What do you call the entire first part of a URL?

Solution 1:

It is called the origin.


More generally speaking, here are the different parts of a URL, as per window.location. (So at least according to how Javascript calls it)

protocol://username:password@hostname:port/pathname?search#hash
-----------------------------href------------------------------
                             -----host----
-----------      origin      -------------
  • protocol - protocol scheme of the URL, including the final ':'
  • hostname - domain name
  • port - port number
  • pathname - /pathname
  • search - ?parameters
  • hash - #fragment_identifier
  • username - username specified before the domain name
  • password - password specified before the domain name
  • href - the entire URL
  • origin - protocol://hostname:port
  • host - hostname:port

Formal definition is in RFC 6454 section 4.

Solution 2:

I don't know the name for when it has the scheme, but the hostname with the port is collectively known as the Authority. A nice explanation here.