.name Termination
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
Verisign and ICANN approved deleting all third-level .name domains, affecting 22,000 registrants.
Neil Fraser reports that on 15 April 2026 Verisign proposed, and ICANN approved on 28 July 2026, eliminating the entire third level of the .name hierarchy. Fraser has owned neil.fraser.name since 2002, paying through 2040. Termination will break his website, email, and IoT devices. Worse, if fraser.name becomes available, a hijacker could recreate neil.fraser.name to take over linked accounts. Fraser registers beverly.fraser.name minutes after his daughter's birth.
Fraser notes that unlike shady third-level operations, .name was designed as a legitimate third-level registry. Verisign acquired Global Name Registry after Fraser chose .name partly to avoid Verisign. He calls Verisign's proposal filled with lies.
What commenters are saying
Commenters are furious at Verisign and ICANN. The primary sentiment is that Verisign is a consistently bad actor, citing the SiteFinder scandal and their minimal, dismissive application (answers like 'None' and 'N/A'). One commenter notes that the application claimed no effect on domain lifecycle, which is absurd given the termination. Several discuss Fraser registering his daughter's domain at birth; some find it odd, others see it as a cute way to match the domain creation date to her birth date. A technical point emerges: bbb.name could not previously be registered if any aaa.bbb.name existed, but after deletion those second-level domains become available, creating a hijack risk. Another commenter recounts losing [email protected] email forwarding without notice when Verisign took over.