What Is Internationalized Domain Name (IDN)?
An internationalized domain name (IDN) is a domain name that contains characters from non-Latin scripts — like Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, or characters with accents and diacritical marks (e.g., münchen.de or 例え.jp).
Why It Matters
Over half the world uses non-Latin scripts. IDNs let these users access websites using domain names in their own language — whether that’s 中文.com (Chinese), пример.com (Cyrillic), or café.com (accented Latin characters).
How IDNs Work
Browsers and DNS can only handle ASCII characters. So IDNs are converted to Punycode behind the scenes:
| What the user types | What DNS sees (Punycode) |
|---|---|
| münchen.de | xn—mnchen-3ya.de |
| 例え.jp | xn—r8jz45g.jp |
| café.com | xn—caf-dma.com |
The browser handles this conversion automatically. Users type the IDN, and the DNS system resolves the Punycode version.
IDN Forwarding
A common use case: register both the IDN and ASCII versions of your domain, then forward one to the other. For example, forward münchen.de to muenchen.de — or the reverse — so visitors find your site regardless of which version they type.
Domain Forward handles IDNs through their Punycode representation, which means standard DNS records and HTTPS certificates work normally.
Related Terms
Related Features
Frequently
asked questions
Yes. Behind the scenes, IDNs use Punycode encoding — which means they work with standard DNS infrastructure. Domain Forward handles IDN forwarding just like any other domain.
Punycode is the ASCII-compatible encoding used to represent IDNs in DNS. For example, münchen.de becomes xn--mnchen-3ya.de. See our Punycode glossary entry for details.
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