Library Guides: Maps & Mapping: Online gazetteers

Gazetteers

A gazetteer is the equivalent of a geographical dictionary, which includes names of places and geographic features. Like dictionaries, gazetteers are still available in print format, and a printed gazetteer may still be preferable for historical place name research.

Geographic Names Information System
From U.S.G.S., this database enables you to query a database containing nearly 2 million physical and cultural geographic features within the United States.
GEOnet Names Server (GNS)
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.
Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names Online
From the Getty Research Institute, the TGN includes nearly 900,000 place name entries. The Thesaurus also provides vernacular and English names of places, variant names in other languages, and whenever possible, historical names. The record for a place may also contain geographical coordinates, dates, and notes.
Maplandia
A searchable world gazetteer based on Google Maps.