View source for Board on Geographic Names

{{Organization
|OrganizationName=Board on Geographic Names
|OrganizationType=Federal agency
|Website=https://www.usgs.gov/us-board-on-geographic-names
|Wikipedia=United States Board on Geographic Names
}}
{{Short description|US geographic naming government agency}}

{{Infobox government agency
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The '''United States Board on Geographic Names''' ('''BGN''') is a [[Federal government of the United States|federal]] body operating under the [[United States Secretary of the Interior]]. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of [[geography|geographic]] names throughout the [[federal government of the United States]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://geonames.usgs.gov/docs/pubs/BGN_Getting_Facts_Straight.pdf | publisher=United States Board on Geographic Names | title=The United States Board on Geographic Names: Getting the Facts Straight | date=November 2016 | access-date=27 September 2020 }}</ref>  Nevertheless, its rulings and policies have been controversial from time to time.

==History==
On January 8, 1890, [[Thomas Corwin Mendenhall]], superintendent of the [[United States Coast and Geodetic Survey]] Office, wrote to 10 noted geographers "to suggest the organization of a Board made up of representatives from the different Government services interested, to which may be referred any disputed question of geographical orthography."<ref name=":0" /> President [[Benjamin Harrison]] signed [[executive order (United States)|executive order]] 28<ref name="eo28">{{cite executive order |number = 28 |date = 1890-09-04|language = en |post = President of the United States of America |access-date = 16 July 2017 }}{{wikisource-inline|Executive Order 28|single=true}}</ref> on September 4, 1890, establishing the ''Board on Geographical<!-- "Geographical" is correct for the original name --> Names''.<ref name="eo28"/> "To this Board shall be referred all unsettled questions concerning geographic names. The decisions of the Board are to be accepted [by federal departments] as the standard authority for such matters."<ref name=":0" /><ref name="eo28"/> The board was given authority to resolve all unsettled questions concerning geographic names. Decisions of the board were accepted as binding by all departments and agencies of the [[federal government of the United States|federal government]].

The board has since undergone several name changes.<ref name=Topping>Topping, Mary, comp., ''Approved Place Names in Virginia: An Index to Virginia Names Approved by the United States Board on Geographic Names through 1969'' (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1971), v–vi.</ref> In 1934, it was transferred to the [[United States Department of the Interior|Department of the Interior]].<ref name=Topping/>

The Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names was established in 1943 as the Special Committee on Antarctic Names (SCAN).<ref name="books Jj0MVhEniPAC">{{cite book|title=1890–1990, a Century of Service: United States Board on Geographic Names|publisher=U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service|date=1990|author=Meredith F. Burrill|url=https://archive.org/details/18901990centuryo1484burr}}</ref> In 1963, the Advisory Committee on Undersea Features was started for standardization of names of undersea features.<ref name=ACUF/><ref name="BoardFunctions">{{cite web |title=Annual Report To the Secretary of the Interior Fiscal Year 2014 |url=https://geonames.usgs.gov/publications/docs/BGN%20Annual%20Report%20FY2014.pdf |website=Geonames |access-date=20 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170802163633/https://geonames.usgs.gov/publications/docs/BGN%20Annual%20Report%20FY2014.pdf |archive-date=2017-08-02 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Its present form derives from a 1947 law, Public Law 80-242.

== Operation ==
The 1969 BGN publication ''Decisions on Geographic Names in the United States'' stated the agency's chief purpose as:

{{quote|[Names are] submitted for decisions to the Board on Geographical names by individuals, private organizations, or government agencies. It is the Board's responsibility to render formal decisions on new names, proposed changes in names, and names which are in conflict. [The decisions] define the spellings and applications of the names for use on maps and other publications of Federal agencies<ref name=Topping/>}}

The board has developed principles, policies, and procedures governing the use of domestic and foreign geographic names, including underseas.<ref name=ACUF>[http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/acuf.html "Advisory Committee on Undersea Features"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511021519/http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/acuf.html |date=2013-05-11 }} Accessed 2013-10-18</ref> The BGN also deals with names of geographical features in [[Antarctica]] via its [[Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names]].

The [[Geographic Names Information System]], developed by the BGN in cooperation with the [[United States Geological Survey|US Geological Survey]], includes topographic map names and bibliographic references. The names of books and historic maps which confirm the feature or place name are cited. Variant names, alternatives to official federal names for a feature, are also recorded.

The BGN has members from six federal departments as well as the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], the [[Government Publishing Office|US Government Publishing Office]], the [[Library of Congress]], and the [[US Postal Service]]. The BGN rules on hundreds of naming decisions annually and stores over two million geographical records in its databases at geonames.usgs.gov. State and local governments and private mapping organizations usually follow the BGN's decisions.

The BGN has an executive committee and two permanent committees with full authority: the 10- to 15-member Domestic Names Committee and the 8- to 10-member Foreign Names Committee. Both comprise government employees only. Each maintains its own database.<ref name=":0" />

The BGN does not create place names but responds to proposals for names from federal agencies; state, local, and tribal governments; and the public. Any person or organization, public or private, may make inquiries or request the board to render formal decisions on proposed new names, proposed name changes, or names that are in conflict. Generally, the BGN defers federal name use to comply with local usage. There are a few exceptions. For example, in rare cases where a locally used name is very offensive, the BGN may decide against adoption of the local name for federal use.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://geonames.usgs.gov/docs/pro_pol_pro.pdf| title=Principles, Policies, and Procedures| author=Donald J. Orth and Roger L. Payne| publisher=United States Board on Geographic Names and Domestic Geographic Names| year=2003| access-date=July 7, 2009| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160108233358/http://geonames.usgs.gov/docs/pro_pol_pro.pdf| archive-date=January 8, 2016}}</ref>

=== Special situations ===

The BGN does not translate terms, but instead accurately uses foreign names in the Roman alphabet. For non-Roman languages, the BGN uses [[transliteration]] systems or creates them for less well-known languages.{{r|:0}}

The BGN does not recognize the use of the [[English possessive|possessive]] [[Apostrophe#Possessives in geographic names|apostrophe]] and has only granted an exception five times during its history, including one for [[Martha's Vineyard]], Massachusetts.{{efn|Apart from Martha's Vineyard: [[Carlos Elmer|Carlos Elmer's Joshua View]], Arizona; [[Clark's Mountain]], Oregon; [[Ike's Point]], New Jersey; and [[John E's Pond]], Rhode Island.<ref>{{Cite episode | title = Gardens | series = QI | airdate = November 26, 2009 | season = 7 | number = 1}} (BBC Television)</ref>}}<ref>{{Cite news|last=Newman|first=Barry|date=2013-05-16|title=Theres a Question Mark Hanging Over the Apostrophes Future|language=en-US|work=[[Wall Street Journal]]|url=https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324244304578471252974458308.html|access-date=2020-12-14|issn=0099-9660}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2018-02-06|title=Obscure federal rule erased apostrophes from place names|url=https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/politics-and-government/obscure-federal-rule-erased-apostrophes-from-place-names/|access-date=2020-12-14|website=Las Vegas Review-Journal|language=en-US}}</ref>

In federal mapping and names collection efforts, there is often a phase lag where a delay occurs in adoption of a locally used name. Sometimes the delay is several decades. Volunteers in the Earth Science Corps are used to assist the US Geological Survey in collecting names of geographic features.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

== Other authorities ==
* The [[United States Census Bureau]] defines [[census designated place]]s, which are a subset of locations in the Geographic Names Information System. 
* The names of post offices have historically been used to back up claims about the name of a community. US Postal Service Publication 28 gives standards for addressing mail. In this publication, the [[United States Postal Service|Postal Service]] defines two-letter state abbreviations, street identifiers such as ''boulevard'' (''BLVD'') and ''street'' (''ST''), and secondary identifiers such as ''suite'' (''STE'').

==Publications==
The BGN currently publishes names on its website. In the past, the BGN issued its decisions in various publications under different titles at different intervals with various information included.<ref name=Topping/> In 1933, the BGN published a significant consolidated report of all decisions from 1890 to 1932 in its ''Sixth Report of the United States Geographic Board 1890–1932''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sixth report of the United States Geographic Board: 1890 to 1932 |url=https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/70188621 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |access-date=17 August 2021 |date=1933}}</ref> For many years, the BGN published a quarterly report under the title ''Decisions on Geographic Names''.<ref name=Topping/>

==See also==
{{Portal|Geography|United States|Politics}}
* [[BGN/PCGN romanization]], a system for rendering geographic names in other writing systems into the Latin alphabet
* [[Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica]]
* [[Denali–Mount McKinley naming dispute]]
* [[Name of Pittsburgh]]
* [[Henry Gannett]], "Father of the Quadrangle Map"
* [[Geographical Names Board of Canada]]
* [[Geographical Names Board of New South Wales]]
*[https://geonames.nga.mil/gns/html/romanization.html BGN/PCGN romanization systems]
*[[National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency|NGA]] [https://geonames.nga.mil/geonames/GNSHome/index.html Geographic Names Server]

==References==
===Footnotes===
{{notelist}}
===Citations===
{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Berlin|first=Jeremy|date=September 15, 2015|title=Who Decides What Names Go on a Map?|work=National Geographic News|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150918-us-board-geographical-names-125th-anniversary-national-geographic-maps-place-names/|url-status=dead|access-date=2015-09-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150920004108/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150918-us-board-geographical-names-125th-anniversary-national-geographic-maps-place-names/|archive-date=2015-09-20}}</ref>
}}

===Bibliography===
*U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, National Mapping Division, ''Digital Gazetteer: Users Manual'', (Reston, Virginia: U.S. Geological Survey, 1994).
*Report: "Countries, Dependencies, Areas Of Special Sovereignty, And Their Principal Administrative Divisions", Federal Information Processing Standards, FIPS 10-4.
*Report: "Principles, Policies, and Procedures: Domestic Geographic Names", U.S. Board of Geographic Names, 1997.
*''U.S. Postal Service Publication 28'', November 2000.

==External links==
* {{Official website}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Names of places in Antarctica]]
[[Category:Agencies of the United States government|Board on Geographic Names]]
[[Category:Geography of the United States]]
[[Category:Geocodes]]
[[Category:Geographical naming agencies]]
[[Category:United States Department of the Interior|Board on Geographic Names]]
[[Category:United States Geological Survey|Board on Geographic Names]]
[[Category:1890 establishments in the United States]]