A domain name is an internet address like the one you type into your web browser. Common examples include google.com, bbc.uk and db.de. Anything before or after this name is not part of the domain name. For example, consider the web address “https://www.bbc.com/news/business-23150658″. The domain name itself is just bbc.com. The rest just tells the web browser which specific page to load.

The letters after the dot are called the “domain extension”. While the rest of the domain name can be almost anything that you want, the domain extension has to be chosen from a limited set. The domain extension often implies the website’s target audience. This can be a country (.uk, .de), a city or region (.london, .corsica) or a generic term (.com, .shop, .app).