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The .name registry is deleting third-level domains

Why Namestead exists: Verisign is shutting down third-level .name registrations (names like first.last.name), and thousands of long-time registrants are about to lose the domain, website, and email address built on top of them.

Verisign told ICANN that roughly 22,000 third-level .name registrations exist. In Namestead’s own zone snapshot (126,295 domains total), 22,073 are third-level (depth 2) — independently landing on almost exactly the same figure.

What’s happening

On 15 April 2026, Verisign — which has operated the .name registry since acquiring Global Name Registry in 2008 — filed a Registry Services Evaluation Process (RSEP) request asking ICANN for permission to discontinue third-level domain registrations in .name, along with the related email-forwarding service that gave third-level registrants a personalized address. ICANN approved the request on 7 May 2026 and issued Verisign a formal letter on 28 July 2026 confirming it could proceed. The plan: stop accepting new third-level registrations, and delete every existing one — regardless of how long ago it was registered or how far in advance it was paid for.

.name launched in 2001 with a novel structure: registrants could only get a third-level name like first.last.name, with the registry itself holding last.name so that as many people as possible could share a surname and still get a personal email address. Second-level names (first.name) only became available in 2004. Third-level names were originally marketed as “for life” — a promise this shutdown breaks.

Timeline

Date Event
2001–2004 .name launches with third-level-only registration; second-level names open up in 2004.
15 Apr 2026 Verisign files an RSEP request to discontinue third-level registrations and email forwarding.
7–8 May 2026 ICANN approves the request, finding no “significant security, stability, or competition issues” — the only questions RSEP allows it to ask.
2 Jun 2026 A registrant discovers the approval and files ICANN Reconsideration Request 26-2 — 25 days after ICANN’s own notice, since there was no public comment period.
28 Jul 2026 ICANN sends Verisign a formal letter confirming the discontinuation, in lieu of a contract amendment (a new .NAME Registry Agreement was already being renegotiated).
Ongoing Verisign gives registrars 90 days’ notice, then 30 more, before deleting third-level names — with prepaid terms running to 2029 and beyond simply cut short. The reconsideration request is on track to be denied.

Why Verisign says it’s doing this

Per its RSEP filing, Verisign cited “limited registrar support of the service and declining usage of third-level domains,” arguing that most of the ~22,000 registrations “are not in use” and that removing the service “will increase efficiency for the operation of the .name TLD.” Verisign says it consulted the registrars serving most third-level registrants, and that none raised security, stability, or competition concerns — the only three questions ICANN’s RSEP review is allowed to consider.

Why it matters: websites, email, and a hijacking risk

For registrants who are still using their third-level name, the practical impact is total: their personal website (e.g. neil.fraser.name) goes offline, their email address stops working, and any service tied to that domain — API endpoints, IoT devices, account-recovery addresses — breaks with no transition period, because the domain isn’t expiring on schedule; the registry service it depends on is simply being switched off.

There’s a sharper edge to it too: once a third-level name is deleted, Verisign’s plan releases the underlying second-level name (e.g. fraser.name) for public registration about a year later. Anyone can then register it — and potentially receive password-reset or account-recovery email sent to addresses under the old third-level name, years after the original registrant lost the ability to renew it. Commentary on this change has flagged that risk explicitly, since a domain expiry monitor would never fire — the name isn’t expiring, it’s being deleted out from under its registrant.

A case in point

Software engineer Neil Fraser registered neil.fraser.name nearly 25 years ago and has used it since for his personal website, his email address, and an API server. Writing about the shutdown, he noted there’s no way to enumerate every account — online or offline — tied to an email address held for a quarter century, making a clean migration effectively impossible.

The accountability gap

ICANN’s RSEP review is scoped, by policy, to security, stability, and competition — it does not consider impact on existing registrants at all, and approval doesn’t trigger any public comment period. That’s why the change moved from filing to approval in under a month, and why the one formal challenge (a reconsideration request) is reported to be on track for denial: it isn’t contesting anything ICANN’s process was designed to weigh.

If you have a third-level .name domain

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