An international rush for personalised e-mail addresses has seen more than 50,000 people register under the new .me domain name in just two days.

The release of the .me suffix will allow users to have bespoke e-mail and web addresses.

The chance for people to create a unique space on the internet has broad appeal and many of the most popular first names and surnames have already gone.

It costs as little as £12.49 a year to register a .me domain name through dozens of official registries in Britain and abroad. The minimum “rental” period is two years.

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The .me domain name was previously assigned to Montenegro after the country gained independence in June 2006. But the country, like Tuvalu (.tv) before it, saw the potential profit in selling off its domain name for general use.

The .me registry officially opened for live registrations on July 17. More than 5,000 were registered in the first minute and more than 50,000 new domain names were registered in the first two days. The first “live” name registered was yusu.me.

Companies were given the chance to register brand name-associated domain names such as apple.me in the earlier “sunrise” period of registration, while premium names such as insure.me were quickly snapped up during the “landrush” period, when anyone could register interest in an address.

Registrations have now entered the “live” phase, in which addresses can be registered and allocated immediately. Registrations are handled on a first-come, first-served basis.

Matt Mansell, managing director of Mesh Digital, which runs the domainmonster.com registry, estimated that 90 per cent of the registrations his company has handled so far in the live phase were personal names.

“I have registered katy.me for my wife. She can have an e-mail address now of me@katy.me. Lots of people are thinking along the same lines,” he said.

He said the .me domain name was a great opportunity for anyone thinking of setting up a blog or a personal website.

“Of course, someone will have picked up a baby names book and registered most of the names in it,” he added.

Half of the new registrations were in the United States with Britain second with 11 per cent.

Many domain name suffixes have failed to gain general popularity. The domain .name is available but has failed to catch the public imagination.

Jonathan Robinson, chief operating officer at NetNames, said: “The area of domain names shows a lot of unfulfilled promise. People in the UK have never really understood that they don’t have to be linked to an internet service provider such as Yahoo! or Tiscali for their e-mail address.

“.me is short, personal and memorable. It is perfect for the social networking generation. If companies and people want to represent themselves and their brands, this is a great opportunity,” he said.

Predrag Lesic, CEO of the .me registry in Montenegro, said the .me suffix would appeal not only in English-speaking countries but also across the former Yugoslavia, Italy and Spanish-speaking countries, where the letters “me" have a similar meaning as in English.

“We think .me can offer a new business around domain names with verbs," Mr Lesic said, such as drive.me or fly.me. “This is the start of a new opportunity on the internet.”

The number of .me registrations is predicted to rise into the millions over time.

Some of the names already registered include: blinddate.me, bankwith.me, squash.me, sponsor.me and, inevitably, bonk.me.

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