Irish Domain Registry (IEDR) chief executive David Curtin said he was "surprised" that fewer than 100 sole traders, professionals, politicians or trademark holders who use their personal names in public life had applied to protect them with an online registration under existing non-personal toplevel domain categories. The IEDR announced personal name registrations in early September and the service went live last week after a seven-week period of grace for individuals or companies whose names are well known.

Some household names such as political figures Bertie Ahern, Mary Harney, Enda Kenny and Mary McAleese have been registered, as well as trade names like as John Jameson of whiskey fame.

However other high-profile business and political names appearing on news pages last week had not registered their names at the time of going to print. These include financier Dermot Desmond, Northern Ireland first minister Ian Paisley, former broadcaster Gay Byrne, and master brewer Arthur Guinness.

"There's been a surprising lack of application for personal-name domain names since September when we said this deadline was coming and from now on it's first come first served, " said Curtin.

This means although an individual may own a trade name in the format of an individual's name, for example 'Joe Bloggs', as the title of a business or product, the first 'Joe Bloggs' to register who backs up his application with identification or named utility bill will reserve that web address.

"If there's any problem with this further down the line our message won't be just 'tough luck'. . . but [they] have had ten years to register any business names, " said Curtin.

In early September the IEDR wrote to several associations and professional bodies to forewarn them of the relaxation of dot-ie registration rules. These included the Small Firms Association, Ibec, the Irish Council of General Practitioners, Engineers Ireland, the Society of Chartered Surveyors, the Law Society of Ireland, the Association of Patent and Trademark Attorneys, the Institute of Certified Public Accounts in Ireland, the ACCA, CIMA Ireland, the Institute of Incorporated Public Accounts, the ICAI, the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland, the Insurance Institute of Ireland, Dublin Chamber of Commerce, the Irish Taxation Institute and the IAVI.

The IEDR said personal dot-ie domain names had been introduced for a variety of reasons including the increasing popularity of social networking sites and personal blogging, as well as increasing broadband take-up.

Individuals can now register a dot-ie domain directly from the IEDR for 69.99 a year, or for less from domain resellers. To authenticate a claim to the domain name, applicants must prove their identity and "prove they have a real and substantive connection to the island of Ireland", according to the registry.