The second level domain is the portion of a domain name that is owned by the domain name registrant.  For example, in the following URL:http://www.etoys.com "etoys" is the second level domain, while "com" is the top level domain.  The combination of a top level and second level domain name is unique.  For example, there can only be one etoys.com, even though there can be multiple etoys second level domains (e.g. etoys.org, etoys.net, etoys.ca, etc.)