.name domains always consist of one or two character strings which are
separated by a dot, and followed by the top level
domain .name. The first character string (if present)
is called third level, the second character string is called second level.
Therefore, the following possibilities exist:
3-stage: level3.level2.name
2-stage: level2.name
Second level domain names can only be registered since January 14th, 2004,
and only if no third level registration exists for the second character string.
Not every domain name can actually be registered, since some terms are
not allowed for registration as a matter of principle.
A designated domain name has to meet the following conditions.
Domain names may only consist of the letters “a” to “z”,
the digits “0” to “9”, and of the hyphen.
Domain names must consist of more than two characters, and they may not be
longer than 63 characters.
Every level of the domain name may neither start nor end with a hyphen.
Every level of the domain name may not include a hyphen as the third or fourth character.
For example the registration of
“jack.xn--jones.name”
is not possible.
The character strings used in the respective levels may not be contained
in the following lists of exceptions.
