Why nun.tf?
14/03/2025
nun.tf is the domain name of the company founded, managed, and solely operated by Laurent Barme, handling everything from the basement to the attic.
Originally, the legal name chosen for this company was the founder’s own name, which avoided the fees of the INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property in France).
However, this name hits its limits when it comes to promoting the company by displaying it on promotional items. For example, on a shirt, it feels a bit childish or schoolboy-like in style.
Hence the idea of using and promoting a commercial name. The chosen name is numerunique. It’s a blend of numérique (digital) and unique (unique), perfectly matching the company’s focus: designing unique products (software or objects) created using digital means (programs or computer-controlled tools).
The problem is, numerunique is a bit long and often mistaken for numérique (digital).
So, the idea came to simplify it further by keeping only the “nu” from numérique and the “un” from unique. Combining them gives nun—a nice palindrome to boot.
And the .tf? Well, nun.fr, with the .fr extension that would make sense for a French company, was already taken! The .tf stands for the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF), where numerunique has been (virtually) established since April 1, 2015 ;-)
So, nun.tf it is!
But here’s the catch: in English, “nun” refers to a woman who dedicates her life to religion. Apparently, nuns inspire quite a few fantasies, because a search into the history of nun.fr (don’t go looking!) leads to a porn site. And that has absolutely nothing to do with numerunique’s business purpose!
And in English? Numérique translates to “digital,” and unique to “unique.” So, could we consider dique? Bad luck—the pronunciation of that word in English evokes…
So, we stick with nun.tf.