A Canonical Name record (abbreviated as CNAME record) is a type of resource record in the Domain Name System (DNS) used to specify that a domain name is an alias for another domain (the 'canonical' domain).

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a central part of the Internet, providing a way to match names (a website you're seeking) to numbers (the address for the website). Anything connected to the Internet - laptops, tablets, mobile phones, websites - has an Internet Protocol (IP) address made up of numbers.