# Domain name

> The readable name of a website, like wikipedia.org, that stands in for a numeric address.

- Level: Basic
- Topics: Networks
- URL: https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/domain-name/
- In Spanish: [Nombre de dominio](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/es/domain-name/)

A **domain name** is the human-friendly name of a place on the internet, like `wikipedia.org` or `bbc.co.uk`. Computers find each other by IP address, a string of numbers that is hard to remember and can change. The domain name is the stable label people type, and DNS is the system that translates it into the current IP address.

Domain names are read from right to left. The last part is the **top-level domain** (TLD): generic ones like `.com` and `.org`, or country ones like `.ar`, `.es` and `.mx`. To its left is the name an organization registers, and anything further left is a subdomain it creates freely, like `es.wikipedia.org` or `mail.example.com`.

Nobody owns a domain forever: you rent it, usually by the year, through a **registrar**, a company accredited to sell names under each TLD. The whole naming system is coordinated by ICANN, and each TLD has a registry that keeps its official list. If a renewal is forgotten, the name can lapse and someone else can register it, which is why companies guard their domains closely.

## An analogy

A contact name in your phone. You tap "Mom" instead of remembering her number, and if she changes numbers you only update the contact, not your habit.

## Keep in mind

- A readable name that DNS translates into an IP address.
- Read right to left: top-level domain, registered name, subdomains.
- You rent a domain through a registrar, usually renewing yearly.
- ICANN coordinates the system; each TLD has its own registry.

## Go deeper

- [What is a domain name? (MDN)](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Howto/Web_mechanics/What_is_a_domain_name)
- [Domain name on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name)
- [Root zone database of all TLDs (IANA)](https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db)

## Related terms

- [Internet](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/internet/): A worldwide network of networks that lets any connected device reach any other.
- [IP address](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/ip-address/): The number that identifies a device on a network, like a postal address.
- [DNS](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/dns/): The internet's phone book: it turns names like wikipedia.org into IP addresses.