Namecoins are a token-like currency used to register and update Namecoin names. If you want to register a Namecoin name, you’ll need to obtain some namecoins.

Prerequisites

To get namecoins, you first need a Namecoin wallet.

Exchanges

The easiest way to get namecoins is to purchase them on an exchange. See the list of exchanges.

You can check current Namecoin prices at CryptoCoinCharts, current Namecoin prices at Bisq, and Namecoin historical price charts at BitcoinWisdom.

Mining

If you don’t wish to purchase namecoins on an exchange, you can also mine them.

Namecoins can be mined in the same way as bitcoins. However, it is recommended to do merged mining, i.e. namecoins are mined as a free by-product of Bitcoin mining.

Only a few mining pools offer merged-mining, see Comparison of Mining Pools and check the “Merged Mining” column. Ask your favorite Bitcoin pool to offer merged mining of Namecoin in case they don’t.

You can also run your own mining pool. Eloipool and P2Pool software has support for merged mining.

If you don’t have specialized hardware (ASICs) for Bitcoin mining, consider mining a CPU-friendly or GPU-friendly coin and then exchanging it for NMC (or for BTC and then NMC).