What are the 153 top level domains starting with XN? - dns

Question

I was inspecting the full list of IANA top level domains and came across some uncommon ones, but also some very uncommon ones, particularly 153 top level domains starting with XN:
XN--11B4C3D
XN--1CK2E1B
XN--1QQW23A
XN--2SCRJ9C
XN--30RR7Y
XN--3BST00M
What are the domains starting with XN?
Note
Here's some R code to extract the full list of XN domains for exploration:
library(tidyverse)
library(rvest)
domains <- read_html("http://data.iana.org/TLD/tlds-alpha-by-domain.txt") %>%
html_nodes("body") %>%
html_text %>%
str_split("\n") %>%
unlist %>%
as.data.frame %>%
`colnames<-`("tld")
# Starts with XN
domains %>%
filter(substr(tld, 1, 2) == "XN")
# tld
# 1 XN--11B4C3D
# 2 XN--1CK2E1B
# 3 XN--1QQW23A
# 4 XN--2SCRJ9C
# 5 XN--30RR7Y
# 6 XN--3BST00M
# 7 XN--3DS443G
# 8 XN--3E0B707E
# 9 XN--3HCRJ9C
# 10 XN--3OQ18VL8PN36A
# 11 XN--3PXU8K
# 12 XN--42C2D9A
# 13 XN--45BR5CYL
# --- ---
# 146 XN--WGBL6A
# 147 XN--XHQ521B
# 148 XN--XKC2AL3HYE2A
# 149 XN--XKC2DL3A5EE0H
# 150 XN--Y9A3AQ
# 151 XN--YFRO4I67O
# 152 XN--YGBI2AMMX
# 153 XN--ZFR164B
Full set
XN--11B4C3D XN--1CK2E1B XN--1QQW23A XN--2SCRJ9C XN--30RR7Y XN--3BST00M XN--3DS443G XN--3E0B707E XN--3HCRJ9C XN--3OQ18VL8PN36A XN--3PXU8K XN--42C2D9A XN--45BR5CYL XN--45BRJ9C XN--45Q11C XN--4GBRIM XN--54B7FTA0CC XN--55QW42G XN--55QX5D XN--5SU34J936BGSG XN--5TZM5G XN--6FRZ82G XN--6QQ986B3XL XN--80ADXHKS XN--80AO21A XN--80AQECDR1A XN--80ASEHDB XN--80ASWG XN--8Y0A063A XN--90A3AC XN--90AE XN--90AIS XN--9DBQ2A XN--9ET52U XN--9KRT00A XN--B4W605FERD XN--BCK1B9A5DRE4C XN--C1AVG XN--C2BR7G XN--CCK2B3B XN--CCKWCXETD XN--CG4BKI XN--CLCHC0EA0B2G2A9GCD XN--CZR694B XN--CZRS0T XN--CZRU2D XN--D1ACJ3B XN--D1ALF XN--E1A4C XN--ECKVDTC9D XN--EFVY88H XN--FCT429K XN--FHBEI XN--FIQ228C5HS XN--FIQ64B XN--FIQS8S XN--FIQZ9S XN--FJQ720A XN--FLW351E XN--FPCRJ9C3D XN--FZC2C9E2C XN--FZYS8D69UVGM XN--G2XX48C XN--GCKR3F0F XN--GECRJ9C XN--GK3AT1E XN--H2BREG3EVE XN--H2BRJ9C XN--H2BRJ9C8C XN--HXT814E XN--I1B6B1A6A2E XN--IMR513N XN--IO0A7I XN--J1AEF XN--J1AMH XN--J6W193G XN--JLQ480N2RG XN--JLQ61U9W7B XN--JVR189M XN--KCRX77D1X4A XN--KPRW13D XN--KPRY57D XN--KPUT3I XN--L1ACC XN--LGBBAT1AD8J XN--MGB9AWBF XN--MGBA3A3EJT XN--MGBA3A4F16A XN--MGBA7C0BBN0A XN--MGBAAKC7DVF XN--MGBAAM7A8H XN--MGBAB2BD XN--MGBAH1A3HJKRD XN--MGBAI9AZGQP6J XN--MGBAYH7GPA XN--MGBBH1A XN--MGBBH1A71E XN--MGBC0A9AZCG XN--MGBCA7DZDO XN--MGBCPQ6GPA1A XN--MGBERP4A5D4AR XN--MGBGU82A XN--MGBI4ECEXP XN--MGBPL2FH XN--MGBT3DHD XN--MGBTX2B XN--MGBX4CD0AB XN--MIX891F XN--MK1BU44C XN--MXTQ1M XN--NGBC5AZD XN--NGBE9E0A XN--NGBRX XN--NODE XN--NQV7F XN--NQV7FS00EMA XN--NYQY26A XN--O3CW4H XN--OGBPF8FL XN--OTU796D XN--P1ACF XN--P1AI XN--PGBS0DH XN--PSSY2U XN--Q7CE6A XN--Q9JYB4C XN--QCKA1PMC XN--QXA6A XN--QXAM XN--RHQV96G XN--ROVU88B XN--RVC1E0AM3E XN--S9BRJ9C XN--SES554G XN--T60B56A XN--TCKWE XN--TIQ49XQYJ XN--UNUP4Y XN--VERMGENSBERATER-CTB XN--VERMGENSBERATUNG-PWB XN--VHQUV XN--VUQ861B XN--W4R85EL8FHU5DNRA XN--W4RS40L XN--WGBH1C XN--WGBL6A XN--XHQ521B XN--XKC2AL3HYE2A XN--XKC2DL3A5EE0H XN--Y9A3AQ XN--YFRO4I67O XN--YGBI2AMMX XN--ZFR164B

Answer 1

They're punycode versions of non-ASCII URLs, e.g., for example
% IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object
domain: ଭାରତ
domain-ace: XN--3HCRJ9C

Answer 2

The domains are punycode:
Punycode is a simple and efficient transfer encoding syntax designed for use with Internationalized Domain Names in Applications. It uniquely and reversibly transforms a Unicode string into an ASCII string. ASCII characters in the Unicode string are represented literally, and non-ASCII characters are represented by ASCII characters that are allowed in host name labels (letters, digits, and hyphens).
Here are all 153 punycode domains after decoding:
[1] "कॉम" "セール" "佛山"
[4] "ಭಾರತ" "慈善" "集团"
[7] "在线" "한국" "ଭାରତ"
[10] "点看" "คอม" "ভাৰত"
[13] "ভারত" "八卦" "ישראל"
[16] "موقع" "বাংলা" "公益"
[19] "公司" "香格里拉" "网站"
[22] "移动" "我爱你" "москва"
[25] "қаз" "католик" "онлайн"
[28] "сайт" "联通" "срб"
[31] "бг" "бел" "קום"
[34] "时尚" "微博" "淡马锡"
[37] "ファッション" "орг" "नेट"
[40] "ストア" "アマゾン" "삼성"
[43] "சிங்கப்பூர்" "商标" "商店"
[46] "商城" "дети" "мкд"
[49] "ею" "ポイント" "新闻"
[52] "家電" "كوم" "中文网"
[55] "中信" "中国" "中國"
[58] "娱乐" "谷歌" "భారత్"
[61] "ලංකා" "電訊盈科" "购物"
[64] "クラウド" "ભારત" "通販"
[67] "भारतम्" "भारत" "भारोत"
[70] "网店" "संगठन" "餐厅"
[73] "网络" "ком" "укр"
[76] "香港" "亚马逊" "诺基亚"
[79] "食品" "飞利浦" "台湾"
[82] "台灣" "手机" "мон"
[85] "الجزائر" "عمان" "ارامكو"
[88] "ایران" "العليان" "اتصالات"
[91] "امارات" "بازار" "موريتانيا"
[94] "پاکستان" "الاردن" "بارت"
[97] "بھارت" "المغرب" "ابوظبي"
[100] "البحرين" "السعودية" "ڀارت"
[103] "كاثوليك" "سودان" "همراه"
[106] "عراق" "مليسيا" "澳門"
[109] "닷컴" "政府" "شبكة"
[112] "بيتك" "عرب" "გე"
[115] "机构" "组织机构" "健康"
[118] "ไทย" "سورية" "招聘"
[121] "рус" "рф" "تونس"
[124] "大拿" "ລາວ" "みんな"
[127] "グーグル" "ευ" "ελ"
[130] "世界" "書籍" "ഭാരതം"
[133] "ਭਾਰਤ" "网址" "닷넷"
[136] "コム" "天主教" "游戏"
[139] "VERMöGENSBERATER" "VERMöGENSBERATUNG" "企业"
[142] "信息" "嘉里大酒店" "嘉里"
[145] "مصر" "قطر" "广东"
[148] "இலங்கை" "இந்தியா" "հայ"
[151] "新加坡" "فلسطين" "政务"
And here is the R code used to decode the domains (but you can also use a punycode converter:
library(tidyverse)
library(rvest)
domains <- read_html("http://data.iana.org/TLD/tlds-alpha-by-domain.txt") %>%
html_nodes("body") %>%
html_text %>%
str_split("\n") %>%
unlist %>%
as.data.frame %>%
`colnames<-`("tld")
punycode_domains <- domains %>%
filter(substr(tld, 1, 2) == "XN") %>%
pull(tld)
# devtools::install_github("hrbrmstr/punycode") # Run once to install
library(punycode)
puny_encode(punycode_domains)