The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) maintains lists of reserved and restricted domain names that are not available for registration in the .CA registry. These restrictions help protect important geographic, governmental, and structural domain names within the Canadian domain space.

These lists include, but are not limited to, the following:

Top-Level and Generic Domain Names

Certain country codes and generic domain formats are reserved. This includes:

• The Canadian country code top-level domain .ca

• Certain generic three-letter domain names such as .com.ca, .org.ca, .net.ca, .edu.ca, .gov.ca, .int.ca, and .mil.ca

The .mil.ca domain is reserved for and registered in the name of the Canadian Federal Government Department of National Defence.

Specific Reserved Names

The following names are reserved and cannot be registered:

• village.ca

• hamlet.ca

• town.ca

• city.ca

• ville.ca

Names of Canada and Provincial or Territorial Abbreviations

The names of Canada and all Canadian provinces and territories, including their officially adopted abbreviations, are reserved.

Applicants for a fourth-level domain name registration who wish to use the abbreviation for Newfoundland and Labrador must use .nl instead of .nf.

Municipal Names

Municipal names listed in the Canadian Geographical Names Data Base (CGNDB) may also be restricted. This includes names classified as:

• city

• ville

• town

• village

• hamlet

• hameau

• other municipal or district area – major agglomeration

• autre zone municipale / de district – agglomerations majeure

• other municipal or district area – miscellaneous

• autre zone municipale / de district – divers

To register a municipal domain name:

• The applicant must be the corresponding government entity.

• The registrant field must contain the full legal name of the applicant.

• The domain name must comply with all other provisions of CIRA’s policies.

• Municipal names containing multiple words must be registered as a single word.

If more than one municipality is eligible to apply for the same domain name, the applicant must obtain consent from all other eligible municipalities.

If a municipal name is the same as the name of a Canadian province or territory, it may only be registered as a fourth-level domain name.

Municipal domain names cannot be transferred to another party without CIRA’s prior written consent.

Other Reserved Domain Names

CIRA may determine that other domain names should be reserved or restricted at its sole discretion.

CIRA reserves the right to periodically review and amend its reserved and restricted name lists and may grant registrations of certain names where appropriate.

In some cases, geographical names may be made available to the corresponding government entities under special conditions determined by CIRA.

Second-Level Domain Registrations

Only second-level .CA domain registrations (for example, mydomain.ca) are currently available for new registrations.

Existing third-level or fourth-level .CA domains may continue to be renewed by their current registrants.