A system and method for providing a name service in a peer-to-peer environment is described. A peer group name server may be a standalone name server that may be used in peer-to-peer applications and environments. A network computing platform may be used as a basis for establishing and operating a peer-to-peer network. A peer group name server may cache information about peers, peer groups and other entities. Peers may discover other peers, peer groups and other entities through the peer group name server. A peer group name server may serve as a reverse lookup provider. A peer group name server may act as a registrar for named entities (e.g. peers) in the peer-to-peer networking environment. In one embodiment, peer group name servers may maintain information about other peer group name servers, thus making a network of decentralized peer group name servers.