Geographic Names Information System

Common card · No. 240896

The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and location information about more than two million physical and cultural features, encompassing the United States; the associated states of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, and Antarctica. It is a type of gazetteer. It was developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) to promote the standardization of feature names. Data was collected in two phases. A third phase was considered, which would have handled name changes where local usages differed from maps, it was never begun. The database is part of a system that includes topographic map names and bibliographic references. The names of books and historic maps that confirm the feature or place name are cited. Variant names, alternatives to official federal names for a feature, are also recorded. Each feature receives a permanent, unique feature record identifier, sometimes called the...

Read on Wikipedia · Image U.S. Government, Public domain