.nation
Is .nation a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.nation is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is Identity Digital.
A broad, friendly word for fan and member communities, but few serious projects would pick it as their main address.
fan clubs, sports and creator communities, membership brands, and tribal or diaspora groups that already call themselves "the X nation" and want a community-flavored address
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: a generic collective-belonging noun with no category to define it, sold to any self-identifying group that wants its shared identity (not its business or its place) to be the domain, so it only works if groups adopt an affiliation suffix as their primary home.
The same kind of string — a generic polity/people noun rather than any particular polity's name — with the same dependency on an abstract collective word reading as a credible home, though its likely registrants skew lifestyle and regional rather than movement identity.
A generic crowd noun whose buyer is whoever wants to name a following and have that following identify with it — the "Raider Nation" job — but it presumes an existing central brand to gather around, where the target also courts self-organizing groups with no owner.
What a .nation domain is
.nation 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 .nation domain extension real yet?
.nation 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 .nation domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .nation name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .nation was .community, delegated on 27 January 2014.
Is .nation a real TLD?
Not yet. .nation is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .nation is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Identity Digital · first recordedICANN
“FCL2632T-T60164 · Fore Course, LLC · replacement string of .log · Deactivated FCL2632T-T76002 · Fore Course, LLC · replacement string of .park · Deactivated FCL2632T-T83921 · Fore Course, LLC · replacement string of .stock · Deactivated FCL2632T-T99759 · Fore Course, LLC · replacement string of .time · Deactivated SRL2616T-T86558 · Squarespace Registry LLC · replacement string of .brand · Deactivated”ICANN
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited). The string is a common English word with a recognizable community meaning: sports franchises, creator audiences, and membership brands routinely describe themselves as 'the [name] nation', and indigenous and diaspora groups use 'nation' as a formal self-description, so there is a real if diffuse pool of buyers for whom a .nation address reads naturally. It is not in the 50-69 band because that demand is secondary-identity in character: a team, brand, or creator keeps its primary identity on an established namespace and uses a .nation address for a fan or member hub at most, and nothing in the string signals a commercial category that would support a sustained aftermarket. It is not in the 10-29 band because the word is broad, positive, and not a joke; by analogy (flagged as analogy) to open generic community-flavored strings run by large portfolio registries, such strings tend to accumulate registrations at promotional pricing and see real but modest use for community sites rather than failing to find a market. The one applicant on the record, Identity Digital, filed a standard (open) application, which by analogy (flagged as analogy) suggests broad registrar distribution and conventional pricing tiers rather than a restricted or premium-only launch; that supports volume adoption but not brand strength. Comparable registration counts, prices, and renewal rates are unknown and none are asserted here. Main market uncertainty over the next 5 years: whether 'nation' community branding, which today lives mostly on social platforms and under the parent brand's own domain, translates into standalone domain registrations at all, or whether community operators treat the suffix as a handle rather than an address.