society and community | May 14, 2026

Are underscores allowed in domain names?

It is perfectly legal to have an underscore in a domain name. Let me quote the standard, RFC 2181, section 11, "Name syntax": The DNS itself places only one restriction on the particular labels that can be used to identify resource records. Domains with underscores are very common in the wild.

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Furthermore, what characters are not allowed in a domain name?

The characters allowed in a domain name include letters (abc), numbers (123), and dashes/hyphens (---). No spaces are allowed and the domain name can't begin or end with dash/hyphen.

Similarly, is underscore valid in URL? First of all, the underscore character is a perfectly acceptable character in a URL. Web browsers can deal with it fine in most circumstances. However, IE seems to dislike the underscore when it is in a domain or subdomain name, for instance or test_site.mysite.com.

Also, what symbols can you use in a domain name?

A domain name can be up to 63 characters (letters, numbers or combination) long plus the 4 characters used to identify the domain extension (.com, . net, . org). The only symbol character domain names can include is a hyphen (-) although the domain name cannot start or end with a hyphen nor have consecutive hyphens.

What is the difference between domain name and hostname?

In the Internet, a hostname is a domain name assigned to a host computer. A hostname may be a domain name, if it is properly organized into the domain name system. A domain name may be a hostname if it has been assigned to an Internet host and associated with the host's IP address.

Related Question Answers

What is a valid domain format?

A valid domain name character is that which contains a set of alphanumeric ASCII characters (i.e., a-z, A-Z), numbers (i.e. 0-9) and dashes (-) or a combination all of these. It's a domain name that has the valid characters and length. It mostly has a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 63 characters.

Can I use an ampersand in a domain name?

No. Unfortunately you can't use ampersands (&) as part of your domain name. Characters that you can use in your domain name include letters, numbers and hyphens.

Can domain names contain special characters?

You can use letters, numbers and the hyphen "-" in a domain name. Unfortunately, special characters like, "_! @#$%^&*," are not allowed. Domain names cannot contain spaces or begin or end with a hyphen.

Can you have numbers in a domain name?

Your domain needs to be one word or one set of words. No hyphens and no numbers. It's hard to verbally communicate a domain name that has a space or a number.

What is a site name?

A domain name is your website name. A domain name is the address where Internet users can access your website. A domain name is used for finding and identifying computers on the Internet. Computers use IP addresses, which are a series of number.

Who owns a domain?

The legal owner of a domain name is the person and/or organization listed as the domain's registrant or owner contact. Domains typically have four contacts: registrant/owner, admin, technical, and billing. These can be the same person or different people.

What are domains on the Internet?

Domain names are used to identify one or more IP addresses. For example, the domain name microsoft.com represents about a dozen IP addresses. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages. For example, in the URL the domain name is pcwebopedia.com.

Can you use symbols in business name?

There are restrictions on the characters, signs, symbols and/or punctuation that can be used in a company name. Some characters or symbols cannot be used, while others can only be used in certain locations within a company name.

What symbols can be used in email addresses?

The format of e-mail address is: [email protected] (max. [email protected] characters, no more 256 in total).

The local-part of the email address may use any of these ASCII characters:

  • uppercase and lowercase Latin letters A to Z and a to z ;
  • digits 0 to 9 ;
  • special characters !

Can you use periods in domain names?

Periods cannot be registered under domain name rules. When you see periods in a URL it is referred to as a subdomain. Subdomains are intended to be used to host different content than what is found in the main domain and as an alternative to having to register a bunch of individual domain names.

Can domain names have apostrophes?

In the Domain You cannot place an apostrophe in your domain name, just like you can't put a plus sign or parenthesis. If your company name has an apostrophe in it, you will have to skip the apostrophe when it comes time to register the domain.

How do I check if a domain is available?

There are a couple ways to see if a domain you want is available. First, simply type the URL into Name.com's search—we'll tell you if the domain can be registered or not. Or, search for the domain in Whois Lookup.

Can URL have numbers?

Summary: yes you can have a numerical ID in your URL but you have to be careful with naming (if any), keep Google News in mind (if that matters), and realize that words carry more meaning than numbers.

Can a domain name start with a hyphen?

No a domain name can not start or end with a hyphen.

What are underscores used for?

The underscore ( _ ) is also known as an understrike, underbar, or underline, and is a character that was originally on a typewriter keyboard and was used simply to underline words or numbers for emphasis. Today, the character is used to create visual spacing in a sequence of words where whitespace is not permitted.

Why are underscores used in filenames?

Answer: A: In older OSes the underscore was used in lieu of a space because the OS could not process filenames with spaces. Also when transferring files between different operating systems with different file naming conventions the underscore avoids using what may be an illegal character in another OS.

How do you make an underscore number?

For Android phones, bring up the keyboard and press the "? 123" key to go to the symbols page. Tap the "underscore" key to type the symbol. It is located on the first page of symbols, so you don't have to do anything else.

Are hyphens bad for SEO?

Using hyphens should be avoided at all costs. As much as they do not directly affect SEO, you need to have a credible brand. Using hyphens makes your brand look spammy and this makes users have a negative brand perception. It will help your brand to stay consistent.

Do dashes in URLs hurt SEO?

No, using hyphen in your URL will not hurt SEO. According to SEOMoz, URL Structure best practices, a well crafted URL provides both the users and search engines a better experience in terms of understanding of what the destination page will be about.