.name Domains: Verisign discontinues services. Here's what you need to know now.

Verisign, the registry behind the top-level domain .name, is discontinuing several services on 15 February 2027. Four services are affected:

• Third-level domains (3LDs): No new 3LDs will be registered, and existing 3LDs will be deleted.
• Email forwarding: No new second-level domain email addresses will be registered, and existing SLD email addresses will be deleted. Forwarding to other mailboxes will then stop working.
• Defensive registrations: New registrations are no longer possible, and existing entries will be deleted.
• NameWatch registrations: New registrations are no longer possible here either, and existing entries will be deleted. The related notifications end with them.

What this means for you

Do you actively use a .name third-level domain? Then Verisign deletes it from 15 February 2027. All services running under it stop working from that date. So secure a new domain well before the deadline and set up a forwarding to it. Tell people about the change early, so everyone has time to get used to the new domain.

The same applies to email addresses from the forwarding service. Verisign deletes them on the deadline, and forwarding to another mailbox ends. So it's best to set up an alternative now. Let your contacts know before the first emails go nowhere.

What makes .name special

.name belongs to the first round of new top-level domains that ICANN approved in 2000. From 2001, people could register it, but under an unusual model. They could only register domains as third-level domains, for example, max.mustermann.name.

The email forwarding service came on top of that. If you wanted, you secured an address like max@mustermann.name and forwarded all emails to an existing mailbox. The domain itself stayed with the registry, and customers only received the email alias.

Over time, this model turned out to be less practical. Only a few registrars supported it. That's why Verisign has also offered .name domains as second-level domains for several years. The services that Verisign is now discontinuing are leftovers from the original idea behind the TLD.