.persona
Is .persona a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody has applied for .persona in its own right, as of 7 October 2026. Starlight (Namecheap) named .persona as a backup string for its .intelligence application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Starlight (Namecheap) named .persona as a backup string for its .asi application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
A clean word for AI characters and personal brands, but identity-themed suffixes have tended to stay niche rather than become a default.
creators, AI-agent builders and small studios wanting a name for a character, avatar or personal brand, plus Spanish- and Italian-speaking individuals for whom the word simply means "person"
No applications recorded for this TLD yet.
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .asi application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
Named on the ICANN gTLD application list, 7 October 2026 as a replacement (backup) string of the applicant's .intelligence application, shown as deactivated: another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup
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 .persona: an abstract self-assertion word with no category business behind it, sold on the premise that individuals will plant their own identity on it one name at a time, rather than on any industry's commercial demand.
A bare pronoun whose only asset is standing for the person being addressed — the identical identity-as-namespace wager, where the string has to earn meaning from mass personal adoption because no sector, profession or incumbent anchors it.
Shares the job of holding a person's own self-description and the same one-registrant-at-a-time buyer, but the string carries a second industry reading (organic/biotech) that gives it a commercial category .persona does not have, so only half the bet overlaps.
What a .persona domain is
.persona is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under AI & tech. Nobody has applied for .persona in its own right. It is named on ICANN’s list as part of an application for another string.
Is the .persona domain extension real yet?
.persona 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 .persona domain?
You can’t yet. ICANN publishes every applied-for string on Reveal Day, 7 October 2026 at 18:00 UTC. A .persona name can only be registered after that, once the string is delegated and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .persona was .soy, delegated on 19 April 2014.
Is .persona a real TLD?
Not yet. .persona is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because ICANN’s list names .persona as part of an application for another string. Every entry on this page links to its source.
“AEI2688T-T84808 · Adhara Exploration, Inc. · replacement string of .asi · Deactivated FEI2676T-T60926 · Fomalhaut Exploration, Inc. · replacement string of .intelligence · Deactivated”ICANN
“FEI2676T-T21331 · Fomalhaut Exploration, Inc. · primary”ICANN
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited). The string is a real, widely understood word with two live meanings: the AI/character sense (an agent, avatar or synthetic character has a 'persona') and the plain-language sense in Spanish and Italian (person), which gives it some natural reach as a personal-identity suffix. Both applications on the record are from Namecheap, filed as standard-type replacement strings for .asi and .intelligence, which indicates the string was positioned in the AI/intelligence cluster; both are recorded as deactivated, but the TLD is assessed here as if delegated and available. It is not in the 50-69 band because, by analogy, identity-generic TLDs that are not the shortest option in their lane (think of .name alongside .me, or .bio and .id alongside the incumbents) have tended to see modest primary-identity use and a thin aftermarket; 'name.persona' reads well but needs explaining next to .me or .ai, and the AI-character use case does not yet have a settled naming convention for a TLD to capture. It is not in the 10-29 band because the word is not a joke or an event string: it has genuine utility for character and avatar projects, personal-brand sites and Romance-language individuals, so steady low-volume registration at list price is plausible rather than purely vanity demand. Main market uncertainty: whether AI-agent and character platforms converge on a public, domain-based address scheme for personas at all, or keep personas inside app namespaces where a TLD adds nothing. Counts, pricing and comparable registration volumes are unknown here; all comparisons above are inferences from analogy.