distinguished name (OSI) (DN)

A Distinguished Name (DN) is a global, authoritative name of an instance in the OSI directory according to X.500.

With the Distinguished Name, a globally unique distinguishability of persons or systems is given. The DN name ensures that a digital certificate is never issued to different people with the same name. The uniqueness of a digital certificate is ensured not only by the name, but also by the certification authority and the serial number.

The distinguishable names required by all participants in a Public Key Infrastructure( PKI) are defined by ISO/ ITU in the X.500 standard.