Nation Name Reservation: In NationStates, when a nation isn't active (logged in) for 28 days, it ceases to exist, but the owner can still come back and restore it just by entering the password. After a long period of inactivity, though, the nation's name may be made available for re-use, so someone else can create a new nation using the same name. In that case, the older nation is permanently retired as "Ancient" and can no longer be restored.

Current site rules allow nation name re-use after five years of inactivity in nations with a population under 500 million. Site Supporter nations are permanently reserved and their names can never be re-used.