Example names and domains

If you need to create a fictitious name, email address, domain name, phone number, or IP address in your docs, create an example that adheres to the following guidance.

Names

Most topics in Splunk documentation use the second-person singular pronoun, "you" and "your", to address a single user directly. If you have to refer to someone in the third person, create a fictitious name that's sensitive to culture, religious affiliation, holidays, traditions, politics, and business. Make sure that the name you create reflects the wide range of names used around the world.

Use gender-neutral third-person pronouns, such as "they", "their", and "them", to accompany the fictitious name. See Gender-neutral pronouns.

Don't use a fictional character that's currently in copyright, your own name, or the name of friends or family members as an example name.

It's okay to use a first name only for your documentation, such as in a scenario or a walkthrough. See the following examples of names that meet this guidance:

• Alex
• Deepu
• Ikraam
• Kai
• Morgan
• Skyler
• Wei

Create a fictional surname if you need a first and last name, such as in example UI text fields or search results. See the following examples:

• Charlie Garcia
• Nyah Aamadu
• Sasha Patel
• Taylor Zhang

Email addresses

If you need a fictitious email address for an example, use a name that follows the guidance in the Names section. Never use your own name, or the name of friends or family members, in an example email address.

Use Buttercup Games, a fictitious online store created by Splunk, as the email domain. See the following examples:

• alex@buttercupgames.com
• buttercup@buttercupgames.com
• info@buttercupgames.com

In cases where it doesn't make sense to use Buttercup Games as the email domain, use the @example.com suffix.

Domain names

If you need a fictitious domain name for an example in your docs, see the following table of domains:

Domain	Redirects to
https://www.example.com	Example domain page
http://www.buttercupgames.com	splunk.com

Phone numbers

If you need a fictitious phone number for an example in your docs, use a North American phone number in the range +1-555-555-0100 through +1-555-555-0199. The North American Numbering Plan set aside this range of phone numbers to use in examples and in fiction.

If you need a fictitious international phone number for an example in your docs, you can use the fictitious Australian phone number of +61-2-5550-9988.

Never use a real phone number as a phone number example.

IP addresses

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) have reserved various IP addresses specifically for documentation needs.

IPv4 addresses

If you need a fictitious IPv4 address for an example in your docs, use an IP address in one of the following ranges:

Subnet	IP address range
192.0.2.0/24	192.0.2.0 to 192.0.2.255
198.51.100.0/24	198.51.100.0 to 198.51.100.255
203.0.113.0/24	203.0.113.0 to 203.0.113.255

Find more information in the IETF memo at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc5737.

IPv6 addresses

If you need a fictitious IPv6 address for an example in your docs, use an IP address in the 2001:db8::/32 range.

For example, use 2001:0db8:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ff00/120 as the subnet and 2001:0db8:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ff99 as the IP address.

Find more information in the IETF memo at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3849.