Geographical Sciences
This guide provides access to essential resources for geography research at ASU, including databases, journals, maps, geospatial data, and professional organizations.
United States place names
Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) - GNIS contains entries for almost 2,000,000 geographic features in the United States. Each entry includes information about Federally recognized names for features in the United States, including the State, county, and geographic coordinates. Produced by the US Board of Geographic Names and the US Geological Survey.
US Gazetteer - The US Gazetteer is a list of United States place names that were included in the 1990 census. Since it was derived from census data, this database only contains names for populated places.
National Association of Counties (NACo) - NACo provides a database of county information, searchable by city or state.
US states, place names
- Georgia Place Names - A site containing place names of settlements, most with linked maps.
- Kentucky Place Names - Alphabetical list of community names that eventually became the book Kentucky Place Names.
- Minnesota Place Names - A guide to historical Minnesota place names sponsored by the Minnesota Historical Society
World place names
- NGA GEOnet Names Server (GNS) - GEOnet Names Server (GNS) is the official repository of standard spellings of all foreign geographic names, sanctioned by the United States Board on Geographic Names (US BGN).
- Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names - The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN) provides information on place names related to art, art history and related subjects, such as history archeology, and geography.
- JewishGen - A searchable database that provides information on the location of populated places in Eastern Europe, many of which no longer exist.
Country place names
- Antarctica
- Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica - An international gazetteer from the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR).
- Antarctic Geographic Place Names - Search for Antarctic Place Names approved by the US Board on Geographic Names.
- Australian Antarctic Gazetteer - Search for place names in the Australian Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Territory.
- Australia
- Gazetteer of Australia - The Australian Geographic Place Names site from the Australian Government.
- Australian Capital Territory - Public places in Canberra, Australia's capital.
- New South Wales - Place Name site from New South Wales Land and Property Information.
- Northern Territory - Place Names in the Northern Territory Government's Place Name Committee.
- Victoria - Signpost, the Place Names in Victoria web site.
- Western Australia - Place name guide from the State Library of Western Australia.
- Canada
- Canadian Geographical Names / Les noms géographiques du Canada - The Canadian Geographical Names site.
- British Columbia Place Names - Search for place names in British Columbia.
- Quebec - Commission de toponymie du Québec (French Only). Includes aboriginal and municipal place names.
- France
- Place Names Search - The searchable database of over 2,000,000 French place names from the Institut Géographique National..
- Hungary - An alphabetical list of cities in Hungary with their population.
- New Zealand Geographic Place Names.
- Scotland- Two sites are available for Scotland. They are:
- Gazetteer for Scotland - This site describes itself as a comprehensive geographical database of "towns, villages, bens and glens from the Scottish Borders to the Northern Isles."
- Corpus of Scottish Meadieval Parish Churches - from the University of St. Andrews.
- Sweden Swedish National Atlas Place Names Register - Enter a place name and the location of the site is shown on a map of Sweden. Also gives area and population statistics.