Five-letter domain names are the next big thing. There are several ways we can go about this topic, but I’ll try to cover all the major points. When it comes to domain names, and naming in general, one rule always stood the test of time. The shorter, the better. No wonder domain investors would like to get their hands on a list of available 5-letter domains. It’s great for business!
Short domain names are registered
Even newby domain name speculators know that 2-letter .com domain names and even 3-letter .com domain names cost a fortune. Not only that but as I wrote in the past, their price has gone up in value!
Take three-letter .com domains as another example.
- zqm.com sold for $720 in 2004
- dzd.com sold for $1,395 in 2004
- yvq.com sold for $860 in 2005
Let’s fast-forward 11 years later.
- wbg.com sold for $44,000 in 2016
- lxb.com sold for $41,500 in 2016
- ndw.com sold for $47,000 in 2016
- ffg.com sold for $60,000 in 2016
And let’s fast-forward another 7 years.
- qiq.com sold for $25,000 in 2023 on Sedo
- mfv.com sold for $30,000 in 2023 on GoDaddy
- zcz.com sold for $3,200 in 2023 on GoDaddy (not sure why so cheap)
- ecl.com sold for $600,000 in 2023 by K-Ventures
Source: Namebio
Therefore, it is safe to assume that all two-letter .com and three-letter .com domain names are registered. The only way to get them is through a broker or in a backorder auction. This topic is outside the scope of a list of available 5-letter domains, so let’s stay on track.
How many 3-letter .com domains are there? There are a total of 17.576 3-letter .com domain names.
4-letter .com domains are registered
Obviously, 4-letter .com domain names are not as valuable as 3-letter .com domains. But they are valuable, and demand exceeds supply since we’ve established with our research that all 4-letter .com domains are registered. However, we’ve also found with our second research that there are a lot of four-letter .net domain names that are available for registration! From this research, I think it is safe to assume that due to .com popularity, only .com 4L’s are registered, and other TLDs have available four-letter domain names.
How many 4-letter .com domains are there? There are a total of 456.976 4-letter .com domain names.
I am wondering if a good or a great four-letter dot something is worth more than a bad four-letter .com domain name. We would have to compare these domains on a case by case. But I guess it is safe to say that a domain name like CARS .net is worth more than a domain name like LAEQ .com. Anyway, let’s get back to our 5-letter .com domain names now that finally, we got 2-letters, 3-letters, and 4-letters out of the way.
5-letter .com domain names, are they available?
Even a modest manual domain search (as opposed to programmatic, machine, or API domain search) will find 5-letter .com domain names that are available. Most of these are worthless, and the only thing going for them is they sound good, and they are short. I meant to say that they are easy to pronounce and remember. If the five-letter word means something (video, words, earth, robot), rest assured this .com domain name is registered and sometimes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
For the occasional domain flipper looking for a quick buck, I am not saying it’s the right approach… but should someone look to register a domain name for $9.15 and then try to resell it, finding an available 5-letter .com domain name could become a difficult task. Well, if you are going to do millions of domain availability checks manually, you are in for a lot of work and not such great returns. Well, how many five-letter .com domain names are there?
List of 5-letter domains sold in 2023
How many 5-letter .com domain names are there?
Similar to our 4-letter .com research, we will not take into account numbers and dashes. Only letters in the English alphabet. Since there are 26 letters of the English alphabet, we can calculate that there are 11.881.376 5-letter .com domain names. If you ask me, that’s a lot of domain names. Contrary to earlier examples, supply exceeds the demand, and many 5-letter .com domain names are available.
It is very hard to guess how many of these domain names are available for registration. Since so many of them exist, it is also very hard to put a dollar value on them. Most of them are probably worthless. How much would you pay for xhqzz.com? Probably not much. I doubt it’s worth more than the $9.15 registration cost. Having said that, some of these may be interesting, and the only way to evaluate is to find available ones with an API and then decide if they are worth something.
How can I get a list of available 5-letter domains?
Probably the best way to get a list of available 5-letter domains is to use a Domain Availability API and then programmatically check all 11.881.376 5-letter .com domain names. The API will then come up with a list of available 5-letter domains. This list will still be very large (possibly millions of domain names) and very hard to work with. Think about it. Even if just 50% of 5-letter .com domain names are still available for registration, that’s more than five million domain names. To go through such a list would take hours if not days.
With such a challenge, it would probably be better to build some sort of advanced domain checker that allows you to sort and filter these domain names. For example, this domain checker could sort and filter available 5-letter .com domain names by;
- sequence CVCVC (consonant-vowel, consonant-vowel, consonant),
- repeating letters (AAxxx, or xxAAA)
- keyword and a letter combination (xDOGx or xxDOG, DOGxx)
- possibly cross-check with a list of keywords, although I suspect all these to be registered already (video, mouse, sales)
- choose TLD from .com to .net and other popular TLDs
Such an advanced domain checker can be built only by a computer engineer. Because of that, if you don’t understand how to use a Whois API, you would need to hire a computer programmer on Upwork, LinkedIn, or some other HR website. Have them build this tool, and then get your hands on an updated list of available 5-letter domains.
5-letter domains for sale
If all this forced you to give up, and you just want to buy a 5-letter domain name that’s for sale, I hear you! Working with millions of domain names will do that to you. If you realize that all the great .com domains are registered, you might venture further into the unknown and pick a less popular TLD. Instead of .com, you could opt for .net or some new top-level domain. Either way, you will surely find a specialized marketplace that is asking for several thousand dollars to sell you a good 5-letter domain name.
List of available 5-letter domains for sale
My experience with selling 5-letter .com domains
Now I don’t pretend to be a domain investor. But before website investing, I did make some side money from flipping domains. In the past, I’ve registered several five-letter .com domain names. For a couple of those domains, I’ve even created unique logos (Rihor.com, oebar.com pictured above), but I wasn’t able to sell them. What happened to these domain names? Well, once I let them expire, as I explained in detail in my recent article “Domain Life Cycle,” these domains were picked up, or should I say registered automatically, by my domain registrar. The asking price is even higher than what I was asking for.
Will they ever be sold, or dropped again, remains to be seen. Maybe I lacked patience back then, and the domain registrar knew something I didn’t.
Where can I find 5-letter domains for sale?
There are a couple of ways to buy five-letter domain names. You either find them yourself or buy one for sale. Here are a few quality places to find these domains:
- Marketplaces such as eBay, Sedo, Flippa,
- Forums such as Namepros or DNForum
- Specialized domain brokers such as Brandbucket, Brandpa
- Use a Domain Availability API and check all the 5-letter domain names
Available 5-letter .com domain name example
A small list of available 5-letter domains
And finally, here’s a small list of available 5-letter domains. How do we know these are available for registration? A simple whois check will show that these domains are not in the registry. Above is an example screenshot of what that looks like.
- myucy.com
- wyvus.com
- babav.com
- jytah.com
- ylsoi.com
- irzyy.com
- irzky.com
- irzby.com
- irzvy.com
And now, imagine going through millions of similar domain names. I deliberately posted very similar (the last four on the list of available 5-letter domains) so that you see the problem when looking for an available 5-letter .com domain name. Right away, you see that you need an advanced tool that will help you filter and search through these domain names. I also hope that now you think my domain names rihor.com and oebar.com don’t sound as bad as the list you just saw.
One could wonder, what’s all the interest around 5-letter .com domain names anyway? Well, 5 Letter domain names are some of the most sought-after domains on the internet. Just think for a second…How many billion-dollar companies have a brand with only 5 letters? Here’s a list of large companies using 5-letter domains:
- Nokia.com
- Pepsi.com
- Honda.com
- Apple.com
- Heinz.com
- Fedex.com
- Nikon.com
- Canon.com
- Coach.com
- Prada.com
- Yahoo.com
- Gucci.com
- Acura.com
This is not a new trend, since back in January 2011, Shane Cultra wrote:
You’ve heard me preaching to the skies about good 5 letter dot coms selling regularly at $1500 to $3000 and every once in a while a little more if you have an eager buyer. Every week it seems 5 or 6 names pop in the top sellers list. This week was no different. I was the seller of a 5 letter dot com in the last two weeks’ list. To the people that say there were millions of 5 letters that didn’t sell, you are actually giving me a compliment. All you’re saying is out of the millions of names only these sold, yet I sold two of them. Pretty good odds if you ask me, and I do this regularly. Take a look at this past weeks’ 5 letter dot com sales and their prices.
Kalev.com $9000
Luren.com $9287
Buyos.com $3022
Lufin.com $2686
Kords.com $1999
Himal.com $1750
Amarc.com $1600
Yooby.com $1500
Xotox.com $1300
Joota.com $1000
Mokoo.com $800
Bricos.com $800
5 letter domains are a great branding opportunity for you and your business. Investing in something short that is easy to remember, spell, and share via word of mouth makes sense. Hopefully, you have enough tips and resources to acquire your first LLLLL.com or sell one for a profit!
