.nova
Is .nova a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.nova is not contested. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. It is XYZ Registry.
A pleasant word with no category behind it: expect price-driven registrations and few serious projects using it as a main address.
startups and brands that already use "nova" in their name, plus space, science and energy projects wanting a short, upbeat suffix
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 .nova: a short, positive-connotation evocative noun with no category to defend, sold as an open brandable namespace where the registry is monetizing a feeling rather than an industry vertical.
Also an abstract aspirational word rather than a category, profession or community name — anyone can rationalize putting their identity on it, which means it must be marketed into meaning exactly as .nova would be.
A single evocative superlative-style dictionary word whose appeal is connotation, not denotation, so it has to win general-purpose brand adoption instead of owning a defined set of registrants.
What a .nova domain is
.nova is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Brand category. One application for it is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .nova domain extension real yet?
.nova 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 .nova domain?
You can’t yet. A .nova 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 .nova was .star, delegated on 22 December 2015.
Is .nova a real TLD?
Not yet. .nova is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .nova is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- XYZ Registry · first recordedICANN
- Band chosen: 30-49, usable but limited, at its lower edge. "Nova" is an evocative word (new, bright, a stellar flare) that many companies and products already use as a brand name, so there is a plausible pool of registrants who would want name.nova as a vanity or defensive address, and the string is short and easy to say in any language. It is not a category, though: there is no industry, profession, place or activity that "nova" names, so nothing drives sustained primary-identity use the way a sector word does. By analogy (flagged as analogy), single-word vibe TLDs from portfolio registries such as .world, .life, .zone, .one and .lol have tended to grow on low-price promotions and renew weakly, with brand signal that rarely helps a serious project explain its address; .nova, being narrower than .world or .life, would likely sit below those in registration depth. The applicant on the record is XYZ (XYZ.COM LLC), a standard application, which suggests broad registrar distribution and price-led launch dynamics rather than a curated namespace; this informs adoption likelihood only. Not the band above (50-69) because there is no identifiable community with real, ongoing demand that would adopt .nova as their main identity and sustain an aftermarket. Not the band below (10-29) because the word is widely used as a product and company name and reads as upbeat rather than a joke, so registrations should exceed shallow event-driven interest and some projects already named Nova may use it as a secondary brand address. Main market uncertainty: whether "something.nova" lands as a credible brand suffix that startups adopt as a primary identity, or stays a vanity add-on that renews poorly after the first discount year.