Where does "hodi" come from?

People are always asking me about my website, www.hodi.com. "What does that name mean?" "Where did you get that?"

When I looked for a domain name many years ago, every one I submitted was taken. Now I have more persistence and can come up with an available domain in one or two tries, but then it seemed I'd never find one that made sense and wasn't already taken.

I said, "I'm going to find a word that nobody knows. It's going to be short. It's going to mean something to me. I'm going to find a word from Africa!"

I'd spent five plus years in Africa ending in 1984 and remembered the Africans clapping their hands outside a grass hut and calling out "Hodi! Hodi!" as a greeting. You couldn't knock on the door of a grass hut, but "hodi" did just as well.

The name was available, I bought it, and have been using it about fifteen years.

Then one day I received an email from someone who informed me that "hodi" was one of the most common names in India and that I had taken the name from a family who wanted it back. Over the years I received several pleas. The last one asked for my price.

I said, "When I'm ready I'll start talking at about $2,000."

"When will you be ready?"

"Probably in about twenty years."

So that's where "hodi" came from. Very few four-letter domain names are still available, and I'm glad I have it.