People will soon loses their email addresses and websites.
Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) is discontinuing third-level .name domain registrations, which will cause pain for an unspecified number of registrants.
The company told ICANN that about 22,000 third-level .name registrations exist, but many of them are unused.
ICANN approved (pdf) Verisign’s Registry Services Evaluation Policy requests related to terminating the domains earlier this year. One registrant filed a reconsideration request, which is on track to be denied (pdf).
While it’s unclear how many people will truly be impacted, the impact is real for those who will lose their domains.
Writing on his personal third-level domain website, Neil Fraser explained how this will affect him.
Fraser registered neil.fraser.name nearly 25 years ago. He uses it for his personal website, email address, and as an API server.
His registrar informed him that his registration will be terminated in February (even though it’s paid through 2040). At that point, he’ll lose both his domain and his email address.
Also, all of the IoT devices using services on his domain will stop working.
Fraser is also worried about what happens to the second-level domains upon termination. If they are opened up for registration, someone could register fraser.name and hijack any accounts linked to the address.
“There is no way to enumerate all accounts (online and offline) which have been opened using this email address over the past quarter century,” he wrote.
Indeed, losing access to a decades-old personal email address would be a serious hardship for almost anyone.
Security and stability FTW!
ICANN maintains that Verisign is correct in saying the life cycle of the domain hasn’t changed because the life cycle starts with registration, ends with deletion, and that early termination doesn’t affect that.
https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/reconsideration-26-2-spiridonov-request-2026-06-04-en
Everyone who registers a domain expects the deletion portion of the life cycle to occur after expiry. ICANN’s own life cycle documentation shows “expired” as part of the life cycle with deletion occurring after expiration.
https://www.icann.org/en/contracted-parties/accredited-registrars/resources/gtld-lifecycle
Terminating and deleting domains before they expire changes the life cycle. The domain no longer goes through the expiry portion of the life cycle phase.
I’ve always liked the .name extension. Too bad it didn’t catch on with the public.
And still Verisign states: “Verisign enables the world to connect online with reliability and confidence, anytime, anywhere.”
Shame on them.
It is really a shame how Verisign, just because of, drops that service but still offers them on their homepage – see https://www.verisign.com/domain-names/name-domains/.
And no chance to take over any of these domains (I know I am the only one with this .name domain, as are my wife and our daughter…), as they will be locked for a year!
Shame on you Verisign!!
Thomas