With little fanfare and on a completely first-come, first-served basis, it appears the .NAME registry operated by Verisign has decided to release all number and number-hyphen combinations for general registration, effective immediately. Numeric domains had been previously restricted from registration and reserved by the registry.
The following is an email I received just minutes ago from the Canadian registrar 007Names –
We are pleased to inform you that .name registry has received the approval to remove pure numbers and combinations of numbers and hyphens from the list of names required to be reserved at the second level.
As a result and starting immediately, you will abe able to:
· Add second level domain names with pure numbers and/or combinations of numbers and hyphens
· Add domain names with pure numbers and/or combinations of numbers and hyphens at the second level of a
third level domain name;· Add NameWatch with pure numbers and/or combinations of numbers and hyphens;
· Add standard and premium Defensive Registrations with pure numbers and/or combinations of numbers and
hyphen; and· Add Email Forwarding registrations with pure numbers and/or combinations of numbers and hyphen.
Best Regards,
Support Team
007names.com
For Due Diligence: official .NAME registration restrictions
Note, the numeric restriction lift does not appear to include 1 or 2 character domains (i.e. 1.name – 99.name).