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Frequently asked questions

  • I am looking for a domain name registrant. Where can I look it up?

    The Whois is an easy-to-use tool for checking the availability of a .nl domain name. If the domain name is already taken, you can see who has registered it.

    On the page looking up a domain name you will find more information about what a domain name is, how the Whois works and how the privacy of personal data is protected. Alternatively, you can go straight to look for a domain name via the Whois.

  • I would like to transfer my domain name to another registrar. What is the procedure?

    To get your domain name transferred, you need the token (unique ID number) for your domain name. Your existing registrar has the token and is obliged to give it to you within five days, if you ask for it. The procedure for changing your registrar is described on the page transferring your domain name.

  • The details registered about me/my company are incorrect or out of date. How can I get them updated?

    To update the contact details associated with your domain name, you need to contact your registrar. Read more about updating contact details.

  • Why is my domain name in quarantine?

    When a domain name is cancelled, we aren't told the reason, so we can't tell you. You'll need to ask your registrar. The advantage of quarantine is that, if a name's cancelled by mistake, you can always get it back.

    One common reason is that the contract between you and your registrar says you've got to renew the registration every year. If you haven't set up automatic renewal and you don't renew manually, the registration will expire.

  • Ik heb een klacht over mijn provider/registrar. Kan ik daarvoor bij SIDN terecht?

    Wanneer je een klacht hebt over of een geschil met je registrar dan zijn er verschillende mogelijkheden om tot een oplossing te komen. Hierover lees je meer op pagina klacht over registrar. SIDN heeft geen formele klachtenprocedure voor het behandelen van een klacht over jouw registrar.

  • What conditions do I have to meet as a registrar?

    Would you like to be able to register domain names for customers or for your own organisation by dealing directly with SIDN? If so, you can become a .nl registrar. Read more about the conditions and how to apply for registrar status on the page becoming a registrar.

More frequently asked questions

.nl in word clouds: new statistics on stats.sidnlabs.nl

Which terms are popular in existing and new .nl domain names?

Word cloud of terms popular in newly registered domain names in October 2022.

The original blog is in Dutch. This is the English translation.

One of the topics covered in our research report 'The state of .nl', which came out earlier this year, was the words used in domain names in 2021 and 2020. We've since refined the methods used for the word analyses, resulting in 3 new word clouds, which we've now published on https://stats.sidnlabs.nl/term.html: Words in domain names. The word clouds visualise the popularity of words included in existing and new .nl domain names. In this blogpost, we explain how we generate our word clouds, and we discuss a few notable developments observed in 2022.

Words in domain names

We identify the words making up domain names using a word-splitting algorithm: an algorithm that breaks a domain name into its component parts, such as 'merk' ('brand') and 'bewaking' ('guarding') in the domain name sidnmerkbewaking.nl, which belongs to our BrandGuard service.

In order to generate a word cloud, we run the word splitter on all the domain names registered in a given period. We then filter the results to remove articles (words such as 'the' and 'a') and prepositions (words such as 'in' and 'with'). Finally, we count how often the remaining words are used.

Using that method, we generate 3 word clouds: words in active domain names, words in newly registered domain names, and trending words.

Word cloud #1: active domain names

Figure 1 is a cloud of the words used in all domain names active in January 2022. In this context, 'active' implies that a domain name was registered for at least part of the period covered.

Word cloud of common terms in active domain names, January 2022
Figuur 1: Woordwolk met termen in actieve domeinnamen, januari 2022.

The word cloud includes the 50 most used words, weighted according to frequency of use. The bigger a word appears in the word cloud, the more often it's used.

Figure 1 therefore reflects usage in the .nl zone as a whole, including newly registered and pre-existing domain names.

Word cloud #2: new registrations

Our word cloud for new registrations shows the words used in newly registered domain names only. A domain name is considered 'newly registered' if it is first registered within the time period covered. Again, the number of occurrences of each word is calculated, and the 50 words most frequently used are shown in the cloud. Figure 2 shows the words used in new registrations in January 2022.

Word cloud with terms in new domain names, January 2022
Figuur 2: Woordwolk met termen in nieuwe domeinnamen, januari 2022.

Trending words were identified by calculating ElasticSearch JLH scores. A word's JLH score is an expression of the frequency of a word's use in new registrations, relative to the frequency of its use in existing registrations. Figure 3 shows the words that were trending in January 2022.

Word cloud with significant terms in .nl domain names, January 2022
Figuur 3: Woordwolk met significante termen, januari 2022.

Not all words in the cloud are used frequently. If, for example, a word was rarely used in the past, but is now starting to catch on a little, that word will have a high JLH score. The term 'trending' implies only that the word's use is increasing.

Notable words in 2022

In 'The state of .nl', we highlighted a number of striking trends in 2020 and 2021, including the use of pandemic-related words, such as 'corona', 'mondkap' ('facemask'), 'pcr' and 'test', and the popularity of the words 'straat' and 'laan' ('street' and 'lane'). We have since added data on the period up to the end of September 2022 to our analysis. The results show that 'straat', 'shop' and 'online' remain by far the most popular words for use in new domain names.

Figure 4 covers new registrations in March 2022, with 'straat' and 'shop' the as the biggest words.

Word cloud with common terms in new .nl domain names, March 2022
Figuur 4: Nieuwe registraties in maart 2022.

This year's monthly summaries of words used in newly registered domain names have yet to reveal many striking trends. 'Crypto' is still being used, and occasionally 'NFT', but those words are clearly less popular than in the past.

Nevertheless, our analysis of trending words for March does reveal a sharp rise in registrations that included the word 'Ukraine' or its Dutch equivalent 'Oekraine'. Although such registrations weren't common enough to feature in our new registrations word cloud for March (figure 4), they did almost double. Hence, both 'Ukraine' and 'Oekraine' are prominent in our cloud of trending words for that month (figure 5).

Word cloud with significant terms in .nl domain names, March 2022
Figuur 5: Significante termen in maart 2022

Updates and dataset

The word clouds on stats.sidnlabs.nl are updated daily to reflect the preceding 30 days. We also provide a retrospective based on our historical registration data, going back to 1990.

We'd be interested to hear about any words that stand out for you from the historical data. Have you spotted a particularly interesting month? If so, let us know by mail or Twitter.

Article by:

Jelte Janssen

Jelte Jansen

Research engineer

Thymen Wabeke

Research engineer