What are IDNs?

IDNs are Internationalised Domain Names, sometimes referred to as multi-lingual domain names, which contain characters from outside the standard ASCII character set (a-z, 0-9 and the hyphen).

Note:
Just because a domain name is in a language other than English, does not necessarily make it an IDN. It is only necessary to register an IDN if the word contains characters other than the standard ASCII characters.

Here is an example of two words which both come from the French language.

• Maison only contains ASCII characters (would be registered as a standard domain name)
• Château contains the non ASCII character â (would need to be registered as an IDN)

Which characters are available?

Most of the major registries now offer some level of IDN capability. Those that don't currently are expected to do so in the future. NetNames can register domains in any of the available suffixes worldwide and where the registry offers IDN capability, we can provide it.

In all, there are 39 additional character sets available, supporting over 350 languages including Arabic, Hebrew, Korean, Russian and Greek.

The registry responsible for operating each of the domain names or suffixes decides which, if any, additional characters they will offer.

For instance, .com and .net offer all major character sets including Arabic, Hebrew and Han (Chinese, Japanese, Korean ideographs); whereas many of the European suffixes, such as .de and .dk, only offer non ASCII Latin characters including accents (à, á, â etc).

Generally country code Top Level Domains (ccTLD) that offer IDN capabilities, will as a minimum support the characters required for the local languages used in that particular country (e.g. Swedish for the .se suffix and Japanese for the .jp suffix.)

How do I search and register an IDN?

NetNames website is fully IDN compatible. You can search and register IDNs from either the 'search' or 'register' links on the top of the homepage.

Process:
You simply enter the name in its native format, including any non-ASCII characters, in to the search box.

You must then specify the 'language' of the name you are trying to register by selecting it from the drop down menu. A list of domain names which support that particular language will be presented.

You then follow the steps outlined on the page, just as you would for any other domain name. The system will convert your native text in to what is known as 'punycode' and verify whether the name is available for registration.

Why must I select the 'language' from the drop down list when registering an IDN?

If registering an IDN, as well as entering the name in native text format, you must also specify the language by selecting it from the drop down list. This is because some registries are only offering subsets of character sets in order to support a particular language. Therefore you need to specify which language the name is in so that the system can confirm eligibility and availability of the domain.

For instance, the .info suffix is initially only offering three additional characters in order to support the German language. These characters are ä, ö and ü. Therefore it does not initially support the whole Latin character set.

Note: It is only necessary to select a 'language' if you are registering an IDN. If your domain does not contain any non ASCII characters, then you leave the language field blank.

If the characters your enter do not match the 'language', your order may be rejected by the registry e.g. netnâmes.com with Arabic language selected.

What is punycode?

Punycode is a method by which non-ASCII characters such as ñ, ñ, ø, used within IDNs, are converted into a format which uses only ASCII characters. This method allows a unique and reversible identification of the original domain. Punycode converted domain names are prefixed with 'xn--'. An example of this conversion is shown below for a couple of Chinese character domains (Note: The suffix remains in it's original ASCII format, .com, and is not entered in native text) :-