High level domains are those with the suffix .com. I bought such a domain. It was luck that I could get one with my own name. I also had no other idea. The domain name should be easy, without special signs. This was my condition. The companies where I wanted to publish my website offered me domain names.
The own name has a huge advantage. If the activities of the own company change, the name can still stay the same. I know photographers who had the name wedding in the domain name. Then they developed in an other direction and offered portraits. That meant that the owner of the company had to start with another company name, too. Everything else would be misleading. That means to start from scratch again.
Many companies are named after the owner i.e. Calvin Klein (fashion). Some names are so complicated that it's better to invent another name. An example is Calvin Hollywood (photographer). Many names that have nothing to do with the own name are taken already. Who knows that Mango sells clothes? The name should be appropriate to use in international context. One can philosophize endlessly. One can agonize about this topic.
I so understand that one wants to hide behind a company name that has nothing to do with the own name. I had no idea behind which name I could hide myself. So my name became my domain name, and therefore the name of my website.
Important for me was:
1. to find a name that is simple with no special signs and not too long.
2. It should be appropriate to use also in international context.
3. Of course the name must be available. Whois.com is a website that allows to search if a name is still available or taken already.
I also bought domain names with my name and different suffix like .de, .org, .info over the last decade. Do I really need these additional domains? I don't know. Nice to have. It costs something every year, but it's affordable. Nevertheless, I don't want to have anything that I don't need. The last word is not yet spoken here.
During my researches on domain names, I found out that there are people who make money with domain names. They buy and sell them. Domain names are even called online real estate. What a business idea.
The reason why I had to reflect on my domain names again was, because I moved my website from wordpress to squarespace. I was never happy with wordpress, I found it too complicated. Wordpress is the market leader. The concept is to work with plug-ins, that are produced by other companies but wordpress. This makes this side unsafe, I was told by a web designer. When I moved from wordpress to squarespace I wanted to use my domain name with the suffix .com. This is possible, but it was very difficult to manage this. I contacted the support of wordpress. First they sent me links, but I had read them already. Finally I found someone who helped me to move my domain name to Squarespace. This all took minimum 2 days. Correspondence went back and forth. I wrote to different persons. Each time when I got an Email from them it was someone else. Finally ONE person helped me. The move of my domain name is done now. Halleluja. Where is the next horse to ride.