The following is a guest post by Sydney Crowley, a former intern with the Digital Resources Division of the Law Library of Congress. She is a current student of international relations and non-governmental organizations at the University of Southern California.
On September 4, 2024, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) celebrated its 134th anniversary. Despite the board’s long history, its existence and functions remain largely unknown. Driven by a surge in exploration, expansion, and western settlement following the American Civil War, President Benjamin Harrison issued an executive order in 1890 to establish the BGN. In its initial form, the BGN resolved domestic geographic name disputes. In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt broadened the board’s responsibilities to standardize geographic names for use across the federal government. This new range of duties included changing geographic names and identifying unnamed features. Since then, the BGN has played an essential role in accurate historical documentation, legal uniformity, geographic mapping, governmental publications, and diplomacy.
In April 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt abolished the U.S. Geographic Board and transferred its functions to the Department of the Interior. Following WWII, the United States Congress re-established the BGN, through Public Law 80-242, and tasked the revitalized board with an even broader range of responsibilities, including standardizing foreign names. In its current form, the BGN is composed of the Domestic Names Committee, Foreign Names Committee, and smaller advisory committees that inform the larger board. Today, the BGN serves as the central governmental authority for toponymy in the United States and processes all name disputes, questions, changes, and proposals.
The Domestic Names Committee continues its mission of standardizing U.S. geographic features for use in the federal government. Because local usage, spoken language, and historical considerations all play a role in the committee’s naming decisions, the public can send name proposals and disputes directly to the BGN through their website. All domestic name approvals are found in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), including 25,000 obsolete names, which are listed as “historical.” However, the committee does not enforce specific pronunciations of names, and instead, focuses only on standardizing its written form.
Similarly, the Foreign Names Committee works to standardize foreign place names. Since 1994, all BGN-approved foreign geographic names have been accessible to the public through the Geographic Names Server (GNS). The server offers a comprehensive list of current foreign feature names, as well as former, variant, and non-roman alphabet spellings. In addition, information regarding location, administrative jurisdiction, and feature type are available. Currently, the GNS database is hosted by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and lists over 8 million features and 13 million associated names.
Expanding U.S. interests and exploration prompted the creation of unconventional advisory committees, such as the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (ACAN) and the Advisory Committee on Undersea Features. Each committee settles unique disputes and inquiries, as the historical, cultural, and local name usage that typically informs domestic and foreign naming is not available. The naming process for undersea and Antarctic features utilizes a range of information, including commemorative names for accomplishments. While many prominent Antarctic features are already identified and named, less relevant features take longer to be officially named or are not considered at all. Since Antarctica has no sovereign territory, countries that are parties to the Antarctic treaty collaborate closely to create an appropriate and uniform nomenclature.
Throughout its history, the BGN, with occasional involvement from the Secretary of the Interior, has identified and replaced derogatory geographic names. The BGN considers three words derogatory in all cases, which are listed on their website. As recently as 2022, the Derogatory Geographic Name Task Force reviewed both formal and public submissions of derogatory names, and on September 8, 2022, the BGN approved 643 geographic name changes. It is important to note that the BGN and Derogatory Name Task Force work in close collaboration with local governments and people before reaching a final decision.
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