Punycode and internationalised domain names
What Punycode is
The domain name system only accepts the letters a to z, the digits and the hyphen. To write a name with accents, or in Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese or another script, an internationalised domain name (IDN) is turned into an ASCII form called Punycode, defined by RFC 3492. Each label that contains other characters is encoded and given the prefix xn--: münchen.de becomes xn--mnchen-3ya.de.
When you need the xn-- form
Browsers convert names by themselves, but many tools do not: DNS zone files, web server and certificate settings, some e-mail systems and registry forms ask for the Punycode form. The converter gives both forms, one name per line, and keeps the rest of a web address or e-mail address as it is.
Look-alike names
Some letters of other scripts look like Latin ones, such as the Cyrillic а and the Latin a. A look-alike name can imitate a known brand. Converting a suspicious name shows it at once: an xn-- label gives it away. Brand owners register the main IDN variants of their name for this reason.
Extensions in other scripts
Extensions can be internationalised too: .рф for Russia (xn--p1ai), .中国 for China (xn--fiqs8s), .مصر for Egypt (xn--wgbh1c). Domgate registers names in these country code extensions.
Punycode: frequent questions
No. The conversion runs in your browser as you type, and nothing is sent. Without JavaScript, the Convert buttons ask our server to convert the names, and it keeps nothing.
It is the prefix of a label encoded in Punycode. Only the labels that contain characters other than a to z, the digits and the hyphen get it: in xn--mnchen-3ya.de, the .de part stays as it is.
Domain names do not distinguish upper and lower case, so the converter writes them in lowercase. It also applies the normalisation that the IDNA standard requires, the same way browsers do.
No. Some characters are not allowed in domain names, such as spaces and most symbols, and a label cannot exceed 63 characters in its ASCII form. The converter marks the lines it cannot convert. Each registry also chooses which scripts it accepts: check the extension's page before you register.
They are the same name. The registry records the Punycode form, and browsers and e-mail software show the Unicode form to people.
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