Arabic Domain Names, Chinese Character Domain Names & Cyrillic Domain Names: Complete IDN Guide

While browsing the web, you may have come across websites that include symbols or characters you don't recognize found directly in the website URL. This may have been a Arabic, Chinese, or even a Cyrillic domain name, all of which have become much more prominent over the last decade. If you're looking for more information about these scripts or languages in domain names, this article will help.

We'll be going over what kind of scripts you can expect to see, common languages that can be found in these domains, and some of the history of these international domain names.

 

What are Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs)?

If you see unique characters or scripts in a domain name, what you are actually seeing is a internationalized domain name (IDN). Simply put, domain names that contain characters that are outside of the standard Roman alphabet (A to Z) are included in the IDN category.

These are also referred to as non-ASCII domains, as they feature characters outside of the ASCII character set (which is A-Z, 0-9). As the internet has become increasingly accessible and global over its history, IDNs help bridge the gap for cultures and countries around the world by utilizing a script that they may be more familiar compared to the traditional Roman script/characters. For example, users in Russia can visit websites developed for them that are registered in their native language. 
 

What are the common scripts found in domain names?

As the reach of the internet continues to expand, so has the available scripts (and associated TLDs that use those scripts). Below are some of the more common scripts found in domain names. It should be noted that each of the scripts below have many TLDs that utilize them. The scripts themselves also include multiple languages as they are only writing systems.
 

Cyrillic domain names

Cyrillic is a writing system used for multiple languages located across both Europe and parts of Asia. It is most prominently found in Slavic-speaking countries.
Common languages that use Cyrillic include: Russian, Bulgarian, and Ukrainian.
Cyrillic domain name examples: .москва, .онлайн, .рф
 

Arabic domain names

The Arabic script is commonly found in many languages, primarily in parts of Asia and Africa. It is the second most broadly used writing system in the world, and is prominant in the Middle East. 
Common languages that use Arabic include: Modern standard Arabic, Egyptian, Levantine. 
Arabic domain name examples: .بازار, شبكة. 
 

Brahmic domain names

Sometimes referred to as Indic scripts, the Brahmic scripts are actually a family of writing systems. These scripts are most commonly found in parts of Southeast Asia, specifically, in the Indian subcontinent. The Devanagari script, which is part of the Brahmic family, is the most common as it includes many languages of India and Nepal. 
Common languages that use Brahmic include: Hindi, Nepali, Konkani, Marathi
Brahmic domain name examples: ভারত, భారత్, ਭਾਰਤ

 

Chinese domain names

Chinese characters are used for the writing of Chinese, and has been adapted to be used in various other East Asian languages over time. It is also the oldest writing system still in use in the world. It is widespread through many parts of Asia, but primarily in East Asia. 
Common languages that use Chinese characters include: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese
Chinese domain name examples: 中国, .cn, 网络

Now that you've got an understanding of some of the common scripts or characters found in domain names, lets cover an overview of IDN's history.

 

Brief history of Internationalized Domain Names

The use of implementing various other scripts into domain names has been discussed all the way back to the mid-90s, where the idea of creating a system to allow for unique characters outside of traditional ASCII was starting to be discussed. Through years of discussions and various proposals, a system titled "Internationalizing Domain Names in Application" (IDNA) was developed, which was essentially a mechanism for handling non-ASCII characters in domain names.

Eventually, the IDNA lead to an important milestone in accessible IDN ccTLDs in 2009, where the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) board implemented the ccTLD IDN Fast Track Process, which would allow countries to register domain names with non-Latin characters.

Following this Fast Track Process, many non-ASCII ccTLD's became available in various scripts in 2010 and onwards. This included Russia, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Later in that year, Arabic script was approved by ICANN, which opened the door for many other countries in Asia to represent their country and language online. From this point forward, more IDNs continued to be implemented due to the system in place now accepting various script. New IDNs have and still require going through the ICANN approval process.

If you are interested in learning more or even registering your own IDN domain names with various scripts, visit our IDN search page to get started!