Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Geographic Names Server (GNS)

Metadata Updated: February 3, 2023

This metadata record is published by the USGS National Map on behalf of the Board of Geographic Names and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) who is the lead for Foreign Names. The Geographic Names Server (GNS) is the official repository of standard spellings of all foreign geographic names, sanctioned by the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN). In addition to the current approved names of features, users may find variant and historical spellings, along with non-Roman script spellings. Each record contained within provides information on the feature's location, administrative division, and designation (e.g., populated place, stream, mountain). The GNS can be used for finding places, GIS data, cartography, and GEOINT products.

Access & Use Information

License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Date February 1, 2023
Metadata Created Date February 3, 2023
Metadata Updated Date February 3, 2023
Reference Date(s) 2022-07-05T06:00:00.907+00:00 (publication)
Frequency Of Update asNeeded

Metadata Source

Harvested from USGS NGA

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Date February 1, 2023
Metadata Created Date February 3, 2023
Metadata Updated Date February 3, 2023
Reference Date(s) 2022-07-05T06:00:00.907+00:00 (publication)
Responsible Party National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) (Publisher)
Contact Email
Guid e0b9b1ca-8a74-4e92-94af-25698b5ca54b
Access Constraints The names, variants, and associated data may not reflect the views of the United States Government on the sovereignty over geographic features. NGA is not responsible for third party uses of GNS feature coordinates.
Bbox East Long 180
Bbox North Lat 90
Bbox South Lat -90
Bbox West Long -180
Coupled Resource
Frequency Of Update asNeeded
Harvest Object Id 22dbb6a8-c8b8-48a6-937c-6557a6a72071
Harvest Source Id a414175d-e1d8-42ac-b5d9-fb39bb81089c
Harvest Source Title USGS NGA
Licence There are no licensing requirements or restrictions in place for the use of the GNS data. However, we recommend using the following citation to identify the GNS as a source: "Toponymic information is based on the 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 the Resources link at www.nga.mil. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency name, initials, and seal are protected by 10 United States Code - Section 425"
Lineage
Metadata Language eng; USA
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-180.0, -90.0], [180.0, -90.0], [180.0, 90.0], [-180.0, 90.0], [-180.0, -90.0]]]}
Progress completed
Spatial Data Service Type
Spatial Reference System
Spatial Harvester True

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.