I'm glad to hear no one has recommended Godaddy. They are not good. They raised their prices and they try to upsell you and autorenew you for services constantly.

I have used Namecheap for the last 7 or 8 years and have been very happy. But they have also raised their prices. Nearlyfreespeech.net is just about the cheapest registrar out there, at $8.59 year and they advocate for the privacy and security of their customers as much as humanly possible. https://www.nearlyfreespeech.net/services/domains

NameCheap all the way. Great usability. Be sure to grab a coupon here before purchasing: http://www.namecheapcoupon.com/

For small little projects, I've used Dreamhost with some success and also done hosting there (cheap, easy, not super performant.)

I've also used 1and1 for things that need more configuration, etc. It's reasonably cheap and they don't keep trying to upsell you all the time like GoDaddy does.

I started using internet.bs recently. Very happy so far. Also, look at this related thread:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=708640

I'm a fan of 1and1.com. They give free private registration, and I haven't had any issues with them over the past couple years of use.

I have been using powerpipe.com without any hassles at all for about 8 years; their .com domains pricing is now $6.88/year.

gandi.net. they're not the cheapest, but they're extremely reliable, your data are protected by strict local privacy laws (company is french), and it just "works". never had a single problem in the some years i've been using them.

I use namecheap.com. Never had any issues with them.

moniker.com is my favorite.