.monkey
Is .monkey a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody is chasing .monkey, 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 playful novelty domain: fun for monkey-named brands and zodiac tie-ins, but few serious projects would make it their main address.
playful consumer brands and products with "monkey" in the name, zodiac-themed marketers in Chinese-speaking markets, and hobby or meme projects wanting a memorable joke address
In Journey To The West's published portfolio of 323 strings submitted in the ICANN 2026 round. Their catalog line: “Clever, mischievous, endlessly inventive.”
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 as .monkey: a playful common-noun persona word with no underlying industry, sold on charm and brandability to individuals and small creative shops who want personality in the name rather than category authority.
Another creature noun with no trade or vertical behind it, so it depends entirely on whimsical brandable demand the way .monkey does, differing only in carrying one strong cultural connotation.
An everyday animal word that, unlike .dog or .horse, anchors no real commercial vertical, so its registrants would be playful brand-flavored buyers rather than an industry — the same charm-driven bet, though the string skews toward a single trademark reading.
What a .monkey domain is
.monkey 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 .monkey today. The applicants that claimed it are out.
Is the .monkey domain extension real yet?
.monkey 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 .monkey domain?
You can’t yet. A .monkey 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 .monkey was .ninja, delegated on 28 December 2013.
Is .monkey a real TLD?
Not yet. .monkey is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because an applicant claimed .monkey 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
“.monkey · Zodiac & Creatures · “Clever, mischievous, endlessly inventive.””Journey To The West Corporation
- Placed in the 10-29 vanity/novelty band: animal-word TLDs are memorable but, by analogy with existing animal and creature strings that reached general availability, they have historically drawn thin registration bases, little primary-identity use, and shallow aftermarkets (analogy - specific figures unknown). It is not in the 30-49 band because there is no evident volume or price-driven registration engine behind the string, and not in the 1-9 band because a real if small market exists: brands that already carry 'monkey' in their name could use it as a domain hack, and Chinese-zodiac tie-ins give it periodic cultural relevance, consistent with the applicant's zodiac-themed catalog positioning. The applicant is one portfolio holder among a published 323-string portfolio, which suggests broad catalog economics rather than a dedicated single-string push; that informs adoption likelihood neutrally. The main market uncertainty over the next 5 years is whether zodiac-year marketing cycles and playful brand hacks generate recurring paid demand or only brief event-driven spikes.