Domain Name Requirements

Only departments and administrative offices of Georgetown University are eligible to apply for domain names. All applications are reviewed by the Office of Communications and UIS.

Please review our Domain Name Service (DNS) request guidelines before requesting your domain.

  • If the domain name is for a web service or site, the web site must be ready and available for review.
  • Domain names must be appropriate under the Computer Systems Acceptable Use Policy.
  • Domain names may not be too broad or misleading. Example: teaching.georgetown.edu is too broad to be granted to an individual academic department.
  • Non-Georgetown domains will not be hosted on Georgetown servers. Non-Georgetown domains should point directly from the domain service to the URL of the site. Example: domain.com will not be resolved by UIS DNS servers or UIS web servers. You should work with your domain source to point the domain to a specific URL such as www.georgetown.edu/path/to/my/site.
  • Georgetown domains names may be hosted by Georgetown servers only. Requests for non-Georgetown hosting of domains will be reviewed separately by the Office of Communications and UIS. Example: domain.georgetown.edu will not be forwarded to an external server by UIS DNS servers or UIS web servers.
  • Domain names that may be needed by another department require the approval of the appropriate groups. Example: english.georgetown.edu will not be granted without the approval of the English Department.
  • Domain names will not be granted for individual persons. Example: johnsmith.georgetown.edu will not be granted for John Smith’s personal web site.
  • Domain names may not contain dates for one-time events.
  • Requests within SFS require approval by the SFS webmaster. Requests within the Medical Center may be subject to review by the GUMC Office of Communications. Example: alzheimerscenter.gumc.georgetown.edu would need to be reviewed by GUMC Office of Communications.
  • Domain names are limited to 20 characters, before .georgetown.edu.
  • Each domain name must use either acronyms, initialisms, or full words. Example: univinfserv.georgetown.edu will not be granted; use uis.georgetown.edu.
  • Domain names must consist of only numbers and letters. Domain names for internal servers may also include hyphens (“-“), but the domain name cannot begin or end with a hyphen. Example: sfs-faculty.georgetown.edu will not be granted if this domain is meant to be accessible to the public.
  • Domain names may not be slogans or taglines.
  • Domain names may not contain trademarked brand names.
  • Domain names that are clearly repetitive will not be granted. Example: alumniof2002.georgetown.edu is one of many similar names; a better alternative would be alumni.georgetown.edu/2002.
  • A second domain name starting with www will not be created. Example: if your request for domain.georgetown.edu is approved, an additional domain www.domain.georgetown.edu will not be created.
  • Student organizations are not eligible for domain names, and should work with the Center for Student Engagement to add or update their organization on Hoyalink.