Holders of French domain names no longer have to settle for a name that does not meet their requirements, or say what they mean. Looking for ‘forêts’ or ‘forets’, ‘congres’ or ‘congrès’; could bring unexpected results, never again will a search for drills end up in the forest.

Try to say what you mean

Not always easy when your alphabet has been substantially reduced.

AFNIC (Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération), the administrator for the .FR domain, announced in February 2012, that from May 3, .FR domain names would be able to incorporate accented characters.

In 1985 the first domain name was registered, since then France (and many other countries) has struggled to incorporate their language into the domain name format. Prior to this new ruling, when a French domain name was written down the relevant accents were included, but if one searched online using accented characters – there was no guarantee it would work. 

Introducing internationalized domain names (IDN) to .FR allows domain name holders to present the true pronunciation and meaning of their brand. This new function also applies to .RE Réunion, .TF French Southern and Antarctic Lands, .WF Wallis and Futuna, .PM St Pierre et Miquelon, and .YT Mayotte ; characters available are: à, á, â, ã, ä, å, æ, ç, è, é, ê, ë, ì, í, î, ï, ñ, ò, ó, ô, õ, ö, ù, ú, û, ü, ý, ÿ, œ, ß.

Richelieu says, “très bien!"

This is surely good news for the Académie Française, established by Cardinal Richelieu in 1635, its role is to protect the French language against foreign influences, slang, and the degradation of the language.

Identity protection

AFNIC has decided to offer two registration periods:

• The priority period, from May 3 to July 3, allows users with existing domain names to register the exact equivalent utilizing accented characters and all its possible variants. AFNIC state, “If you have peches.fr you are entitled to register pêchés.fr, péchés.fr, pèches.fr etc. with the same registrar, for the same holder (i.e. with the same "NIC handle").” A NIC handle is the unique alphanumeric character sequence assigned by the registrar to a particular domain name, such as registrant’s name and email address. This period applies to users with domain names registered with .FR, .YT, .PM, .WF, .TF and .RE.

• General release begins on July 3 and there will be a ‘first come, first served’ policy. Any registered company or individual residing within the European Community (including Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) may register a .FR domain name.

EuroDNS supports you

We would strongly recommend users contact their domain name registrar to confirm they offer IDN registration and if so, the availability of the various versions of their domain name.

From May 3, 2012, EuroDNS offers IDN registration on the aforementioned domain name extensions, .FR, .YT, .PM, .WF, .TF and .RE. Current holders of the relevant domain names should contact sales@eurodns.com, for assistance with obtaining new IDN versions of their domain names.