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Quick answers
What is toponymy?
The study of place names — their origins, layers and use. It is the hero field for this topic.
Why do places have two names?
Endonyms (used by locals) and exonyms (used by outsiders), plus official renamings after regime change.
Who decides the official name?
National names boards (e.g. the U.S. BGN), legislatures, and sometimes UNGEGN coordination — not SSA baby-name staff.
What did George R. Stewart write?
Names on the Land (1945, later editions) is a classic narrative of U.S. place-naming — a voice, not a statute.
Are commemorative street names a good idea?
They are a political choice. They also create the next renaming fight. This atlas describes; it does not score heroes.
Do place names trend like baby names?
Much more slowly. A new suburb or a renamed capital is an event, not an annual ONS-style sport.
Japan, Korea and the Spanish-speaking world have their own boards, scripts and colonial layers (including internal ones).
A romanised map is already a political product.
Regions
- United States — BGN + Stewart’s story
Transfer names, commemorations, and a long Indigenous restoration agenda.
- England & Wales — EPNS tradition
Deep time in a small landscape; ONS is for babies, not for this.
- Aotearoa New Zealand — Dual names
A well-known official bilingual toponymy conversation.
- Korea — Endonyms vs exonyms (e.g. sea names)
International naming disputes as politics; domestic hanja layers in older names — description, not luck.
- Japan — Kanji place names + readings
Writing and speaking can diverge; official readings are a legal-ish fact for signs.
- Spanish-speaking Americas — Saints + Indigenous substrates
San-/Santa- commemorations over older names — a layered archive.
Laws
- National names-board statutes U.S. BGN and peers — Who may change an official toponym.
- Municipal street-naming ordinances cities — The local naming law most people actually meet.
- UNGEGN resolutions international — Soft law for endonyms and romanisation.
- Colonial gazetteer instruments (historical) empires — The legal technology of overwriting.
Worldwide toponymy starts by asking which script the emergency services will see.