.den

Is .den a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?

Culture
applicants
  • Starlight RegistryAnnounced
on the record since Aug 19, 2026 · updated Aug 19, 2026
AI score
36/ 100
Usable but limited

A short, cozy word for clubs, gamers and fan hangouts, but most serious projects would use it as a side address, not their main one.

assessed by claude-fable-5 · Aug 19, 2026
AI score 36 of 100. .com scores 96, .ai scores 84.
who it’s for

gaming and streaming communities, fan clubs, creator hangouts, and hobby groups wanting a short "come into my den" address; secondarily brands playing on lair/clubhouse imagery (e.g. dragons.den-style names)

CultureBrandtechOther
applicants
1 on file
Starlight RegistryAnnounced
Aug 19, 2026

One of 40 strings Starlight Registry (established by registrar Namecheap) applied for in the ICANN 2026 round, reported by Domain Name Wire on 2026-08-19.

closest 2012 bets
3 of 1,408

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.

.bcnstrong parallel
delegated 2015 · live

Same bet: a city's compact three-letter shorthand (the form locals and the airport code already use) turned into a civic namespace, where value depends entirely on residents and local businesses recognizing three letters as their city rather than as a random trigram.

uncontested · scored 35* in 2012 · run by Municipi de Barcelona

.nycstrong parallel
delegated 2014 · live

Same bet: a municipal-identity gTLD on the abbreviated form of a city name, sold to hyperlocal businesses and civic bodies who would put their primary address on it, with success hinging on one metro's population and local-pride demand rather than global generic appeal.

uncontested · scored 68* in 2012 · run by The City of New York by and through the New York City Department of Information Technology & Telecommunications

.vegasmoderate
delegated 2014 · live

Same city-as-namespace bet on the short colloquial form of a place name, but run as a commercial registry monetizing a tourism-flavored place brand rather than as an official civic shorthand, so the demand curve is visitor-facing as much as resident-facing.

uncontested · scored 52* in 2012 · run by Dot Vegas, Inc.

* A separate 2012-only read, time-locked to what was public that year. Different scale from this page’s score — the two are not comparable.

history
  1. Starlight Registry · first recordedAug 19, 2026
    Domain Name Wire
news & sources
NewsNamecheap's Starlight Registry applies for 40 TLDs
Aug 19, 2026
For us, moving into the registry side is a natural extension of what we have been building.
Domain Name Wire
Considering a name on .den?Appraise a name on this TLD →

This record is corrected in the open. See the changelog and methodology.