A rose is a rose and will be a rose no matter what name you give it. After all, the essence remains the same. So what’s in a name? The innocuous sounding question is actually a multi-million one—literally—in the dotcom world of today (and tomorrow).

Just look at this.

Tuvalu, a tiny South Pacific nation measuring 26 sq. km and with a total population of 10,600, has sold the use of its domain name—.tv—to Idealab for $50 million to be received over a period of 12 years. The contract will be renegotiated in 2012. The deal promises to garner Tuvalu more than three times its national budget.

The Tuvalu islands have already garnered $15 million from the deal, enough to transform the existence of a country where the annual budget tops out at $14 million per year. The per-capita revenue of the tiny nation is on its way to becoming one of the highest on the planet.

And Idealab is further auctioning off the domain names at 35.7 times their actual value!

It is offering a starting bid $1,000 for a ".tv" name versus $28 for a marginally different version of ".com" for a name?

Tuvalu is not the first country in the game. Have you not noticed the .cc ads that have been running on radio, TV, and the Web? .CC is CoCos (Keeling) Islands—also in the South Pacific.

Opinions are divided about deal. While some think it as a great idea for a poverty stricken country to better its citizens’ lives, for others it will turn out to be only an "amusing footnote in the Internet history".

But what company would be willing to pay such high price for a name? Idealab reasons it out in the name of "brand protection". Only time will tell. But we do know that there is lot of money in a name these days.