.name Domain
Register Your Own Name Online
Register your .name domain from just £16.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included with every domain.
This domain has registration restrictions
A .name is meant to correspond to a personal name: your legal name, a name you are commonly known by, or a fictional character in which you hold trademark or service mark rights. Read the full eligibility rules.
What is a .name domain?
The .name domain was created specifically for individuals. It's one of the original personal TLDs, designed for people who want their real name as their web address. Personal sites, genealogy projects, and family pages all benefit from a domain that says "this site is about a person, not a company".
Who should register .name?
Individuals wanting a personal web presence, genealogy researchers, and family history project organisers.
Why choose .name?
- Designed specifically for individuals
- One of the original personal TLDs
- Clear distinction from business domains
- Works well for genealogy projects
Who runs .name, and since when
Registry data from the .name delegation record held by IANA, which maintains the internet's root zone. Eligibility comes from the registry's own policy, and the prices are ours.
- Extension type
- Restricted generic
- Registry operator
- VeriSign Information Services, Inc.
- The organisation that runs the extension
- In the root zone since
- 2001
- Delegated 17 August 2001
- Who can register
- Personal names only: your legal name, a name you go by, or a character you own
- Checked against the registry's own policy
- Our price
- £16.99 a year
- Ex VAT. Renews at the same price
- Transfer in
- £16.99
- Adds a year to whatever is left on the domain
The .name eligibility rule nobody checks when you buy
Nothing else in this group is anywhere near this old. .name was delegated on 17 August 2001, in the first expansion of the domain name system beyond the original handful, and it was the one aimed squarely at people rather than at organisations. VeriSign Information Services runs it, and IANA still classifies it as a restricted generic rather than an ordinary generic extension. That word restricted is doing real work.
The rule, carried into every .name registration agreement, is that the domain should correspond to a personal name: your legal name, a name you as an individual are commonly known by, or the name of a fictional character in which you hold trademark or service mark rights. Additional characters are permitted alongside the name, which is why real registrations carry hyphens, initials and numbers.
The part that catches people out
Nobody checks any of this when you buy. There is no verification queue, no document upload and no waiting period; a .name is ordered exactly like a .com. The rule is enforced afterwards, by challenge, under ICANN's Eligibility Requirements Dispute Resolution Policy. A third party can ask a panel to find that your registration does not meet the requirements, and if the panel agrees the name can be cancelled or handed to a complainant who does qualify.
So a .name that fails the test is not refused at the checkout. It is simply vulnerable, possibly for years, and you find out when somebody who wants it decides to test it. If the domain is your own name, this is background reading and nothing more. If you were planning to park a common surname to sell on, or to run a product on one, this is the extension where that has a documented route to being taken off you.
Who is allowed to register .name?
A .name is meant to correspond to a personal name: your legal name, a name you are commonly known by, or a fictional character in which you hold trademark or service mark rights.
- What counts as a name
- The rules recognise three things: your legal name, a name that you as an individual have been commonly known by, and the name of a fictional character in which you hold trademark or service mark rights. Additional characters are permitted alongside the name, which is how hyphens, initials and numbers end up in perfectly valid registrations.
- Nobody checks up front
- There is no verification step, no document to supply and no waiting period. You order a .name the way you order any other extension and the registry takes your word for it. It is your own responsibility to decide whether the registration meets the requirements, which is exactly what makes the rule easy to break without noticing.
- Which registrations it covers
- The rules cover names registered at the second level, names registered at the third level, and email-only registrations, and they apply to all of them. 365i sells .name at the second level. If you want one of the other forms, ask us before you order rather than after.
- If you do not qualify
- Anyone may challenge your registration under ICANN's Eligibility Requirements Dispute Resolution Policy. If a panel finds the name is not your legal name, not a name you are commonly known by and not a character you hold marks in, the registration can be cancelled, or transferred to a complainant who does qualify and pays the fees. This sits alongside the ordinary UDRP, so a .name carries one route to losing it that other extensions simply do not have.
Rules taken from the ICANN Eligibility Requirements Dispute Resolution Policy. Registry policy can change, so check before you buy if the answer matters to you.
Not sure whether you qualify? Ask us before you order and we will check the registry rules with you. We would rather answer the question than take an order the registry will refuse.
Is .name the right choice for you?
We would rather sell you the right extension once than the wrong one twice.
.name works well if
- You want your own name online: a portfolio, a CV, a professional profile that belongs to you rather than to a social platform.
- Your name is common and every version of it on .com and .co.uk went years ago, so the extension hands the plain name back to you.
- You are running a genealogy or family history project where the surname is the subject and the address should say so.
- You want the address itself to make clear this is a person rather than a company, with no line of explanation underneath.
Look elsewhere if
- It is for a company, a product or a project. That falls outside the eligibility rules and gives anyone who wants the name a documented route to taking it.
- Reading it aloud is awkward. Firstname, hyphen, surname, dot name needs spelling out in a way that a .co.uk never does.
- Recognition is thin even after two decades. Most people still expect a personal site on .com or .co.uk, and a share of your visitors will type that instead.
Trading under your own name as a business? A .co.uk sits outside the .name eligibility rules altogether and carries a UK signal in search. See .co.uk pricing.
.name vs .com: which should you register?
Both are run by VeriSign entities, both have been in the root zone since the early days of commercial registration, and they behave identically in every technical respect. The difference is that one of them asks a question about you.
A .com asks nothing and never will. It can be a person, a company, a product or a parked page held for resale, and no policy exists to say otherwise. A .name is supposed to be a person. That is a real advantage when you are one: it explains the site before anybody reads it, and it keeps the plain version of a common name available long after .com gave up.
The catch is that the same rule becomes a liability if the site turns into a business. Personal sites have a habit of becoming consultancies. If that is a plausible future, the .com or .co.uk is the address that will still be appropriate when it happens.
| .name | .com | |
|---|---|---|
| IANA classification | Restricted generic | Generic |
| Who may register | Individuals, using a personal name | Anyone, for anything |
| Eligibility checked | Only if challenged, after the fact | Never |
| Root zone since | 2001 | 1985 |
| Your name available | Often | Rarely, for a common name |
.name domain questions, answered
What people ask us before registering a .name domain.
Can't find what you're looking for?
Ask us directlyIn principle yes, though it is broader than a passport check. The rules cover your legal name, a name you as an individual are commonly known by, and the name of a fictional character in which you hold trademark or service mark rights, with additional characters permitted alongside. A stage name, a pen name or a long-established nickname can qualify under the commonly-known-by limb. What does not qualify is a name with no connection to you, registered because it looked valuable.
Not within the rules, and this is the awkward answer people do not expect. The eligibility requirements are written around personal names, so a company name, a product name or a brand falls outside them. Nothing stops the registration going through, because nobody verifies anything at the point of sale, but a registration that does not meet the requirements can be challenged and then cancelled or transferred. If your business trades under a founder's personal name, the individual can hold it, and that is the cleaner arrangement.
A panel decides whether your registration meets the eligibility requirements. Under ICANN's Eligibility Requirements Dispute Resolution Policy, if the panel finds the name is not your legal name, not a name you have been commonly known by, and not a fictional character you hold marks in, the registration can be cancelled. Where the complainant qualifies to hold it themselves, they can ask for it to be transferred to them instead on payment of the registration fees. This runs in addition to the ordinary UDRP, not in place of it.
For availability, usually. For everything else, usually not. A .name will often still have the clean version of a common name that .co.uk lost years ago, and the extension itself signals that a person is behind the site. Against that, a .co.uk costs less, is recognised instantly by every UK visitor, carries a UK signal in Google, transfers near instantly, and includes free WHOIS privacy for a UK individual under Nominet rules. If you might one day trade under the site, the .co.uk is also the one that stays appropriate.
Included with Your .name Domain
DNS Management
Full DNS zone editor to manage A, CNAME, MX, TXT, and all record types.
Email Forwarding
Set up professional email addresses and forward to any inbox.
Auto-Renewal
Never lose your domain with automatic renewal protection.
Free 10GB Mailbox
One 10GB mailbox (POP3/IMAP) included with every domain, on any TLD.
Other Community Domains Extensions
Register your .name domain today
Secure your .name domain from just £16.99/yr. Free DNS management, email forwarding, and 10GB mailbox included.
