Putting The Accent Back Into Domains

I’ve mentioned IDNs (Internationalised Domain Names) a few times in the past and they were one of the topics on the agenda in Slovenia earlier this week as well.

Eurid, the registry operator for .eu, has now announced that it will be launching support for IDNs on 10 December 2009.

What does that mean?

Simply put if you want to register a domain name with special characters or accents it will now be possible.

Which characters are going to be supported?

Extensions to Latin script, Cyrillic and Greek. You can find a full list here.

Can you give an example?

At the moment you cannot register a domain using any accented characters. After the introduction of IDN you would be able to register domains with characters like:

é
í
ñ
á
So you could register mícheál.eu or coruña.eu

Will Blacknight be offering IDN registrations?

We’re hoping to, but we need to be 100% sure that our various systems are able to support them properly. We’ll clarify our position on this as soon as we can.

Apart from anything else we’d be very interested in knowing if people want these kind of domains, so do let us know.

About the Author: Michele Neylon

Known for his outspoken opinions on technology and the Internet, Michele Neylon is the award winning author of several blogs and co-host of the Technology.ie podcast. A thought leader in the Internet community, Neylon is active within ICANN and an expert on policy, security, domains, ICANN, Nominet and Internet Governance. You can stalk him on various social media networks including Twitter and Instagram

2 Comments

Mike December 13, 2009 at 21:37

I’d like to be able to register domain with some non-Latin characters in it. I have a blog on domain michal.osmenda.com (my first name dot my last name dot com). My Polish first name is in fact Michał, not Michal as my domain name may suggest. Therefore changing it to michał.osmenda.com or adding a CNAME seems to be something natural.
Michele Neylon December 13, 2009 at 21:52

We’ll be offering IDN .eu domains soon, though I don’t have an exact timeline as yet.
As for IDNs in subdomains – if you contact our support team they should be able to assist you
Michele