Become an IDN Registrar

Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) are second- and third-level domain names or Web addresses, represented by local language characters. The native language domain name is followed by the Latin script top-level domain (TLD) such as .com or .net. An example of an IDN is: 스타벅스코리아.com (in punycode: xn--oy2b35ckwhba574atvuzkc.com).

IDNs enable more Web users to navigate the internet in their preferred script and more companies to maintain one brand identity in many scripts. Most domain names are registered in ASCII characters (A to Z, 0 to 9, and the hyphen "-"). However, languages that require diacritics such as Spanish and French, and those that use non-Latin scripts such as Kanji and Arabic, cannot be rendered in ASCII. As a result, millions of internet users struggle to find their way online using non-native scripts and languages. IDNs improve the accessibility and functionality of the internet by enabling domain names in non-ASCII characters.

Please reference scripts and languages for more information.

To use IDNs, you must have an IDN-enabled browser. When a user enters an IDN using local language characters or follows a link, IDN-enabled applications encode the characters into an ACE string that the domain name system (DNS) understands. The DNS processes the request and returns the information to the application.

If you own a website or provide other internet-based services and would like to use IDNs to help your customers, you may register an IDN in available characters through participating ICANN-accredited and Verisign-authorized registrars. A registrant requests an IDN from a registrar that supports IDNs. The registrar converts the local-language characters into a sequence of ASCII-compatible characters using the Punycode encoding. The registrar submits the Punycode string to the Verisign® Shared Registration System (SRS), where it is verified. The IDN is added to the appropriate TLD zone files and propagated across the internet. Find a Registrar

In keeping with current domain name standards, multiple IDNs may share IP addresses.

Yes. However, just as current standards do not allow names to begin or end with a hyphen, the ASCII transformation cannot begin or end with a hyphen.

The encoded form of the IDN (including the characters for .com, .net or .name) may contain up to 67 characters. The characters may be letters, numbers or hyphens. A domain name may not begin or end with a hyphen. The IDN transformation software will reject a domain name if the encoded conversion exceeds the character limit.

By adding IDNs, registrars can expand services and potentially increase revenues with their existing infrastructure. A single .com domain name may be registered in as many as 350 different native languages.

To offer IDN options, you must first be a registrar for a particular TLD. Verisign, a pioneer in domain name technology, is a leader in the propagation and adoption of IDNs. Verisign has made IDNs available through the .com, .net, .name and .cc registries via the IDN SDK. To calculate the potential for IDNs to expand your domain name business, please download our IDN ROI Calculator (XLS).

Resolving an IDN requires the DNS to interpret characters in local languages and connect them to the relevant domains; however, there are many more languages than scripts. For example, in two different Latin-based languages the "ø" and the "ö" characters may be interchanged. The registration "thørn.com" could be a registration variant of "thörn.com". These characters are considered character variants and their overlap requires a special solution. Learn more about character variants.

Libraries that implement the IDNs in Applications (IDNA) standard for a variety of programming environments are available in the public domain. Verisign encourages and supports the work of such developers and provides links to these libraries. Application developers should choose the library that best fits their application requirements. Verisign offers a complete IDN SDK in Java and C to application developers. It fully supports the latest IDNA specification. You can find it on the IDN SDK download page.

Please review the IETF Standards on our Registry page.

The registration failure/error codes for IDNs and name servers are the same as those in the current EPP. Additional codes have been added to support errors specific to IDN conversion and encoding.

IDNs appear in Whois results in punycode. The domain name, registrar name, Whois server, referral URL, name server record and updated date are recorded using ASCII characters (the current standard). Because Whois will not accept native language queries, Verisign has created the IDN Conversion Tool, which converts an IDN character string into punycode. Keep in mind that domain names are unique registrations for each language.

ICANN Registry Implementation Committee (RIC) guidelines require that each Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) be associated with a specific language using a "language tag." The registrant selects the IDN language tag during the registration process. If an IDN combines more than one language, the registrant must select the most appropriate language.

Language tags allow appropriate language rules to be applied to the domain name to prevent the registration of domain names that may confuse IDN users. Learn more about character variants.

The language tag is checked against a list of languages that have character inclusion tables or character-variant mapping tables. These tables are applied to the Unicode code points that make up a registration and determine whether the registration is valid for a specific language. If a registration fails for one language, the character set may still be available with a different language tag.

A default language tag may be used; however, registrants seeking domain names in a different language may be rejected because appropriate language rules have not been applied. For example, if a registrant submitted a registration using Cyrillic characters and the default tag set by the registrar was Chinese, the registration would be rejected because Cyrillic characters are not permitted under the Chinese character inclusion table.