Toponymy is the taxonomic study of toponyms (place-names), their origins and their meanings. The word is derived from the Greek τόπος topos, place, and oνομα ōnoma, name. It is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds.
A toponym is a name of a locality, region, or some other part of Earth's surface or an artificial feature. In some cultures, most or all such place names have a definite meaning in the language; this is not the case, generally, for place names in the English language.
In linguistics and ethnology, a toponym is a name derived from a place or a region. In anatomy, a toponym is a name of a region of the body, as distinguished from the name of an organ. In biology, a toponym is a binomial name of a plant.
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Maps :: Reference
Onomastics :: Linguistics

A Political World Gazetteer - An outline of the world's political divisions, organized by continent, nation, national subdivision, and further geographic areas.
BC Geographical Names - Government site lists geographical naming principles and policy, how to propose a geographical name, access to the BC Geographical Names Information System (BCGNIS), links to BC-history/related sites, and to toponymy sites.
Geographical Names - Cornucopia from the Geography Department of Laurentian University, Ontario including an investigation of the relationship between the author's name, Pitblado, and place names.
Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names - Compiled by the Getty Research Institute, TGN is a structured vocabulary developed primarily for the field of art history, but can be used in any in many other applications. The thesaurus contains nearly 1 million place names representing approximately 900,000 places.
Meta Description: [ Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN) is a structured vocabulary of geographic names for indexing art and architecture. ]
GNS: GEOnet Names Server - Global searchable database set up by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA), US. Foreign place names as approved by the US Board of Geographic Names, other name variants. Approx. 3.3 million entries
Meta Description: [ NGA Database of Geographic Place Names, NGA Database of Geographic Place Names ]
International Alternative Country Names - A list of names for existing countries and some regions and islands that differ from the standard international and/or English nomenclatures.
Meta Description: [ A list of names in different languages for countries and
regions. ]
Place Names Servers on the Internet - A collection of links by Arizona State University.
Toponomastica Toponymy - A database of place-names from the classical Greek and Roman sources, with comments on their etymology, in English, plus toponymy of the Abruzzese Appennine in Italian.
UNGEGN - United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names. Contains information and resolutions on the issue of place names.
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World Gazetteer by ESRI - Enter a city, country or river name for which to search. ESRI stands for Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.
World Ocean Bed History: Geographical Names - Article on the toponymy of the ocean, undersea features and relief.
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