title: HTTP | Naming authority
body: <p>Reading through the HTTP specification I came across the “naming authority” term in the section describing the <em>Host</em> request header field*. Here's the excerpt:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>The Host field value MUST represent the <strong>naming authority</strong> of the origin server or gateway given by the original URL.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>What does it mean? Why did they not use the terms “name” or “domain”?<br>
  ________<br>
  * <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt" rel="nofollow">RFC 2616. Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1</a> (Page 128, 14.23 Host)</p>