Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.com. This is the longest single-word (without hyphens) .com domain name in the world. This domain name is registered to Internetters on 21st October 1999. The domain name Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch itself is based on a town name – Welsh town on the island of Anglesey – which means, “The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio’s of the red cave“.

Originally, the town is called Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll, which means “The Mary church by the pool near the white hazels“. The village was renamed in the 19th Century. BBC has a detail story behind this:

This was around the time when the railway was built between Chester and Holyhead at the beginning of the 1850s. A local committee was put together to try and encourage trains, travellers and 19th Century tourists to stop at the village in order to help develop the village as a commercial and tourist centre. It is believed that the name Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch was invented by a cobbler from Menai Bridge; little did he know that he had implemented one of the most successful tourist marketing plans of all time. Today the village is signposted as Llanfairpwllgwyngyll and is known to locals as Llanfairpwll or Llanfair.

The domain name for the shorter name of this town also available. Llanfairpwll or Llanfair. Those are needed because now the town become internationally famous after many publications about their long domain name. Thousand of visitors come to this town now and I’m sure most of them will have trouble remembering the long domain name if they want to seek information about the town.

Eventhough Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is the longest domain name, it’s not the longest town name in the world. A town in New Zealand has 92 characters on their name:

Tetaumatawhakatangihangakoauaotamateaurehaeaturipuka
pihimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuaakitanarahu.

But the longest one so far is a town in Thailand which has 163 characters. I repeat. 163 characters. It is:

Krungthepmahanakornamornratanakosinmahintarayutthayamahadilokphop
nopparatrajathaniburiromudomrajaniwesmahasatharn
amornphimarnavatarnsathitsakkattiyavisanukamprasit

Not sure how you can pronounce it. But if you want to know how to pronounce Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, click here to hear it )

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