Just came across a list of the 100 oldest domain names by registration date.
I’m sure some domain blogger has published it before but I can’t remember seeing it.
Of course we all know that fellow domainer Aron Meystedt owns the oldest domain name, Symbolics.com which was registered on March 15th 1985 but what I find most interesting is that it took until November 30, 1987 for the hundredth domain to be registered, a span of 2 1/2 years.
I’m sure you also know that back then there was no charge to register a domain name.
and no sex.com was not one of the first 100.
Here is the full list:
100 oldest registered .com domains
Rank![]() |
Create date | Domain name | |
1. | 15 Mar 1985 | Symbolics.com | |
2. | 24 Apr 1985 | BBN.com | |
3. | 24 May 1985 | Think.com | |
4. | 11 Jul 1985 | MCC.com | |
5. | 30 Sep 1985 | DEC.com | |
6. | 07 Nov 1985 | Northrop.com | |
7. | 09 Jan 1986 | Xerox.com | |
8. | 17 Jan 1986 | SRI.com | |
9. | 03 Mar 1986 | HP.com | |
10. | 05 Mar 1986 | Bellcore.com | |
11. | 19 Mar 1986 | IBM.com | |
11. | 19 Mar 1986 | Sun.com | |
13. | 25 Mar 1986 | Intel.com | |
13. | 25 Mar 1986 | TI.com | |
15. | 25 Apr 1986 | ATT.com | |
16. | 08 May 1986 | GMR.com | |
16. | 08 May 1986 | TEK.com | |
18. | 10 Jul 1986 | FMC.com | |
18. | 10 Jul 1986 | UB.com | |
20. | 05 Aug 1986 | Bell-ATL.com | |
20. | 05 Aug 1986 | GE.com | |
20. | 05 Aug 1986 | Grebyn.com | |
20. | 05 Aug 1986 | ISC.com | |
20. | 05 Aug 1986 | NSC.com | |
20. | 05 Aug 1986 | Stargate.com | |
26. | 02 Sep 1986 | Boeing.com | |
27. | 18 Sep 1986 | ITCorp.com | |
28. | 29 Sep 1986 | Siemens.com | |
29. | 18 Oct 1986 | Pyramid.com | |
30. | 27 Oct 1986 | AlphaCDC.com | |
30. | 27 Oct 1986 | BDM.com | |
30. | 27 Oct 1986 | Fluke.com | |
30. | 27 Oct 1986 | Inmet.com | |
30. | 27 Oct 1986 | Kesmai.com | |
30. | 27 Oct 1986 | Mentor.com | |
30. | 27 Oct 1986 | NEC.com | |
30. | 27 Oct 1986 | Ray.com | |
30. | 27 Oct 1986 | Rosemount.com | |
30. | 27 Oct 1986 | Vortex.com | |
40. | 05 Nov 1986 | Alcoa.com | |
40. | 05 Nov 1986 | GTE.com | |
42. | 17 Nov 1986 | Adobe.com | |
42. | 17 Nov 1986 | AMD.com | |
42. | 17 Nov 1986 | DAS.com | |
42. | 17 Nov 1986 | Data IO.com | |
42. | 17 Nov 1986 | Octopus.com | |
42. | 17 Nov 1986 | Portal.com | |
42. | 17 Nov 1986 | Teltone.com | |
42. | 11 Dec 1986 | 3Com.com | |
50. | 11 Dec 1986 | Amdahl.com | |
50. | 11 Dec 1986 | CCUR.com | |
50. | 11 Dec 1986 | CI.com | |
50. | 11 Dec 1986 | Convergent.com | |
50. | 11 Dec 1986 | DG.com | |
50. | 11 Dec 1986 | Peregrine.com | |
50. | 11 Dec 1986 | Quad.com | |
50. | 11 Dec 1986 | SQ.com | |
50. | 11 Dec 1986 | Tandy.com | |
50. | 11 Dec 1986 | TTI.com | |
50. | 11 Dec 1986 | Unisys.com | |
61. | 19 Jan 1987 | CGI.com | |
61. | 19 Jan 1987 | CTS.com | |
61. | 19 Jan 1987 | SPDCC.com | |
64. | 19 Feb 1987 | Apple.com | |
65. | 04 Mar 1987 | NMA.com | |
65. | 04 Mar 1987 | Prime.com | |
67. | 04 Apr 1987 | Philips.com | |
68. | 23 Apr 1987 | Datacube.com | |
68. | 23 Apr 1987 | Kai.com | |
68. | 23 Apr 1987 | TIC.com | |
68. | 23 Apr 1987 | Vine.com | |
72. | 30 Apr 1987 | NCR.com | |
73. | 14 May 1987 | Cisco.com | |
73. | 14 May 1987 | RDL.com | |
75. | 20 May 1987 | SLB.com | |
76. | 27 May 1987 | ParcPlace.com | |
76. | 27 May 1987 | UTC.com | |
78. | 26 Jun 1987 | IDE.com | |
79. | 09 Jul 1987 | TRW.com | |
80. | 13 Jul 1987 | Unipress.com | |
81. | 27 Jul 1987 | Dupont.com | |
81. | 27 Jul 1987 | Lockheed.com | |
83. | 28 Jul 1987 | Rosetta.com | |
84. | 18 Aug 1987 | Toad.com | |
85. | 31 Aug 1987 | Quick.com | |
86. | 03 Sep 1987 | Allied.com | |
86. | 03 Sep 1987 | DSC.com | |
86. | 03 Sep 1987 | SCO.com | |
89. | 22 Sep 1987 | Gene.com | |
89. | 22 Sep 1987 | KCCS.com | |
89. | 22 Sep 1987 | Spectra.com | |
89. | 22 Sep 1987 | WLK.com | |
93. | 30 Sep 1987 | Mentat.com | |
94. | 14 Oct 1987 | WYSE.com | |
95. | 02 Nov 1987 | CFG.com | |
96. | 09 Nov 1987 | Marble.com | |
97. | 16 Nov 1987 | Cayman.com | |
97. | 16 Nov 1987 | Entity.com | |
99. | 24 Nov 1987 | KSR.com | |
100. | 30 Nov 1987 | NynexST.com |
“registered on March 15th 1985”
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Some might argue that 1981 was before 1985 but….Your BLOG…You are always RIGHT
Interesting to see Aron parking Symbolics.com now. He had a site on it at one point.
1999
“Because nothing like ICANN has ever been attempted before, its success is not assured, but because it seeks to embrace and build on the consensus tradition of the Internet, it has at least a chance to succeed. ICANN is intended to replace a highly informal, unstructured system where a very few individuals made key decisions about the future and direction of the Internet. Those individuals were remarkably wise and unselfish, and the fact that the vast majority of their decisions were in the public interest is evidenced by the very success and growth of the Internet itself. But individuals are not immortal, as we are so frequently reminded, and thus we need more permanent structures if we are to continue this tradition of consensus.”
no, the oldest domain was www. pyramids.egypt hosted by GoPharaoh … 🙂
What was the registration process like back then?
Creation Date: 01-jan-1985 Nordu.net
“ICANN is intended to replace a highly informal, unstructured system”
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According to Domain Experts (Domainers) at “TheDomains” a very “Structured System” of large corporations existed prior to 1998 & worked well.
Datacube is owned by a domainer
DataCube.com is also owned by a domainer, Brad
What’s the oldest domain you own MHB?
Gazzip
Don’t know I would have to run my database
U.S. Congressman: @MHB when did you become a “Domainer” ?
“Don’t know I would have to run my database”
Go for it if you have the time, you must have alot of golden oldies in there 🙂
You know what MHB has?
Stuff.com
That’s a brand! It could be womens’ accessories: purses, scarves, costume jewelry. It could be electronics: pdas, mobiles, netbooks. Curtains, ottomans, housewares. Beachwear, towels, flipflops, sunblock, sunglasses. I would never forget: Stuff!
Look at the one-words in MostWantedDomains. A handful of them are typos, like phenomenom – too bad! – and there are some gems!
There are now about 350 “places” in CyberSpace to protect your BRAND like STUFF
://twitter.com/stuff
There are now about 350 “places” in CyberSpace to protect your BRAND
…
anyone “serious” about building a XXX Brand would be wise to Register in all the “Places”
…
including the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office
…
it will likely be a name-by-name battle from here on. The TLD does not matter.
Stuff.com is in my top 10 list for domain to associate with an APP – plus for ads that surround tv screens in bars. MHB made a great purchase in the secondary market.
I thought Al Gore invented the Internet – not ICANN – maybe he invented ICANN when he invented global warming.
One of my oldest domains is FirstByte.com 2/3/1994
All domains lead to BS websites.
“I’m sure you also know that back then there was no charge to register a domain name.”
====
1999
“ICANN has decided to defer the implementation of its volume-based cost-recovery registrar fee (mischaracterized by some as a “Domain Name Tax”), and to convene a task force to study available funding options and recommend to ICANN and the Internet community a fair and workable allocation of the funding required to cover ICANN’s costs.”
2011 – Former ICANN employee…
“To make matters worse, it is widely rumored that ICANN’s staff has already produced a plan for dealing with the millions of dollars it expects to receive and that the Board has already had several discussions about what to do with the funds (those documents are thought to be part of the material that has been removed and censored by ICANN’s legal team in the publication of ‘Board materials’ provided two months after each meeting).”
“To make matters worse, it is widely rumored that ICANN’s staff has already produced a plan for dealing with the millions of dollars it expects to receive and that the Board has already had several discussions about what to do with the funds”
I heard they’re going to buy a big chunk of Switzerland and live happily ever after in sweet luxury 😉
…but what has this got to do with the oldest domains ???
…but what has this got to do with the oldest domains ???
“I’m sure you also know that back then there was no charge to register a domain name.”
What a shame that Symbolics is just being whored out to the highest bidder. Aron Maystedt should hang his head in shame.
Wonder how much symbolics.com is worth?
the happy days when only .com was THE domain names’ TLD 🙂
Yes, 1. Nordu.Net – Jan 1, 1985
“the happy days when only .com was THE domain…”
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People can return to that any time they want to do that as a group.
.COM only servers and services could become the new stable “NET”
Do **all** people need / want billions more people on “their” NET ?
“.COM only servers and services”
a ComDaddy ? 🙂
“The 100 Oldest Domain Names (Well .com’s Anyway)”
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Many THREE Letter LLL
then it jumps to FIVE Letter LLLLL
grebyn.co Available
alphacdc.co Available
inmet.co Available
kesmai.co Available
amdahl.co Available
ccur.co Available
spdcc.co Available
parcplace.co Available
mentat.co Available
nynexst.co Available
DG.com is the best I think…
What we need now is a list of the 100 oldest domainers. 😉
Steve
Unfortunately I’m definitely on that list and closer to the top than I would like.
“definitely on that list”
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Domainers & people from Florida sure have a limited view of CyberSpace & History
“Steve M
What we need now is a list of the 100 oldest domainers. ”
Good twist – agewise I am a few months behind MHB I think
Oldest – as length in business 12 years – probably still well over 100 still around
Not surprising to see so many LLL.com’s in there. But there are also a few odd ones I wouldn’t have guessed. Nice list, thanks!
Wonder who is going to claim they “own” the Top Level Domain .BOOK ?
://www.wimp.com/abook/
New here, have a go at me if I’m talking bollocks. Under the new rules anything can be a top level domain yes? In that case how far away is .apple or .ms? Unless of course one of you has already bagged these.
good domain name.