CNAME (Canonical Name Record)

A CNAME record is the acronym for “Canonical Name Record”. A CNAME maps (or aliases) a web address to its canonical name, and is handled at the name server on which your domain name resides. When you access a web address and the web server finds a CNAME record, it replaces the domain name with the canonical name and then looks up the new hostname. CNAMEs are often used with sub-domains and can be useful in redirecting traffic from a non-www version of your domain name to a www-version of your domain name. For example, you could setup a CNAME so that if a visitor went to http://stuff.example.com, the CNAME record would direct them instead to http://www.example.com.