Wednesday August 1, 2001 By Rita Ciolli, Newsday

WHEN YOU WERE born, your parents took care of registering your name. But you just may want to do it all over again.

Sure, that birth certificate established your offline identity once and for all, but what about your digital identity? And while people can find you pretty easily with a street address or telephone listing, how do they find you in cyberspace?

How about your e-mail address - is it easy to remember? Are messages sent to old addresses forwarded routinely when you change service providers?

This fall, some of those questions will be answered. That's when ".name" arrives, a new Internet domain name that would let online citizens create a permanent electronic identity that would be as unique as their terrestrial one.

"Most people would rather have their own name than an irrelevant series of names and numbers to identify them," said David Hirschler, vice president of global marketing for http://register.com, a site that offers domain name registrations.

.Name is one of seven new domain names recently created by ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

That's the official governing body that created the original three domains available to the public: .com, .net and .org. But simple or common names followed by any of those original suffixes are almost all taken, and ICANN has been under substantial pressure to create new cyberterritory. So for the past year ICANN has been rolling out seven additional domains, and critics are saying even the new ones won't be enough to accommodate the pent-up demand for addresses.

"Personalization is very strong right now and will get more so as the year 2001 comes to a close. We see this growing in momentum and popularity," said Diane Brandis, vice president of marketing for www.aplus.net, a San Diego based Internet service provider that also operates www.Aplus.Net.com, another Web service that registers domain names.

Designed exclusively for individuals, this new domain is a two- dot one. A typical Web URL address could be mary.jones.name or jones.mary.name. The extra dot allows more combinations of first and last names. Once registered, the domain name can be had for life, as long as the annual fee is paid. ICANN can take away the name in an arbitration procedure if the person who is using it cannot show a direct personal connection to the chosen combination.

By early 2002, e-mail addresses will be available, for a yet undetermined fee. A typical e-mail address would be mary@jones.name. Any work or personal e-mail accounts can be forwarded to that universal address and can be accessed from anywhere.

But more important than the vanity of having your own name up in lights, or at least in pixels, is the underlying series of numbers that will establish your digital identity. Since these are "top level" domains, each comes with its own universal address, a unique series of numbers called an Internet protocol, that allows you to be found by any computer, anywhere. This digital address can be used to house your Web site, collect your e-mail and allow you to store secure personal files. Eventually it could become a worldwide cell- phone number.

"These will be the world's first fully functional domain names," said Andrew Tsai, chief executive of Global Name in London, which was awarded an exclusive contract by ICANN to operate the data base and administer the addresses for the .name domains. Starting in September, it will accept applications for .name addresses from the approximately 80 approved registrars worldwide who compete by price and service packages.

That's why many who missed the dot-com land grab of the 1990s are lining up to get their own piece of the new digital real estate that is being opened up exclusively for individuals.

When Keith Falkenberg, 26, a purchasing agent for a Plainview electronics company, heard from a vendor about .name he sent off an e- mail to Global Name in London to get more information.

"I am going to use it once it is up and running," said Falkenberg, who was told by Global Identity that he had to apply through one of the authorized ICANN registrars. The Commack man is attracted to the idea of having an Internet residence, accessible worldwide, where he can store all his business and personal information.

"To have access to it immediately will make it a lot easier and a lot less stressful when I travel," said Falkenberg. Even better is acquiring an easy-to-remember e-mail address. "I give my e-mail out tons of times, and I can't tell you how many times I get a phone call back asking for it again," said Falkenberg.

Only names created with letters from the Roman alphabet can be registered. Initially, Global name applied to ICANN not only for .name but for more international suffixes as well, such as the Latin ".nom"; the Japanese honorific ".san"; the Mandarin denotation name ".xing"; and the Swahili word for name, ".jing." However, ICANN decided that "name" was a word recognized globally, and it will be the only one used for now.

Registration is already under way for two of the new domains: ".biz," restricted to commercial entities, and ".info" for general information sites. The four others: ".pro" for professionals such as doctors and lawyers, ".aero" for airline or space ventures, ".museum" for cultural institutions and ".coop" for cooperatives could be doing business by the end of the year.

.Name launches just as personalization in cyberspace is heating up. Nameplanet.com, which launched only a few months ago, already has 700,000 registered users of its free e-mail service that allows customized e-mails for many common surnames. It is growing at 5 percent a week.

Registration of personal domain names using the .com suffix has increased, but the availability is limited when it comes to common last names. Secondary markets that auction off these names are popping up on the Web, along with a new site that will monitor the name you desire and let you know if someone forgets to pay the renewal fee.

"What we are going to find is within three years more personal domain names will be registered than commercial domain names. And in five years there will be a significant number of personal Web sites and that will be the real tipping point for the Internet," said Robert Wiles, chief executive of pdom.com.

His New Zealand based company caters exclusively to registering Web sites for individuals and families who want .com after their names. Wiles insists that .com, because it was the first, will always represent the Gold Coast of cyberaddresses.

However, all indications are that .name will be very popular.

"We are already hearing from the registrars that people are queuing up to to get their name. There is pent-up demand," said Tsai. A list of approved registrars can be found at the www.icann.org home page. All of them will have an equal chance to forward names.

For one month, from around Aug. 15 to Sept. 15, registering agents can submit applications to Global Name. Tsai estimates that "there will be millions" of names submitted and that it will take 20 days to process this first batch. During this time, in what is called the land-rush period, Global Name's computers will award the domain names on a random lottery basis. If you are a 12 year-old in Kansas with the name Julia Roberts and you beat the movie star to punch in getting the name, it is yours. "We are all waiting to see who gets john.smith," said Brandis.

The only names that can't be registered are Jesus Christ and Santa Claus, said Tsai.

All .name domains can be used only for personal use. It is the only domain name that gives preference in awarding names to individuals over corporate entities. While there will be an early registration for owners of trademarked names to ask that a certain name be placed off limits, any individual who can prove that it is also his or her legitimate name can claim it.

"Whoever owns the trademark to the name Harry Potter can remove it from the list initially, but if there happens to be a person in the world named Harry Potter, he will take preference over the trademark holder," said Tsai, who was involved with ICANN officials in setting the rules. The person who wins the Harry Potter name risks losing it if he uses the site for commercial purposes or puts up on his Web site any content that would harm or defame the brand name.

After the land rush, around Oct. 25, applicants will be notified whether they got the combination they wanted. After that, Global Name will award names on a first-come basis and applicants will be alerted almost instantaneously whether their choice is available. The first www.name site is scheduled to debut on the Web Nov. 15, according to Global Name.

Under its contract with ICANN, Global Name can charge registrars only $5.25 for each name registered. Tsai said they expect to charge $25 to $30 more for e-mail. Each fee is per year. Registrars will add their own markup for actually doing the digital paperwork but were reluctant to reveal their pricing scheme in advance. Currently, registrations of a .com or .org or .net cost about $20. "The whole domain names business has gotten very competitive, very commercial," said Brandis, adding that consumers should shop around.

People are so eager to get a .name domain that the Federal Trade Commission issued a warning in May to watch out for scams guaranteeing a name for a premium fee.

Actually, the rush to lock in a name is much more competitive in other parts of the world, where certain common surnames are shared by millions of people. Comparatively, in the United States, where the mix of immigrants has resulted in more uncommon first and last name combinations, there are many names that are shared by fewer than 1,000 people, according to Wiles.

"The U.S. is the world's melting pot of names. Every surname possible in the world you will find in the U.S.," said Wiles. On his site, you can enter your name and find out how many other people, in a certain country, share it.

While ICANN is hoping that the second dot will allow more names to be registered and prevent the cybersquatting that plagued the awarding of the .com names, Wiles predicts the same secondary market will also come about for .name sites.

"Tens of thousands of people have the same surname and it will become a financial commodity," said Wiles. As more people want to register their names, "these names will become more tradable and valuable," he said.

Added Willes, "one person will get james.smith.name but you've still got another 46,000 James Smiths out there."