About .uk domains

About .uk domains

.UK is a country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) in the DNS root zone. It is designated for United Kingdom. The IANA root zone lists the registry manager as Nominet UK. Registration policies (who may register, local presence, pricing) are set by the registry and its accredited registrars — not by IANA.

.uk is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United Kingdom. It was first registered in July 1985, seven months after the original generic top-level domains such as .com and the first country code after .us; it was initially meant to be .gb, following the same naming scheme as other countries, but .uk went live so early in the history of the DNS system that .gb fell into disuse. .uk has used OpenDNSSEC since March 2010. As of April 2021, it is the fifth most popular top-level domain worldwide, with over 10 million registrations.

Who can register .uk domains?

Eligibility is defined by the registry operator and its registrars. Most gTLDs are open to anyone worldwide. Many ccTLDs are also open globally; some require local presence, citizenship, or trademark rights. Always confirm current policy with the registry or your registrar.

Registration restrictions

Character rules below follow common ICANN LDH conventions. Individual registries and registrars may impose extra eligibility, length, or residency rules.

Length

2 – 63 characters (label before .uk)

Can use

Letters (a–z), numbers (0–9), and hyphens (not first/last or consecutive in restricted cases)

Cannot use

Special characters (e.g. & # @) in standard LDH labels

IDNs

Varies by registry — check IDN support with the registry or your registrar

Features

Operational features (privacy, parking, protection) are registrar-level, not defined by the IANA root zone record.

Registry information

Sponsor / manager

Nominet UK

Registration services

http://www.nic.uk/

WHOIS server

whois.nic.uk

RDAP server

https://rdap.nominet.uk/uk/

Root zone registration

1985-07-24

Record last updated

2023-03-07