Taking over a free domain name?

  • Unknown's avatar
    storiesmadebymegan · Member ·

    Hoping the community can help me, as the only official support option of the AI chatbot gave conflicting answers.

    There was a free domain name I wanted (examplename.wordpress.com), and someone else occupied it but hadn’t been using it in years. I asked if she wouldn’t mind freeing it up. At first she deleted it, and the domain was still unavailable. Then she restored it and changed it to something else (e.g. examplename001.wordpress.com).

    The original domain name (examplename.wordpress.com) still is showing up as not available on my end.

    Will it become available for selection again, and if so, how long will it take? I really would like to get my site up and running, but I don’t want to distribute a URL that I intend to change as soon as possible.

    WP.com: Yes
    Jetpack: No
    Correct account: Yes

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to moderators and staff)

  • Unknown's avatar
    elcristofue · Member ·

    Hello, @storiesmadebymegan! Thanks for letting us know about this.

    Unfortunately, WordPress.com site addresses cannot be reused, as you can see here:

    https://wordpress.com/support/changing-site-address/#reuse-other-word-press-com-site-addresses

    Another solution is to create a custom domain, such as examplename.blog, which is available for purchase and can be used as your primary domain with our paid plans.

    I also want to mention that with our yearly plans, you’ll receive a free domain credit for one year, which you can use to register a custom domain of your choice. If that sounds interesting, you can take a look at our available plans here:

    https://wordpress.com/pricing/

    Please let us know if you have any questions or need any extra help, and we’ll be happy to assist you.

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