, Johnson, or Smith?  Should you wait for an official engagement?  Or would you just register the domain with privacy protection and hope your future husband never stops to wonder how you managed to acquire such a great domain in the year 2012?