diff --git a/tests/validations.test.js b/tests/validations.test.js
index cc4b7bc02..219b58a2b 100644
--- a/tests/validations.test.js
+++ b/tests/validations.test.js
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ describe('validateDomainData', () => {
     { ...defaultDomain, name: 'a.b' },
     { ...defaultDomain, name: 'ww2.baa' },
     { ...defaultDomain, name: 'help.baa' },
+    { ...defaultDomain, name: '_github-pages-challenge-is-a-dev' },
   ];
 
   const validCases = [
@@ -78,6 +79,9 @@ describe('validateDomainData', () => {
     { ...defaultDomain, record: { A: ['1.1.1.1'], MX: ['mx1.example.com'] } },
     { ...defaultDomain, name: 'gogo.foo.bar' },
     { ...defaultDomain, name: 'ww9.baa' },
+    { ...defaultDomain, name: '_github-pages-challenge-phenax.akshay' },
+    { ...defaultDomain, name: '_github-pages-challenge-hello01-ga' },
+    { ...defaultDomain, name: '_github-pages-challenge-hello01_ga' },
   ];
 
   it('should return false for invalid data', () => {
diff --git a/utils/invalid-domains.json b/utils/invalid-domains.json
index 92c127064..1c75c632d 100644
--- a/utils/invalid-domains.json
+++ b/utils/invalid-domains.json
@@ -11,5 +11,6 @@
   "ww1",
   "ww2",
   "ww3",
-  "ww4"
+  "ww4",
+  "_github-pages-challenge-is-a-dev"
 ]
diff --git a/utils/validations.js b/utils/validations.js
index 057aa4173..2a31a538a 100644
--- a/utils/validations.js
+++ b/utils/validations.js
@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@ const validateMXRecord = type => and([
   R.propSatisfies(R.all(isValidDomain), type),
 ]);
 
+const checkRestrictedNames = R.complement(R.includes(R.__, INVALID_NAMES))
+
 const validateDomainData = validate({
   name: {
     reason: 'The name of the file is invalid. It must be lowercased, alphanumeric and each component must be more than 2 characters long',
@@ -33,10 +35,16 @@ const validateDomainData = validate({
       and([
         R.is(String),
         R.compose(
-          R.all(and([
-            R.compose(between(2, 100), R.length),
-            testRegex(/^[a-z0-9-]+$/g),
-            R.complement(R.includes(R.__, INVALID_NAMES)),
+          R.all(or([
+            and([
+              testRegex(/^_github-pages-challenge-[a-z0-9-_]+$/i), // Exception for github verification records
+              checkRestrictedNames,
+            ]),
+            and([
+              R.compose(between(2, 100), R.length),
+              testRegex(/^[a-z0-9-]+$/g),
+              checkRestrictedNames,
+            ])
           ])),
           R.split('.'),
         ),