Registration Process
The following section summarizes the naming conventions for the following:
States and Commonwealths To register any second-level domain within .gov, state government entities must register the full state name or clearly indicate the state postal code within the name.
For example, the State of North Carolina could register nc.gov as a second-level domain and develop a system of registration for their local governments. The state would be free to develop policy on how the local government should be registered under nc.gov. One possibility might be to spell out the city, thus raleigh.nc.gov could be a resulting domain name. In such a case, local governments would request their domain name from the state rather than this site.
Top of Page
Cities and Townships Cities and townships are encouraged to register for a third-level domain under a state's second-level domain to the extent such an option is available. When this option is not available, cities and townships may register a second-level domain. To register a second-level .gov domain name, cities and townships must follow the guidelines below:
Counties and Parishes If third-level domain naming is available from the state government, counties or parishes are encouraged to register for a third-level domain name under a state's registered second-level domain (e.g., richmondcounty.ga.gov).
To register any second-level domain within .gov, counties or parishes must follow the guidelines below:
U.S. Territories
To register any second-level domain within .gov, U.S. territories must register their full territory name or clearly indicate the territory postal code within the name.
Examples of accepatable names include:
Cities within a U.S. territory should follow the naming conventions for Cities and Townships.
Native Sovereign Nations Native Sovereign Nations may register any second-level domain name provided that it contains the registering NSN name followed by a suffix of "-NSN.gov" (case insensitive).