The State of Domains in Canada: What 100,000+ Registrations Reveal

Most domain advice is recycled and American. This isn’t. As one of Canada’s largest registrars and the home of “.CA lives here.”™, WHC has a front-row view of how the country actually comes online. What follows is drawn entirely from our own registration records, a unique look at how Canadians name, choose, and claim their corner of the internet. (A note on scope: this describes what we see at WHC, not the entire Canadian market.)

What you’ll find

• The big picture: which extensions Canadians actually register
• How Canadians build a name: length, simplicity, and the “go short” rule
• The Canadian fingerprint: spelling, Canadiana, and rising themes
• The language story: English, French, and bilingual names
• The year-over-year picture, and what it means if you’re choosing a name

1. Two extensions own the Canadian internet

For almost everyone who registers a domain at WHC, the choice comes down to two endings. Across 2020-2025, .ca and .com together made up about 94% of everything we registered. The hundreds of newer extensions (.shop, .io, .xyz and the rest) split the remaining sliver, and that share hasn’t grown in six years.

Canadians choose .ca over .com by nearly 3 to 1

Between the two, .ca dominates: 64,360 .ca versus 23,642 .com, about 73% .ca, or 2.7 to 1. For a Canadian business, .ca isn’t the backup when the .com is taken. It’s the first choice. And it’s not a passing trend: the split has held in the low-70s every single year since 2020.

WHC registrations by extension, 2020-2025.

2. Canadians name short, and they don’t change

The data is clear on one thing: Canadians keep domain names short. Not because a guide told them to, but because it’s simply what they do.

• 73% of names are 15 characters or fewer (not counting the .ca or .com). Half are 12 or fewer.
• 90% use letters only, no numbers, no hyphens.
• Just 6% use a hyphen, and under 4% use a digit. Clean names aren’t the careful choice; they’re the normal one.
• .ca names run shorter than .com (12.3 vs 14.0 characters), partly because clean short .ca names are still available, while the .com twin is often long gone.

Here’s the kicker: the ultra-short “premium” names people dream about are effectively extinct. In our entire dataset there is not one single-character name and only twelve two-character ones. Canadians register real, sayable words instead.

3. The Canadian fingerprint is in the letters

This is where the data gets distinctly Canadian. Beyond choosing a .ca, Canadians stamp their names with national identity in ways American naming guides never mention.

They keep the British spelling

When a word can be spelled two ways, the Canadian version wins decisively. In WHC’s names, “centre” outnumbers “center” about 4 to 1 (221 to 54), and “theatre” beats “theater” 52 to 1. The “u” in colour and the -re in centre survive right into the domain. (Fair caveat: “check” and “meter” win their own pairs, because those spellings double as ordinary English words.)

The maple leaf is everywhere

Canadian imagery turns up constantly. “Maple” appears in 135 names and grew tenfold over the period, from 7 in 2020 to 73 in 2025. “Cottage”, “hockey”, “moose”, “beaver”, “muskoka”, “canuck”, “poutine”, and “toque” all make regular appearances. If you can name the Canadian icon, someone has put it in a domain.

And “Canada” itself is rising fast

Names containing “canada” or “canadian” more than quadrupled, from 91 in 2020 to 415 in 2025, outpacing the overall growth in registrations. More Canadians want the country in the brand itself, not just the address.

What Canadians are building

Tracking keywords year over year doubles as a map of the Canadian small-business economy. The fastest risers tell the story of the last few years: “solar” grew more than tenfold (3 to 38), and “digital,” “real estate,” “studio,” and “construction” all climbed sharply. The trades, home, and clean-energy booms are written into the URL bar.

4. The “grab both” pattern: when one name isn’t enough

There’s a quieter pattern in the data with real commercial weight. Across the period, 11,227 names were registered on both .ca and .com, that’s 14% of all .ca names, but a striking 40% of all .com names. In other words, when a Canadian registers a .com, four times in ten it’s the twin of a .ca they’re also buying.

And they don’t agonize over it. 82% of these pairs were registered the same day, 93% within a week, with a median gap of zero days. Securing both extensions isn’t a second thought weeks later, it’s a single decision made at checkout. The demand for a .ca-plus-.com bundle is written right into the data.

5. The language story: English, French, and bilingual

Canada has two official languages, and the .ca space shows it. Looking at the real words inside .ca names, roughly 45% read as English, about 11% as French, and around 5% as bilingual, with the rest being coined or brand-built names with no dictionary word to classify.

Two things stand out. First, the French share is remarkably steady, it has hovered around 11% every year since 2020, a structural part of the Canadian web rather than a passing trend. Second, accented names are climbing: domains carrying French accents (é, è, ç, à) rose sharply over the period as registrars and browsers made them easier to use, so more francophone businesses register names exactly as they’re spelled, like massothérapie, déménagement, garderie.

A note on these figures: language is inferred from the words inside short domain strings, so treat them as directional, not precise.

6. Canadians are funnier than the stereotype

The polite, reserved reputation doesn’t survive contact with the data. There’s a real streak of wit in the names Canadians register: canuckle.ca, pineandspine.ca (a chiropractor, surely), thebeaverbyte.ca for a tech shop, nakedmoose.ca, honestpotato.ca. At the other extreme, some say everything before the dot: the longest .ca in our data runs 61 characters, a whole mission statement in a single name.

What it means if you’re choosing a name

The patterns point to a simple, evidence-backed playbook. The Canadians who name well almost all do the same handful of things:

• Choose .ca first. It’s the national default, it signals you’re local, and good names are still available.
• Keep it short. Aim for 15 characters or fewer. The average is under 13.
• Use plain letters. Skip hyphens and numbers, 90% of Canadians already do.
• Spell it the Canadian way. If your customers write “centre” or “couleur,” your domain should too.

Want the practical, step-by-step version? Read our companion guide, How to Choose the Right Domain Name (Canadian Edition). Deciding between extensions specifically? See .ca vs .com: which should a Canadian business register first? Or search domain availability and claim your name now.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most popular domain extension in Canada?

Among Canadian registrants at WHC, .ca is by far the most popular, it outnumbers .com nearly 3 to 1, and together the two make up about 94% of all registrations. The preference for .ca has held steady every year from 2020 to 2025.

Do Canadians prefer .ca or .com?

Canadians clearly prefer .ca. In WHC’s data, about 73% of .ca and .com registrations are .ca. For a Canadian business, .ca is typically the first choice, not a backup to .com.

How long is the average domain name?

In WHC’s data the average .ca or .com name is about 12.8 characters (not counting the extension), and roughly 73% are 15 characters or fewer. That has barely changed in six years.

Do Canadians use Canadian spelling in domain names?

Yes. When a word can be spelled either way, the Canadian/British spelling wins clearly, “centre” outnumbers “center” about 4 to 1 in registered .ca names.

Are short domain names better?

Shorter names are easier to remember, say, and type correctly, and they’re what Canadians overwhelmingly register. If your preferred name runs long, a tighter version is usually worth finding.