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The geographic names in this database are provided for the guidance of and use by the Federal Government and for the information of the general public. The names, variants and associated data may not reflect the views of the United States Government on the sovereignty over geographic features.

Database most recent update - January 24, 2011

Database next estimated update - January 31, 2011


GNS SURVEY - Your feedback is valued.



Putting a Name to a Place

       The Geographic Names Server is the official repository of standard spellings of all foreign place names, sanctioned by the United States Board on Geographic Names. The database also contains variant spellings (cross-references), which are useful for finding purposes. We are starting to hold the native script spellings of these names. All the geographic features in the database contain information about location, administrative division, and quality. The database can be used for a variety of purposes, including establishing official spellings of foreign place names, cartography, GIS, GEOINT, and finding places.

GNS Search - Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Viewer Page

      Provides access to an OGC compliant Web Map Services (WMS) interface and high level graphical search. This page works best using Internet Explorer 7 or higher, altough it will function properly with most modern browsers.

GNS Search - Text Based Page

      Provides access to a text based query interface and mechanisms for initiating queries and generating outputs. This page works best using Internet Explorer 7 or higher, although it will function properly with most modern browsers.

About GNS

  • GNS Has been in service since 1992
  • GNS database contains approximately five (5) million features
  • GNS database contains approximately seven (7) million feature names
  • An average of 20,000 features are updated in the GNS database monthly
  • GNS feature names data is stored and encoded in Unicode UTF-8 (all search and output functions present and generate the feature names data in the same UTF-8 encoding scheme)
  • GNS features coordinate system is WGS84 (GNS feature coordinates are approximate and are intended for finding purposes)
  • GNS database is updated weekly
  • GNS does not contain any coverage data for the United States of America or its Dependent areas. To obtain U.S. coverage data, please access the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) database of names.
  • GNS Geographic names data is freely available. A suitable citation note is:
    Toponymic information is based on Geographic Names Database, containing official standard names approved by the United States Board on Geographic Names and maintained by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. More information is available at www.nga.mil. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency name, initials, and seal are protected by 10 United States Code §Section 445.
 
 
Point of Contact: GEOnet Names Server
NGA Bethesda
phone 301-227-3059, DSN 287-3059
geonames@nga.mil

Document last modified January 25, 2011
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