What is the Primary name?
The Primary name is your reverse record responsible for resolving your wallet address to your ENS name, effectively helping DApps and other services display your ENS name based on your Ethereum wallet address.
The easiest way to understand it is to consider that name resolution works in two directions:
Forward resolution
Forward resolution is simply where your name points to and is determined by the ETH Address record set on your ENS name.
Reverse resolution
Reverse resolution is where your wallet points to and is determined by the Primary name record set in your wallet.
How to set a Primary name
In this guide we'll show you how to set up your Primary Name.
Setting a name as Primary in your wallet is usually a simple affair, but it can be a little complicated if:
The name was registered using a third-party service that didn't set the Resolver and ETH Address records by default.
The name was purchased on a secondary market and the ETH Address record is still set to the previous owner's wallet.
If either of these applies to you, then you can solve it by following the Prerequisites section below.
Prerequisites
In order to set an ENS name as Primary there are two prerequisites:
You must have a Resolver record set. This can be the ENS Public Resolver smart contract or a custom resolver.
The ETH Address record must be set to the wallet you're setting the Primary on.
Step 1: Set the Resolver
Go to your ENS name in the ENS Manager App and click the More tab.
On the More tab make sure that the Resolver record there is set to either of these contract addresses:
The new ENS Public Resolver contract:
0x231b0Ee14048e9dCcD1d247744d114a4EB5E8E63
The old ENS Public Resolver contract:
0x4976fb03C32e5B8cfe2b6cCB31c09Ba78EBaBa41
The old ENS Public Resolver contract will continue to work and should not cause any issues.
If it's not set to one of the addresses above, click the Edit button next to the Resolver.
Select Use Latest Resolver and click Update and then approve the transaction in your wallet.
Step 2: Set the ETH Address record
Go to the ENS Manager App with the wallet set as Manager for the ENS name you want to manage and click Names to bring up a list of your ENS names or search for an ENS name you own directly from the main page.
Click the ENS name you want to add records to.
Go to the Records tab
Click Edit Records
Switch to the Address tab
Click Add Address
Set the Primary Name
Make sure you are logged in with your wallet. Then click on your logged in account, then click Settings.
If the logged in wallet does not have a Primary set, you will see Choose primary name.
If you already have a Primary set, you can change it in the same Settings page for the logged in account. You will see a button that says Change. You can also click Remove to un-associate your wallet to an existing Primary name.
Pick the ENS name from the list. You will see not just names your wallet owns, but also names your wallet may be the manager of. Then click Next.
You will see a summary of the required transactions. The ENS Manager App will perform the necessary changes to enable the Primary name setting for your logged in wallet. Click Start to begin the process.
Verify that it works
Visit a few different services and verify that your Primary name is working correctly:
ENS Manager
The ENS Manager App will show your Primary name and the Avatar set on it in the top-right corner, along with your wallet address.
Uniswap
Uniswap will show your Primary name and its Avatar in the top-right corner as well!
OpenSea
OpenSea shows your Primary name on your user's page next to your wallet address.
Note: OpenSea's systems are very slow to update to reflect any changes, please allow at least 24 hours for the Primary name to show.
Etherscan
Etherscan will show your Primary name in the to and from address sections in the transaction list:
And also on top of the wallet overview:
