Geographic Names Information System
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The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) contains name and locative information about almost two million physical and cultural features located throughout the United States of America and its Territories. GNIS was developed by the United States Geological Survey in cooperation with the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) to promote the standardization of feature names.
The database is part of a system which includes topographic map names and bibliographic references. The names of books and historic maps which confirm the feature or place name are cited. Variant names, alternatives to official federal names for a feature, are also recorded.
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Other authorities
- The Bureau of the Census defines Census Designated Places which are a subset of locations in the National Geographic Names Database.
- U.S. Postal Service Publication 28 gives standards for addressing mail. In this publication, the postal service defines two-letter state abbreviations, street identifiers such as boulevard (BLVD) and street (ST), and secondary identifiers such as suite (STE).
- The names of Post Offices have historically been used to back up claims about the name of a community.
Geographic humor
Some features have unusual or entertaining names. Consider the following official United States place names:
- Bald Head, Maine, USA
- Chagrin Falls, Ohio, USA
- Dirty Socks Spring, California, USA (a hot spring)
- Due West, South Carolina, USA
- Mudlick Hollow, Kentucky, USA
- Nameless, Tennessee, USA
- Niceville, Florida, USA
- Nonesuch, Kentucky, USA
- Nude Wash, California, USA (a dry stream)
- Polecat, Tennessee, USA
- Possum Trot, Arkansas, USA
- Road's End, California, USA
- Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, USA
There are over thirty features which include the word stink with many Stink Creeks among these. Almost any body part you can name has some geographic site named for it.
Sources
- U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, National Mapping Division, Digital Gazeteer: Users Manual, (Reston, Virginia: U.S. Geological Survey, 1994).
- Heat Moon, William Least, Blue Highways: A Journey Into America, (Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1982).
- Jouris, David, All Over The Map, (Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press, 1994.).
- Report: "Countries, Dependencies, Areas Of Special Sovereignty, And Their Principal Administrative Divisions," Federal Information Processing Standards, FIPS 10-4.
- Report: "Principles, Policies, and Procedures: Domestic Geographic Names," U.S. Board of Geographic Names, 1997.
- U.S. Postal Service Publication 28, November 2000.