A system and method for resolving a DNS request using metadata. An intelligent name server receives a request to resolve a domain name via a network. The intelligent name server acquires at least one metadata element about the source of the request. The domain name request is transformed into a CNAME request that includes the at least one metadata element and the domain name to be resolved. The CNAME request is sent to a metadata aware DNS server for resolution. The metadata aware DNS server maps the domain name to one or more network addresses stored in a look-up table. The included metadata is used to select a “best” host address to include in a response.