Where the free names still are.
Plain dictionary words are nearly gone on every ending but .dev. Names built from a word and a short ending are not: 90% of them are still free as .si, against 14% as .com. On 12 October 2026, Hivex looked up the same 2,997 names on .si, .com, .ai, .io, .co, .app and .dev, and asked each registry about every name that showed no sign of an owner.
- Brand-style names free as .si
- 90%
- A common word with a brand ending such as flow or hub. As .ai: 70%; as .io: 68%.
- The same names as .com
- 14%
- Most good .com names are bought from an owner now, not registered.
- Common words free as .dev
- 224
- Of the 1,000 most used English words, the most on any ending. On .com, .ai and .si: 1 at most.
- No DNS, still registered
- 38%
- Of the .com names with no DNS at all. A quick lookup is not enough: ask the registry.
Free, ending by ending.
The share of each group still free to register on 12 October 2026. The darker the cell, the more is left. Every number comes from the registry itself, not only from DNS.
| Names | .si | .com | .ai | .io | .co | .app | .dev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common words1,000 names: the most common English words, 4 to 8 letters | 0% | 0% | 0.1% | 1.4% | 4.0% | 7.3% | 22% |
| Three-letter words459 names: three-letter English words | 0% | 0% | 0% | 1.1% | 3.1% | 3.3% | 12% |
| AI words58 names: words common in AI product names | 0% | 0% | 0% | 1.7% | 1.7% | 3.4% | 5.2% |
| Four-letter names1,000 names: random four-letter names you can say (consonant, vowel, consonant, vowel) | 14% | 0% | 9.5% | 13% | 32% | 18% | 29% |
| Word + ending480 names: a common word plus a brand ending such as flow or hub | 90% | 14% | 70% | 68% | 69% | 74% | 82% |
The gap.
65 of the 480 brand-style names were free as .si while .com, .ai and .io all had an owner, on 12 October 2026. Some of them are below. Each was free with the .si registry that day; check one again before you buy, as names go every hour.
Browse the free .si names nowNo website is not the same as free.
A quick DNS lookup misses names that are registered but not pointed anywhere. Of the .com names that showed no DNS at all, the registry still had 38% on record. That is why Hivex's checkers ask the registry before they call a name free.
Check a name with its registry- .si8.1% of 618
- .com38% of 107
- .ai17% of 526
- .io5.5% of 507
- .co5.1% of 743
- .app8.4% of 678
- .dev3.5% of 1,001
How this was measured
Five groups of names, 2,997 in all, each looked up in DNS on seven endings (20,979 lookups). A name with name servers is registered. The names without them were then asked to their registry, 4,179 in all: RDAP for .com, .ai, .io, .app, .dev and .si, WHOIS for .co. Free means the registry had no record of it.
What it does not show
A free name can still be reserved or sold at a premium price, which only the registrar's checkout shows. It is one day's picture: names change hands every hour. The common words come from Hivex's dictionary (SCOWL word lists ranked by wordfreq); the four-letter names are a fixed random sample. Every name is in the CSV.
How to cite this
Hivex, “Where the free names still are”, 12 October 2026, https://hivex.si/signals/availability-gap-2026
The table and the numbers are free to reuse with a link to this page. Questions or a fresh run: support@hivex.si.
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Changes
12 October 2026: first version.
By Hivex.