.nav
Is .nav a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.nav is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is Identity Digital.
A short, memorable string for navigation, mapping and mobility projects, but few will make it their main address.
navigation, mapping and mobility startups, boating and route-planning services, and web or product teams that want a short "find your way" 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 short generic word for the wayfinding/geodata function itself, sold as the default namespace for anyone whose product is orienting a user in space, so its registrants are mapping and routing services putting their primary identity on the job they do rather than on a brand or a place.
Same bet in a different domain: a clipped three-letter technical generic wagering that the abbreviation everyone already says out loud becomes the canonical home for a whole class of software products, which depends on the clipping reading as the category and not as jargon.
Also a clipped generic that tries to own an entire functional vertical for the operators inside it, though it names a mature consumer industry with obvious identity holders while a function-abbreviation has a thinner, more technical set of buyers.
What a .nav domain is
.nav is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our AI & tech category. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .nav domain extension real yet?
.nav 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 .nav domain?
You can’t yet. A .nav 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 .nav was .map, delegated on 29 June 2017.
Is .nav a real TLD?
Not yet. .nav is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .nav is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- Identity Digital · first recordedICANN
- Band chosen: usable but limited (30-49). The string is short and carries several real meanings: navigation and wayfinding (consumer maps, in-car and marine navigation, route planning), the web-development nav element, the finance abbreviation for net asset value, and naval or nautical associations. That breadth gives it more genuine primary-identity candidates than a vanity string, so it sits above the 10-29 band. It is not a strong niche (50-69) because no single category treats nav as the natural suffix for an identity: navigation apps and mobility companies overwhelmingly brand on legacy TLDs, and the meanings compete rather than reinforce. By analogy (flagged as analogy), short semantic TLDs such as .map (operated under restrictions), .navy, .boats and .guide have produced small, niche registration bases without a meaningful aftermarket; .nav looks closer to those than to .app or .dev. The applicant is Identity Digital, a large portfolio operator with established registrar distribution, which plausibly supports steady availability and marketing but does not by itself create category demand. The applicant also filed .meeting naming .nav as its primary string; that is neutral context and does not change the market judgment. Main market uncertainty: whether one meaning (consumer navigation and mobility, or maritime) consolidates enough buyers to give the string an identifiable community over the next 5 years, versus demand spreading thinly across unrelated uses and defaulting to short-hack and defensive registrations.