Verisign will keep existing .name third-level domains and forwarding

Verisign will keep existing .name third-level domains and forwarding

5 November 2026: Verisign has told ICANN that it will keep supporting existing .name third-level domains and email forwarding addresses for as long as at least one accredited registrar still sells them. That reverses an earlier plan to switch both services off for existing users as well. Only new registrations of the two kinds are still due to end.

Not yet independently verified. The updated registry service requests that would end only new registrations have not been approved; the letter says they will be resubmitted. The letter names no registrar that will keep selling the services. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

What the letter commits to

The letter is dated 5 November 2026 and signed by Patrick S. Kane, Verisign's senior vice president for Naming and Directory Services, from Reston, Virginia. It is addressed to Amanda Fessenden, ICANN's vice president for GDD Accounts and Services.

Verisign says it "will continue to support all EPP transactions related to existing registrations" for both services, for as long as at least one ICANN-accredited registrar keeps offering them at the retail level. Verisign believes several registrars plan to do so, and says it intends to work with them and others to make sure at least one does.

How the shutdown was set in motion

The letter places the services inside a wider aim: moving the .name top-level domain onto the 2024 Base Registry Agreement, which Verisign says would align it more closely with other domains. It thanks ICANN for help with renewing the .name Registry Agreement under that base agreement.

To clear out what it calls unique legacy services, Verisign filed two Registry Service Evaluation Process (RSEP) requests on 15 April 2026. Request No. 2026013 covered the Third-Level Domain Name Registrations Service and No. 2026014 the E-mail Forwarding Service. Both said the services would end for new and existing users.

ICANN approved the requests on 28 July 2026. On 15 August, Verisign gave registrars a 180-day notice that it intended to discontinue both services, existing users included.

What still ends, and who now decides the rest

Verisign says it will promptly withdraw both requests and resubmit updated ones. The new requests will still seek authorisation to discontinue the legacy services for new third-level registrations and for new email forwarding address registrations. Those updated requests are not yet approved.

The protection for existing names is therefore conditional on the retail market. If no accredited registrar kept selling third-level .name registrations or forwarding, the letter's commitment would no longer apply. Someone who holds a third-level .name address has no say in that, and the letter names no registrar.

A domain owner's reading

Neil Fraser, who runs his own website on a .name domain, wrote on 10 November that Verisign was retracting its plan to terminate 22,000 domain names and email redirects. He says that although new third-level registrations will close, existing domains and redirects will remain indefinitely. The 22,000 figure and the word indefinitely are his, not Verisign's; the letter gives no count and no end date, and sets no date for the resubmitted requests.

Related on TrustList:

• ICANN lists 1,615 new domain applications and opens a swap window

Sources

• Verisign: letter from Patrick S. Kane to Amanda Fessenden, ICANN, on updates to the .name Third-Level Domain Name Registrations Service and E-mail Forwarding Service, 5 November 2026, 5 November 2026
• Neil Fraser: .name Grandfathered, 10 November 2026, 10 November 2026