I’ve mentioned the topic of personal IE domains on here more than once in the past [also discussed here on CircleID] and in my conversations with the IE Domain Registry.

Just to recap; Under the current rules you cannot register johndoe.ie if your name is John Doe. You would have to add a number to the name, thus rendering it totally useless eg. johndoe7.ie or something of that style.

There are other ways to circumvent the rules which have allowed people to register a wide variety of domains for themselves, but the basic issue has always lain with the registration of domains such as:

• johnmurphy.ie
• jmurphy.ie

Since the IEDR’s CEO, David Curtin, has “let the cat out of the bag” in his recent interview with the Irish Times’ John Collins, I’ve no reason not to :)

At the end of last month the IE Domain Registry contacted all of its accredited resellers (registrars) looking for feedback on proposed changes to the way “personal” IE domains are handled.

The registry proposed a relaxation of the policy to allow:

“personal domain names which correspond to the individual’s name”

Of course you will have to prove your claim to the domain name by producing some form of official documentation, such as driver’s license, passport etc.,

The format of allowed names would include:

• Johnsmith.ie
• Johnpaulsmith.ie
• John-smith.ie
• John-paul-smith.ie
• jsmith.ie
• Jpsmith.ie
• J-smith.ie
• J-p-smith.ie

which covers most of the imaginable formats that people might ask for.

While the new rules will be applicable to Irish citizens applying for IE domains it still isn’t 100% clear how the registry intends to handle non-Irish nationals and this category of domain registration, so the final decision is yet to be made.

It is possible that the rules may be broadened after an initial period e.g. 6 or 12 months.

As things stand it looks likely that the proposed change will come into effect in July or August of this year.

Unfortunately there will be no sunrise period, so it will be very much a case of “first come, first served”.