.za by Microsoft-IIS serving 11.60% of the total .za domains. The most common 1st character in domain names is "c", with 10.76% of .za domains starting with this character. .za .za is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for South Africa. The .za namespace is managed and regulated by the .za Domain Name Authority (ZADNA). Most domains are registered under the second-level domain .co.za. None of the official names for South Africa can be abbreviated to ZA, which is an abbreviation of the Dutch "Zuid-Afrika". Dutch was considered an official language in the Union of South Africa until 1961; it
Za (guilds) The name may have also come, more simply, from the idea of merchants within a guild or association sharing a seat or platform in the marketplace. The earliest "za" came into being in the 12th century, consisting not only of trade guilds, but also guilds of performers and entertainers. Even today, performers of "kabuki" and "noh" are in associations called "za" (see Kabuki-za). The "za" trade guilds appeared as a major force in the 14th century, and lasted in their original forms through the end of the 16th, when other guilds and trade organizations arose and subsumed the "za". While