Who is responsible for managing domain names?

A non-profit organization called Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is responsible for DNS management, IP address allocation, and managing databases related to namespaces – all that in accordance to highest security standards.

So, whenever someone as a registrant tries to register a domain name, this request goes through either a reseller or a registrar, and then reaches registries that check if the domain name is available and provide name servers. ICANN oversees the assignment of IP addresses and domain names, thus providing the foundation of WHOIS information.