.TJMAXX is not recognized as a top-level domain (TLD). TLDs are the last segment of a domain name, the letters immediately following the final dot in an Internet address. The most common top-level domains are .com, .net, and .org. These are called generic TLDs (gTLDs). Other less commonly used gTLDs include .gov (used by U.S. government agencies), .edu (used by educational institutions), .mil (used by the U.S. military), among others.
The part of a domain name that immediately precedes the TLD is called a second-level domain (SLD). In the case of www.tjmaxx.com, .com is the TLD while tjmaxx is the SLD. The SLD is what most people think of as the “domain name” or the “name” of a website.
While many companies and organizations have their names as part of the SLD of their Internet address, it is crucial to note that these aren’t TLDs. You can’t get a .tjmaxx for your website. There are restrictions and specific rules about who can register a TLD and how they can be used.
Since 2011, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization in charge of managing the Internet’s Domain Name System, started to allow organizations to apply for new gTLDs. Some companies like Barclays and Canon have seized the opportunity to register their brand names as gTLDs, resulting in domains like .barclays and .canon.
Yet, until now, TJX Companies, the parent company of T.J. Maxx, has neither applied for nor secured .tjmaxx as a TLD. Perhaps they decided that the benefits of having a unique TLD don’t outweigh the costs, or they simply prefer to stick with the more recognized .com domain.
Only very few big organizations have ventured to get their brand names as TLDs. For the majority of companies, sticking to the more common gTLDs or country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs), such as .uk for the United Kingdom and .au for Australia, is the norm.
The above information is sourced from ICANN’s information on Top-Level Domains (https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/tlds-2012-02-25-en) and a paper from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy that explains new gTLDs (https://shorensteincenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/2011_03_top_level_domain\_name.pdf).
