.matt
Is .matt a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.matt is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is Automattic.
A first-name namespace: a fun personal address for people called Matt, rarely a serious business or brand identity.
people named Matt (and projects wanting a playful personal-name address), plus a small set of hobby and personal sites built around that name
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 exactly: a short personal name with no corporate owner, monetized by renting identity to the large population of individuals who already answer to it, so it only works if enough name-sharers will pay to put their own name left of the dot.
The same string class — a common Anglo given name that an individual could wear as primary identity — but in 2012 the bet behind it was a single owner using a personal name as a trade name, not a namespace rented out to everyone who shares it.
Shares the buyer and the job (an individual putting their personal, non-commercial identity on the right of the dot) but the string is a universal role noun anyone can claim rather than a name that pre-qualifies its own audience.
What a .matt domain is
.matt is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under Culture. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .matt domain extension real yet?
.matt is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. It is a string applicants have put forward in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, the process that decides whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .matt domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .matt name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .matt was .kim, delegated on 23 January 2014.
Is .matt a real TLD?
Not yet. .matt is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .matt is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Automattic · first recordedICANN
“KKWT2621T-T75381 · Knock Knock WHOIS There, LLC · primary”ICANN
“KKWT2621T-T78272 · Knock Knock WHOIS There, LLC · replacement string of .craft · Deactivated LFGL2683T-T15033 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-81 RTIS2674T-T99384 · Radix Technologies Inc SEZC · replacement string of .mind · Deactivated VC2665T-T98880 · Vanity Check, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-81”ICANN
- Band chosen: 10-29 (vanity/joke/narrow). The string is a common given name, and the one application on the record is a standard (not brand) application by Automattic (legal name Knock Knock WHOIS There, LLC), status confirmed, per the ICANN Reveal Day list of 7 October 2026. Assuming delegation and general availability, the natural market is personal-name addresses: an individual named Matt registering firstname-style sites, or a playful personal brand. By analogy (flagged as analogy), personal-identity TLDs such as .name and .me have shown that identity strings generate steady but shallow registration demand, with .me faring better because the word carries meaning in many languages and brands; a single given name is far narrower than either, and does not generalize across cultures or categories. Not the band above (30-49) because there is no category in which a serious project would adopt a .matt address as its primary identity at volume, and resale value would rest on novelty rather than a recognized brand signal. Not the band below (1-9) because a popular first name does have a real, if small, buyer group and an operator with a confirmed application, so some registrations and a few memorable personal sites are plausible within 5 years. Main market uncertainty: whether the operator positions .matt as an open, cheap personal namespace (shallow but real demand) or restricts it to a curated use, which would shrink the addressable buyer group further; the pricing and eligibility policy is unknown.