Good to know
You need ETH on Ethereum Mainnet for gas — no other cost.
Only the wallet set as the name's ETH Address can set it as Primary.
If you're on the Manager wallet but not the ETH Address wallet, expect two transactions.
Open app.ens.domains, find your name, click Set as Primary Name, and approve in your wallet. That makes apps show yourname.eth instead of your 0x address. You'll need a bit of ETH on Ethereum Mainnet for gas — no other cost.
Before you start
You need three things:
ETH on Ethereum Mainnet for gas.
The right wallet connected. Only the wallet that's set as the name's ETH Address can set it as Primary. The ETH Address is the wallet your name points at — apps use it to know which wallet owns
yourname.eth.A few minutes for the transaction to confirm.
If you don't know which wallet is the ETH Address, open the name's Profile tab in the ENS App and look at the ETH Address row.
Steps
Open the ENS App. Go to app.ens.domains and connect your wallet.
Find your name. Search for it and open the Profile tab.
Click Set as Primary Name. If you don't see the button, skip ahead to "If you're on the Manager wallet but not the ETH Address wallet" below.
Approve in your wallet. Sign the transaction. It confirms in 1–2 minutes.
Check it landed. While you're connected with the wallet that set it, you'll see a "Your Primary Name" badge on the profile — that's your own confirmation, other visitors don't see this badge.
yourname.ethalso appears in the top-right of the ENS App.
If you're on the Manager wallet but not the ETH Address wallet
The Manager is the wallet that controls a name's records — it can change the ETH Address, set text records, and so on. The ETH Address is the wallet the name points at for receiving funds and for being shown as Primary. These can be two different wallets.
If you're on the Manager but not the ETH Address wallet, you have two options:
Switch wallets. Connect with the wallet that's set as the ETH Address, then run steps 3 and 4 above.
Point the ETH Address at your current wallet. Only do this if you actually want the new wallet to be the ETH Address — once you change it, funds sent to
yourname.ethgo to the new wallet, and the old wallet stops receiving them. If you want to keep the current ETH Address, switch wallets instead.
To change the ETH Address (two approvals in your wallet):
Click Start. The ENS App walks you through the ETH Address update.
Approve in your wallet. Wait for the transaction to confirm (1–2 minutes).
Click Next. Now you're on the Primary Name step.
Approve a second time.
When both land, the badge and the top-right show your name.
Primary Names on Base, Arbitrum, and other L2s
You can set a different Primary Name on each network — Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, and others. Useful if you want a different name per chain, or if your contract has different wallets across chains. The L2 flow runs on those chains, not Mainnet.
Where your name shows up
ENS App — top-right corner and on the profile, right after the transaction confirms.
Wallets and dApps that read ENS records in real time — usually right away.
Etherscan, OpenSea, and other third-party sites — within 24 to 48 hours. They cache on their own schedule and refresh later.
If yourname.eth shows in the top-right of the ENS App, the onchain record is set. The rest is downstream caching.
Troubleshooting
The Set as Primary Name button is missing.
You're not on the wallet set as the name's ETH Address. Either switch to that wallet, or follow the two-step path above to point the ETH Address at your current wallet.
The transaction didn't go through.
Check that you have enough ETH on Ethereum Mainnet for gas. If your wallet popup never showed, refresh the page and reconnect.
An old or expired name is still showing as my Primary Name somewhere.
Some apps cache old Primary Name values. Clear your Primary Name from the ENS App to write a fresh onchain state; the other apps catch up over the next day or two.
My Primary Name shows in the ENS App but not on Etherscan or OpenSea.
Those sites cache for 24 to 48 hours. If the ENS App shows it, the onchain record is set.
What's next?
Check someone else's Primary Name: search the ENS name or Ethereum address in the ENS App, then open the More tab.