More than 13,000 people across Republic yesterday joined almost a million fellow Europeans in the race for a .eu internet domain name.

Both Germany and the UK each saw more than 240,000 people register .eu domains, according to EURid, a non-profit appointed by the European Commission to oversee the registration process.

The .eu suffix is the newest addition to a list of choices for domain names, including .com and other geographical-based domains such as .ie.

Yesterday marked the first time members of the public within the EU could register for the domain.

Previously, registration was open to public bodies and holders of a trademark. Since December EURid has had more than 300,000 applications.

Within the first four hours of yesterday more than 702,000 new names were registered online at a rate of 76 per second during the first hour.

Those interested in a .eu name applied through one of the accredited registrars, of which there are over 1,000.

In Ireland registration fees varied by company and could be as low as €12.50 among the six accredited registrars.

"It's been busy, but it hasn't been hectic," said a spokeswoman for BT Communications Ireland, one of the registrars. The company, which deals mainly with business requests, had seen a "mild response" yesterday.

Others said the demand exceeded expectations.

There had been a "huge bulk" of applications, according to a spokeswoman for EU Internet Domains.

Almost 50 per cent of those who applied through EU Internet were from outside Ireland, though, mainly from Germany, the UK and the Netherlands, the company said.