Toponymic Databases and web services

This page contains links to toponymic data sets and digital gazetteers accessible on the World Wide Web. Based largely on the excellent list of links maintained by Peeter Päll at the site of the UNGEGN Working Group on Romanization Systems, the aim of this list is to target actual data sets.

Europe:

• Open Regional Gazetteer (for Europe)

Australia:

• Australian Surveying and Land Information Group: Gazetteer of Australia

Austria:

• Amap online

Belgium:

• Places in Belgium: Belgium Roots Project

Bulgaria:

• Bulgarian Antarctic Gazetteer, with names and coordinates in English
• Bulgarian Antarctic Gazetteer, with narratives in Bulgarian (as word document)

Canada:

• Geographical Names Board of Canada web site
  • English: http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/earth-sciences/geography/place-names/about-geographical-names-board-canada/9174
  • French: http://www.rncan.gc.ca/sciences-terre/geographie/noms-lieux/sujet-commission-toponymie-canada/9175
• British Columbia Geographical Names Search
• Northwest Territories Official Community Names and Pronunciation Guide
• NWT Place Names Database
• Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre

Croatia:

• Name Search of the National Geographical Names Database

Czech Republic:

• Czech exonyms
• Standardized Geographical Names in Czech Republic

Estonia:

• Place-name data at the Institute of the Estonian Language: Some 60,000 names and name variants covering different types of geographical features in Estonia (populated places, administrative units, natural features, streets, etc.)
  • Place Names Database (KNAB)
  • Street names of Tallinn
  • List of country names (in Estonian)

Finland:

• MapSite of National Land Survey of Finland: a public map locator with place-name and street/road address query
• Finish Exonyms

Hungary:

• Detailed Gazetteer of Hungary

Germany:

• German names database and web service
  • Geographical names of Germany, actually only in German available
  • Search for geographical names
  • Search for historical place names

Ireland:

• Placenames Database of Ireland

Japan:

• Gazetteer of Japan

New Zealand:

• New Zealand Gazetteer of Official Geographic Names

Norway:

• Foreign place names (in Norwegian)

Poland:

• Official names of localities

Slovenia:

• Slovene Governmental Commission for the Standardisation of Geographical Names
• Geographical Names and Address Application

Spain:

• Place names browser in the Spatial Data Infrastructure of Spain

Sweden:

• National Atlas of Sweden: Map search and place names

Switzerland:

• SwissNames3D

United Kingdom:

• Ordnance Survey (OS) Open Names
• Ordnance Survey (OS) Open Names API
• The National Street Gazetteer (NSG)

United States:

• United States Board on Geographic Names: Database of domestic place-names "Geographic Names Information System (GNIS)" the national repository of official standard place-names of features in the United States and its possessions
  http://geonames.usgs.gov/

Other Toponymic Databases:

Databases with International Scope:

• U.S. Board on Geographic Names: GEOnet Names Server: Foreign place-names approved by the US BGN Foreign Names Committee
• Alexandria Digital Library (ADL) Gazetteer Server
• Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

Antarctica:

• U.S. Board on Geographic Names: Database of the US BGN Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names
• Antarctic Place-names Commission
• SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica

Undersea Features:

• U.S. Board on Geographic Names: Database of the US BGN Advisory Committee on Undersea Features

Extraterrestrial Features:

• International Astronomical Union: Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature: Gazetteer of Planetary Feature Nomenclature