"Macao" is the traditional Portuguese spelling. However since the handover of administration from Portugal to China in 1999, the government of Macau considers both "Macao" and "Macau" to be acceptable English spellings of the name, whereas in Portuguese "Macao" has long been abandoned and just "Macau" remains the official spelling.
This English language dualism is visible in many government publications and documents, sometimes even within the same paragraph. For example, the spelling "Macao" appears on the local government's English language emblem as seen at its web portal,[4] but the Macau Government Tourist Office uses the "Macau" spelling, as is also reflected in its website.[5] Similarly, "Macao" is used on the Macau Special Administrative Region passport, but the government's official explanatory note on the passport spells it as "Macau".[6]
Macao is also the origin of Macau's designated Internet country code top-level domain .mo.
