Guides 25 October 2026 6 min read

Choosing a domain name that works in Arabic and English

One Arabic name has several Latin spellings. How to test a domain name by saying it, choose the right ending, and check it before you print anything.

By the PearlFibers Team

You read your new web address to a customer over the phone. They type it, get an error, and message you to ask for "the link". The name looked fine on the screen where you chose it. It failed when it was spoken, because an Arabic name can be written in Latin letters in several ways and the customer chose a different one from yours.

A domain name is spoken more often than it is read: on the phone, in a voice note, by one customer telling another. Even on a shop sign it is glimpsed for a second from a passing car. Run the tests below before you register, and before you print anything.

Test the name by saying it

Say the name once, in Arabic, the way you would in a voice note, to two or three people outside the company. Ask each of them to type the address. Do not spell it for them.

If they all type the same thing, you have your spelling. If each one types something different, the name is hard to pass on, and you need either a shorter form or a plan for the alternatives. Then repeat the test with the sign: show them the Arabic name as it appears above the shop and ask what they would type.

One Arabic name, several Latin spellings

Take an invented company called «النخيل». Its customers could reasonably type Alnakheel, Al-Nakhil, Elnakheel or Alnakhel. The differences come from the same few places every time:

• The article: al or el, joined to the word, followed by a hyphen, or left out.
• Letters with no Latin twin: kh for خ, q or k for ق, gh or g for غ. In chat, people write some of these as digits, and digits do not belong in an address.
• Long vowels: ee or i, oo or u.
• Doubled letters: one m or two, as in Mohamed and Mohammed.

There is no correct answer to look up. Choose the spelling your customers already see: on your sign, on your Instagram and Facebook pages, on your bags and invoices. Then register the obvious alternatives and point them at the main address, so that a customer who types the other spelling still arrives. Only one address goes on print and into email. Each extra name carries a yearly fee, so register the two or three variants people produced in your test, not every possible one.

Short, without hyphens or digits

• Short. Every extra letter is one more place for a typing mistake. The email address follows from the domain too. An address like accounts@alnakheel-general-trading-baghdad.com has to be dictated to suppliers, typed on phones and fitted on a business card. A short domain gives every employee a short address when you set up business email on it.
• No hyphens. A hyphen is easy to see and hard to say, and people drop it when they pass the address on.
• No digits. A listener cannot tell whether to type the digit 4 or the word "four".
• No city and no year, unless they are part of the name. The word "baghdad" in the address becomes a problem the day you open a branch in Basra or Erbil, and a year dates the name.
• No legal form. Leave out "company", "group" and "general trading", unless customers say them when they name you.

Which ending: .iq, .com.iq or .com

• .iq is Iraq's national ending and the shortest of the three. It tells the visitor where you are and whom you serve. It is registered by hand with the national registry and needs documents.
• .com.iq marks a commercial entity in Iraq specifically. It goes through the same manual registration.
• .com is the international ending and the one many people type out of habit. Registration is immediate and needs no documents, but the name you want may already be taken.

If you want one Iraqi ending, choose the shorter. If the name matters to you commercially, hold both and point them at the same site. Add .com if you also sell outside Iraq, or if people in your test typed it. Whatever you hold, one address is the main one and the others lead to it. The registration process is described in .iq domains, explained.

Arabic-script domain names

Domain names written in Arabic letters exist. They look good on a sign and cause trouble in two places. The first is email: addresses on them are awkward, because many forms and programs that ask for an email address expect Latin letters. The second is typing: a visitor with a Latin keyboard cannot enter the name at all.

Treat an Arabic-script name as an extra that leads to your main address, for a sign or a campaign. Keep the Latin name as the address you print and the one your email runs on.

Checks before you print anything

1. Is it free as a domain? Check every ending you plan to hold, and the alternative spellings.
2. Is it free on the social networks you use? The same name on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok as in the address spares you explaining the difference. If an active business in your field already holds the handle, think again about the name.
3. Is it someone else's trademark? Search for the name together with your line of business. If another company already trades under it, choose something else, and ask a lawyer when you are unsure.

Order the sign, the business cards and the bags only after all three.

Register it in the company's name

The domain should be registered to the company, with a contact address that belongs to the company and that more than one person reads. A domain registered under a designer's or an employee's personal account works until the day that person stops answering, which is one of the ways companies lose their own domain name. This matters more for an Iraqi ending, because the application is supported by documents, and for a company name those are the company's registration papers.

A checklist of the tests

• Said once in Arabic, two or three people typed it the same way.
• The spelling matches the sign and the social pages.
• It has no hyphens, digits, city or year, unless they are part of the name.
• It is short enough to dictate as an email address.
• The obvious alternative spellings are registered and lead to the main address.
• The name is free as a domain and on your social networks, and is not another company's trademark.
• It is registered in the company's name, on a company address.

When the name passes, check it on the PearlFibers domains page. Availability is checked live for international endings and confirmed by our team for .iq. For .iq and .com.iq we prepare and submit the registry paperwork after you provide identity or company documents once, and the typical turnaround is 1 to 3 business days. The domain is registered in your name.