Distinguished Name

Full Title

The weirdly formatted name used in digital directories like Microsoft Outlook.

Context

Established by the monopoly phone companies (telcos) to maintain control of any directories that might supplant the phone book white and yellow pages.

Problem

Since the telcos did not maintain their monopoly of directories, the weird format only remains in the ASN.1 encoded certificates use for web certificates.

References

• See the wiki page on Distinguished Encoding Rules. (DER).