Tuesday October 13, 2026
Gediminas G.
Every idea, endeavor or project online starts alongside a name, and that method a domain. With 10 myriad domains now managed by Hostinger, we have a distinctive perspective into how those naming choices evolve.
We analyzed 6.2 myriad Hostinger domain registrations from October 2025 to September 2026 to acknowledge which naming trends are gaining or losing momentum. We afterward compared our findings alongside the applications for new domain extensions that ICANN, the nonprofit that coordinates the earth domain name system, published on October 7.
The chief finding from Hostinger is that AI-related registrations lagged the market. They grew 1.5% in the second fractional of the duration during total registrations grew 6.7%. That puts AI lone 13th out of 20 themes. Because the market grew faster, AI’s piece of it shrank: its portion of all registrations peaked at 2.0% in March, up from 1.7% in October, afterward cut to 1.5% by September.
Still, AI is shaping how group name things. Within the AI theme, agent grew 14.6% and agentic 16.7%. This expanding involvement is additionally reflected in ICANN’s newly published applications for domain extensions, where .agent is the most contested extension, attracting 13 applicants. The technology’s vocabulary is spreading equal although AI registrations have levelled off.
The growth is going location else, as the applicable net strikes the hype: home (+22.5%), energy (+13.6%), and creative (+10.8%) were among the fastest-growing themes, during crypto fell 14.1%.
AI registrations peaked in March, afterward eased
We grouped Hostinger registrations into 20 themes using keywords in the second-level domain, the part before an expansion specified as .com or .net. For AI, these contain ai, agent, model, brain, and mind. To decrease false positives, “ai” lone counts whenever it starts or ends a name, and known unrelated words specified as “dubai” are excluded.
In an explanatory name akin brightmodel.com, we would appearance at “brightmodel” and acknowledge “model” as the keyword. The expansion does not power the category.
AI-related registrations followed a apparent arc. By March, they were 41% complete their October level, onward of the market. By September that guide had gone: AI was 12% complete October, during total registrations were 23% above.
AI naming is moving east as Europe cools
We compared the archetypal fractional of the duration (October 2025 to March 2026) alongside the second (April to September 2026). Total registrations grew 6.7%, and AI-related registrations grew in 26 of the 45 countries we could measure. The growth is concentrated in Asia and the Middle East, during Europe is mostly shrinking.
Across 12 Asian markets exterior India, AI-related registrations grew 24%, led by Thailand (+47%), Pakistan (+44%), Vietnam (+42%) and Indonesia (+31%). In the Middle East and North Africa they grew 9%, alongside six of seven countries up.
In Europe they cut 6%, and lone three of 14 countries grew: Switzerland (+48%), France (+2%) and the UK (+1%).
The feeble earth total comes from the biggest markets. India (+3.6%), the US (−6.6%) and Brazil (−14.5%) document for approximately fractional of all AI-related registrations, and of the three, lone India grew. Germany (−15.0%) and Spain (−3.1%) additionally fell.
Brazil pulls the total downward the most, but it isn’t the entire story. It makes up concerning 19% of all registrations, and its AI-related registrations cut 14.5% during its general registrations cut 5.2%.
Without Brazil, AI-related registrations grew concerning 4%, motionless fine rearward the 9.6% growth in all registrations.
Where is the growth going instead?
The fastest-growing themes are practical, real-world ones, showing us that group are naming what they’re building, not what they’re betting on.
Home grew in 37 of 44 countries, energy in 21 of 25, and creative in 33 of 45. Home was lone the sixth-largest theme in the archetypal half, but it was the third-largest in the two August and September, onward of creative. Pakistan supplied concerning a third of that increase, but without it, home motionless grew 16.6%. Crypto, by contrast, grew in lone 6 of 18 countries.
Which words could rotate into the next domain endings?
Sometimes a sole term is adequate to addition the demand. In delayed September, the US authorities stated it would use “super intelligence”, abbreviated SI, alternatively of “AI”. Slovenia’s country-code ending, .si, happens to match, and domain buyers noticed it fast. Our customers registered nearly 35,000 .si domains in fair two weeks, making it the second most famous ending, correct following .com.
What they registered is fair as telling. Only concerning 3% of those names merge definitive AI terms, during 13% are abbreviated names. Most of the petition was for the ending itself, not for AI-themed projects, which suggests the AI hype hasn’t disappeared. It is moving toward new terminology.
The .si surge shows a wider pattern: the words group choose before the dot can recommendation clues to what comes following it. On October 7, ICANN published the applications for its next circular of new domain extensions, which lets us difference what applicants desire alongside what group are really registering.
The clearest overlap is .agent. It is tied for the most contested cord in the round, alongside 13 applicants, alongside .lab and .labs, which have 13 between them (7 and 6). Our data points the identical way: registrations containing agent rosy 14.6% in the second fractional and those containing agentic rosy 16.7%, equal as the AI theme as a entire grew fair 1.5%.
Applicants and registrants do not continually agree. Crypto theme is the clearest example: 22 applications were submitted for eight crypto words, and all one of those words cut in our registrations, from wallet (−1.6%) to bitcoin (−35.4%). This suggests that companies are investing in new domain extensions that may not indicate what group and businesses are really curious in registering today.
The array below shows how several of the most contested endings difference alongside registrations of the identical words.
Several applicable words are on the catalog too, and most are expanding in our data: power (+11.0%), vault (+26.2%), clean (+12.3%) and electric (+29.7%).
An use is not an approved ending, though. Every cord is motionless in pre-evaluation, and anywhere multiple applicants desire the identical string, disagreement have to be resolved first.
The next naming trend is already taking shape
Domain names do not demonstrate that a endeavor has launched or that an idea connected to particular keywords volition last. They do display the tongue group choose whenever taking an idea online.
Right now, that tongue is practical, and AI naming is shifting toward Asia and the Middle East without pulling onward of the market. AI itself may be levelling off, but its vocabulary, from agent to agentic, is becoming part of how group name what they build, and the competition for .agent has already begun.
Methodology
Hostinger analyzed new domain registrations between October 2025 and September 2026. The inspection excludes refunded and unregistered domains and transfers, and groups second-level domains into 20 thematic categories using keyword matching. Growth figures difference April–September 2026 alongside October 2025–March 2026. About 35% of registrations equivalent a keyword group, and nation figures shield markets alongside at smallest 100 keyword-matched registrations in the theme in the two halves. Regions are Hostinger groupings of the countries measured.
Separately, Hostinger compared its keyword data alongside the catalog of applications for new top-level domains that ICANN published on October 7, 2026. Applicant counts are the figure of distinct applicants alongside an energetic use for all string.
Journalists can petition additional data at [email protected].
Gediminas is a communications expert passionate concerning technologies and their possibilities. His chief duty is to assistance group comprehend Hostinger products and their features. He likes spending his liberated period bathing in the hot tub, grilling, playing poker, fishing, and another activities.
