ccTLD (Country Code Top Level Domain)

ccTLD is the abbreviation for “Country Code Top Level Domain” and refers to the two letter domain extension used by any given country or territory.  For example, the ccTLD for Australia is .au, the ccTLD for Hong Kong is .hk, etc.  Although the ccTLD is often a direct abbreviation of the country or territory name, in other cases it is not such as .cx which is the ccTLD for Christmas Island.  Some might also suggest that .de (one of the most popular ccTLDs) does not match the country name Germany, but in fact it does match the country name – which to Germans is Deutschland (thus .de).  ccTLDs are established and delegated by IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority).