.carp
Is .carp a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody is chasing .carp, as of 7 October 2026. One applicant claimed it and is out. We keep the entry on the record either way.
- Journey To The West
A narrow fish-hobby name: carp anglers and koi fans might bite, but few serious projects would make .carp their primary address.
carp-angling brands, fisheries, tackle shops and koi/pond hobbyist sites, plus a thin slice of culture plays on the carp-leaping-the-dragon-gate success motif
In Journey To The West's published portfolio of 323 strings submitted in the ICANN 2026 round. Their catalog line: “The fish whose leap becomes legend.”
The 2012 applications making the most similar bet. Chosen by AI from every string in that round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet in the same vertical: a plain-English angling noun sold to hobby clubs, tackle retailers, fisheries and content sites, where success depends on a small but passionate enthusiast community adopting a hobby word as primary identity rather than on any corporate or geographic anchor.
Also a single-animal common noun whose entire value rests on a narrow enthusiast/sport economy (breeders, clubs, venues, gear sellers) treating the species name as its own namespace, structurally the same wager as putting a fish species on the right of the dot.
Same word-type (unowned generic animal category noun with no community claimant), but the bet is broader and more diffuse across seafood trade and aquariums, whereas the target is one species deep inside that category serving a single hobby.
What a .carp domain is
.carp is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under Culture. Nobody is chasing .carp today. The applicants that claimed it are out.
Is the .carp domain extension real yet?
.carp is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. Nobody has applied for it on the public record; the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round is the process that would decide whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .carp domain?
You can’t yet. A .carp name can only be registered once the string is delegated (added to the DNS root) and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .carp was .fishing, delegated on 31 March 2014.
Is .carp a real TLD?
Not yet. .carp is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because an applicant claimed .carp and is no longer in it. We keep the entry, and every entry on this page links to its source.
- Journey To The West · now abandonedICANN
- Journey To The West · first recordedJourney To The West Corporation
“.carp · Zodiac & Creatures · “The fish whose leap becomes legend.””Journey To The West Corporation
- Band 10-29 (vanity/narrow). It clears the 1-9 floor because a real community exists: carp angling is a genuinely popular hobby in parts of Europe and koi keeping has a global following, so some fisheries, tackle brands, and hobbyist sites could plausibly adopt it as a badge; the string also carries cultural resonance in Chinese-speaking markets via the carp-leaping-the-dragon-gate success symbol. It does not reach 30-49 because, by analogy (flagged as analogy), broader fish-themed TLDs such as .fish and .fishing have seen only modest niche uptake, and .carp is a strict subset of that already-small market with no volume or price-driven registration base and effectively no aftermarket signal. The applicant is a large-portfolio ICANN 2026 applicant (per the facts block), which suggests catalog breadth rather than a dedicated vertical push, informing adoption likelihood only. Main market uncertainty: whether the European carp-fishing vertical embraces it as an identity badge, which would move it toward the top of this band but likely not out of it within 5 years.