Domain name registration?

I was wondering if you fellows might have some recommendations on what
the best companies are for getting domain names registered? A friend of mine
is interested in maybe having his own web site and he wants the url for the site
to be his permanently.

He's looking for a company with a good reputation that has reasonable fees.

I don't know much about how this process works. I assume you can register
the name for a certain number of years and then you
pay some small kind of fee
to renew the registration every few years, so no one else can ever use that web address?

Also, it would be a bonus if the same company that offers the domain registrationalso offers basic services of designing the web page and putting content on
the web page for you, since this guy doesn't know anything about html or designing
web sites.

Thanks for any help you can provide.