The IT Nerd

The AI domain rush is losing momentum, but AI naming is far from over. 

New data from Hostinger, which now manages more than 10 million domains for customers, shows AI-related registrations lagged the market in April–September 2026. Instead, people turned to more practical themes like home, energy and creative projects.

Hostinger, an agentic platform for online business growth, analyzed more than 6.2 million domain registrations from October 2025 to September 2026. Comparing April–September 2026 with the previous six months, total registrations grew 6.7%, while AI-related registrations grew only 1.5%. They peaked in March: by September, AI-related registrations were 12% above their October level, while total registrations were 23% above. 

AI-related names grew in 26 of the 45 countries measured. The growth was concentrated in Asia, where AI-related registrations across 12 markets outside India rose 24%, led by Thailand (+47%), Pakistan (+44%) and Vietnam (+42%). In Europe, they fell 6%, with only three of 14 countries growing. The biggest markets also weighed on the total: India grew 3.6%, while the US (−6.6%) and Brazil (−14.5%) fell.

The fastest growth came from practical themes. Home and environment names rose 22.5%, moving from the sixth-largest theme in the first half to the third-largest in August and September. Energy and power (+13.6%) and creative and studios (+10.8%) followed. Crypto and web3 fell 14.1%, and gambling and betting fell 13.6%.

Yet AI is still shaping how people name things. Registrations containing “agent” rose 14.6% and those containing “agentic” rose 16.7%, even as the AI theme as a whole grew just 1.5%. ICANN’s newly published list of applicationsfor new domain extensions points the same way: .agent is tied for the most contested string in the round, with 13 applicants, alongside .lab and .labs, which have 13 between them (7 and 6). 

By comparing the two datasets, Hostinger found that interest in new domain extensions doesn’t always match what people and businesses are actually registering today. Applicants filed 22 applications for 8 crypto words, and every one of those words fell in Hostinger registrations, from wallet (−1.6%) to bitcoin (−35.4%). All proposed extensions are still awaiting evaluation, so none has been approved yet. 

A separate analysis of .si, Slovenia’s country-code ending, shows the same shift. After a White House executive order signed on September 29 directed federal agencies to use “super intelligence” (SI) instead of “AI”, Hostinger customers registered almost 35,000 .si domains in just two weeks. Only about 3% of those names contain explicit AI terms, while 13% are short names, suggesting demand for the ending itself, as AI hype moves toward new terminology.

Domain registrations do not prove that every name represents a launched business or that a particular trend will last. But they offer a view into the language people choose when taking ideas online. In 2026, that language is practical, and the vocabulary of AI is evolving from agent to agentic to SI.

“The AI boom isn’t over, it’s changing shape. The word ‘AI’ alone is no longer driving registrations, but the vocabulary around it is spreading, from ‘agentic’ to, most recently, ‘SI’. For businesses, the advice is simple: when a new ending or trend takes off, secure your key names early. Defending a name costs far less time, effort, and money than reclaiming it later,” said Klaudijus Januitis, Head of Domains at Hostinger. registered almost 35,000 .si domains in just two weeks.

Only about 3% of those names contain explicit AI terms, while 13% are short names, suggesting demand for the ending itself, as AI hype moves toward new terminology.

Domain registrations do not prove that every name represents a launched business or that a particular trend will last. But they offer a view into the language people choose when taking ideas online. In 2026, that language is practical, and the vocabulary of AI is evolving from agent to agentic to SI.

“The AI boom isn’t over, it’s changing shape. The word ‘AI’ alone is no longer driving registrations, but the vocabulary around it is spreading, from ‘agentic’ to, most recently, ‘SI’. For businesses, the advice is simple: when a new ending or trend takes off, secure your key names early. Defending a name costs far less time, effort, and money than reclaiming it later,” said Klaudijus Januitis, Head of Domains at Hostinger.

Methodology

Hostinger analyzed domain registrations between October 2025 and September 2026. The analysis excludes refunded and unregistered domains and transfers, and groups second-level domains into 20 thematic categories using keyword matching. Growth figures compare April–September 2026 with October 2025–March 2026. About 35% of registrations match a keyword group, and country figures cover markets with at least 100 keyword-matched registrations in the theme in both halves. Regions are Hostinger groupings of the countries measured.Separately, Hostinger compared its keyword data with the list of applications for new top-level domains that ICANN published on October 7, 2026. Applicant counts are the number of distinct applicants with an active application for each string.

By Egidijus Navardauskas –  Head of Security at Hostinger

Weak passwords remain one of the biggest drivers of data breaches, with over 80% of incidents linked to compromised credentials. To better understand why so many passwords fail to offer real protection, Hostinger’s experts analyzed thousands of real-world entries across multiple leaked datasets. Using a combination of machine learning and behavioural analysis, we identified the most common password mistakes and why users keep making them.

Here are the top mistakes identified:

1. Using Short Passwords

Insight: 21.7% of the passwords we analyzed were under 8 characters – all of them were cracked instantly.

Why it Happens: Short passwords are quicker to type and easier to remember. But they’re also the first to fall to brute-force attacks.What You Can Do Now: Make sure your password is at least 12 characters long, ideally using a phrase or sentence you’ll remember.

2. Using “Unique” Passwords

Insight: Passwords that look unique (like “minebluecar67”) are often made from low-entropy patterns that are easy to break.Why it Happens: People choose familiar word-number combinations, thinking they’re safer than generic passwords. But these formats are highly predictable.

What You Can Do Now: Mix uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and special characters, and avoid common words or patterns.

3. “Very Weak” Doesn’t Always Mean “Short“

Insight: Even though some of these passwords were over 20 characters long, they had a 13% crack rate, making them nearly as easy to break as much shorter passwords.Why it Happens: People assume longer passwords are automatically stronger, but repetition lowers security (like “aaaaaaa” or “123123123”).

What You Can Do Now: Avoid repetition. Variety in structure is just as important as overall length.

4. Not Knowing Breached Passwords

Insight: A large portion of passwords used today still appear in the top 10 million most leaked passwords. In our study, 475 passwords matched high-frequency entries from global breach lists.

Why it Happens: People aren’t aware their credentials have been compromised, or they reuse old passwords out of habit.What You Can Do Now: Use sites like “Have I Been Pwned” to regularly check your credentials and avoid reusing any password that appears on a known breach list.

“A lot of people assume that once they’ve set up their privacy settings or chosen a strong password, they’re fully protected. But the truth is, security and privacy are ongoing processes. New threats and vulnerabilities appear constantly, and the platforms we use are always evolving. Staying safe means staying alert — regularly reviewing your privacy settings, keeping your passwords strong and unique, and making sure two-factor authentication (2FA) is active are just as important as the initial setup. Security-related settings should be maintained over time to ensure they still reflect your needs and provide the right level of protection.”