Native language characters in domain names


This article provides you with more information about native language characters (such as ö, ä or ø) in domain names. 

Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) are domain names that contain a special character – other characters than letters (A-Z), digits (0-9), and the hyphen. All the country specific top-domains Webnode provide in the Nordic countries (.se, .com, .nu, .fi, no, .dk) support the use of IDNs.

Some software, internet browsers and email programs convert IDNs into so-called Punycode so that anyone is able to find a website online (even if they do not use the Latin alphabet). This means that if you for example share a link to your website www.äö.com on Facebook, it might look like this: 

xn--4ca0b.com

This also apply to all email addresses created under the domain. This means that recipients of your emails might see [email protected] as the sender instead of info@äö.com. 

If you use native language characters in your domain name we recommend to also register the same domain name without these special characters. Use a instead of ä and å, and o instead of ö. This way your website and e-mail addresses will always be shown properly. If you use two or more domains you can set one of the domains as a primary.

You can find more information about native language characters in domain names here: 

Finland: https://www.traficom.fi/en/communications/fi-domains/native-language-characters-domain-names

Norway: https://adata.no/domene-idn/

Denmark: https://www.dk-hostmaster.dk/da/faqs/hvilke-tegn-kan-jeg-bruge-i-et-domaenenavn


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