.name Domain Names
35 registrars compared — cheapest from $7.27 at Dynadot
A domain that’s literally about you — .name launched in 2001 as the web’s first (and still only) namespace built specifically for individuals, but its registration rules carry a strange catch that most people never read.
| # | Registrar | Registration | Renewal | Transfer | 5-Year Cost | 10-Year Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dynadot Cheapest | $7.27 | $7.27 | $7.27 | $36.35 | $72.70 | Visit |
| 2 | Porkbun | $7.31 | $7.31 | $7.31 | $36.55 | $73.10 | Visit |
| 3 | Above.com | $7.48 | $7.48 | $7.48 | $37.40 | $74.80 | Visit |
| 4 | Alibaba Cloud | $7.99 | $7.99 | $7.99 | $39.95 | $79.90 | Visit |
| 5 | Namecheap | $8.98 | $9.98 | $8.98 | $48.90 | $98.80 | Visit |
| 6 | Regery | $8.99 | $8.99 | $8.99 | $44.95 | $89.90 | Visit |
| 7 | Infomaniak | $9.02 | $9.02 | $9.02 | $45.10 | $90.20 | Visit |
| 8 | All Domains | $9.31 | $11.10 | $11.10 | $53.71 | $109.21 | Visit |
| 9 | OVHcloud | $9.49 | $14.49 | $13.49 | $67.45 | $139.90 | Visit |
| 10 | Marcaria | $10.00 | $10.00 | $10.00 | $50.00 | $100.00 | Visit |
| 11 | 101domain | $10.67 | $21.17 | $10.67 | $95.35 | $201.20 | Visit |
| 12 | Name.com | $10.99 | $13.99 | $8.99 | $66.95 | $136.90 | Visit |
| 13 | OnlyDomains | $10.99 | $12.49 | $12.49 | $60.95 | $123.40 | Visit |
| 14 | Regtons | $11.00 | $11.00 | $11.00 | $55.00 | $110.00 | Visit |
| 15 | Internet.bs | $11.13 | $11.13 | $11.13 | $55.65 | $111.30 | Visit |
| 16 | Moniker | $11.13 | $11.13 | $11.13 | $55.65 | $111.30 | Visit |
| 17 | Hostinger | $12.19 | $15.19 | $12.19 | $72.95 | $148.90 | Visit |
| 18 | Gname | $12.25 | $12.25 | $12.25 | $61.25 | $122.50 | Visit |
| 19 | DreamHost | $12.95 | $12.95 | $12.95 | $64.75 | $129.50 | Visit |
| 20 | INWX | $13.08 | $13.08 | $13.08 | $65.40 | $130.80 | Visit |
| 21 | Bluehost | $14.99 | $14.99 | $14.99 | $74.95 | $149.90 | Visit |
| 22 | Hello.co | $14.99 | $14.99 | $14.99 | $74.95 | $149.90 | Visit |
| 23 | Directnic | $15.00 | $15.00 | $15.00 | $75.00 | $150.00 | Visit |
| 24 | IONOS | $15.00 | $15.00 | $15.00 | $75.00 | $150.00 | Visit |
| 25 | GoDaddy | $15.19 | $15.19 | $15.19 | $75.95 | $151.90 | Visit |
| 26 | Gandi | $15.60 | $39.98 | $15.60 | $175.52 | $375.42 | Visit |
| 27 | Epik | $15.95 | $15.95 | $15.95 | $79.75 | $159.50 | Visit |
| 28 | UK2 | $16.73 | $15.43 | $16.73 | $78.45 | $155.60 | Visit |
| 29 | Netim | $17.00 | $17.00 | $9.50 | $85.00 | $170.00 | Visit |
| 30 | 123 Reg | $19.78 | $19.78 | $19.78 | $98.90 | $197.80 | Visit |
| 31 | EuroDNS | $20.47 | $20.47 | $20.47 | $102.35 | $204.70 | Visit |
| 32 | Sav | $21.00 | $21.00 | $1.00 | $105.00 | $210.00 | Visit |
| 33 | Truehost | $22.00 | $15.00 | $26.00 | $82.00 | $157.00 | Visit |
| 34 | Blacknight | $24.96 | $24.96 | $24.96 | $124.80 | $249.60 | Visit |
| 35 | Crazy Domains | $25.50 | $26.29 | $25.50 | $130.66 | $262.11 | Visit |
Prices updated daily. Some registrars show promotional first-year prices. Always verify the final price on the registrar's website before purchasing.
The Internet’s Personal Namespace
When .name was delegated in 2001, it was the first TLD explicitly carved out for personal identity — not companies, not organizations, but people. The idea was simple: your name, your corner of the web. Most registries chase commercial value; .name was designed to serve the individual. It was approved in the pre-2012 delegation round, before the ICANN expansion flooded the root with hundreds of new TLDs. Today it remains one of the few spaces on the internet where the unit of identity is the person, not the brand. Whether that vision has fully succeeded is another question — but the intent is baked into its very structure.
Verified? No. Challenged? Absolutely.
Here’s the twist: .name is open to anyone, no verification required. You don’t have to prove your legal name or upload a passport. But there’s a catch — registrations can be challenged if the name doesn’t belong to you, or if you don’t hold rights to a fictional character you’ve registered. That means first-come, first-served, but with a slow-motion liability. Registering someone else’s name is a gamble: it may stand until the real person — or a trademark holder — decides to contest it. The system is effectively honor-based, enforced after the fact. For most people, that’s a non-issue; for cybersquatters, it’s a legal landmine waiting to detonate.
A Quiet Success, Not a Land Rush
Unlike the speculative frenzy around other TLDs, .name has had a remarkably stable, if modest, life. Its actual use is largely aligned with its intended purpose: personal sites and portfolios. You don’t see mass registrations or parked domains dominating the space — the typical registrant is an individual who wants a clean, personal URL. That’s partly because the pricing model discourages bulk speculation: the market supports a wide spread of prices, but the domain’s inherent human scale limits how much land-grabbing makes sense. It’s a TLD that has stayed true to its original mission, even as the broader web has grown far more commercial.
The Semantic Edge Over Generic Giants
Next to the general-purpose giants like .com, .net, and .org, .name offers something they can’t: semantic clarity. When you see a .name, you know it belongs to a person. That signal is valuable for personal branding, resumes, and portfolios — a .com might be a company, a blog, or a parked page, but a .name is unmistakably an individual’s space. .info and .biz were also launched as niche alternatives, but they immediately blurred into generic use. .name has kept its focus, meaning it may never have the ubiquity of .com, but it also never suffers the identity crisis that plagues those other also-rans.
Who Holds the Reins at VeriSign?
The namespace is sponsored and run by VeriSign Information Services, the same company that operates the authoritative registry for .com and .net. That gives .name an infrastructure pedigree most niche TLDs can’t match — VeriSign has run the root for decades, so uptime and stability are inherited strengths. The technical backbone is solid. What’s more interesting is the strategic angle: VeriSign doesn’t need .name to be the biggest TLD. It’s part of a portfolio that lets the company own both the web’s commercial backbone and its personal seams. Whether that’s a long-term bet or a defensive move, .name sits comfortably under one of the most trusted operators in the domain industry.