Geographic Names Server

Geographic Names Server
Geographic Names Search Application
U.S. and Antarctic Names
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The geographic names in this database are provided for the guidance of and use by the Federal Government and for the information of the general public. 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.

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Geographic Names Server

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Current GNS Count: Features and Names

GNS is current to GENC Standard Ed Update

Geographic Names Server

For more information on the Geographic Names Server website, including details on how to use some of the interactive GNS tools, please see the user guide below. You can also review the Frequently Asked Questions section at the bottom of this page, or use the Contact form to submit questions.

Geographic Names Server Help

Geographic Names Search

Geographic Names Search Application

Geographic Names Search - Quick Help

The blue icons, below, are the tools of the application and are located in the upper-right toolbar.
The "Search" tool will load in an open-state and is ready to use. The other tools can be used for additional capability, as described.
The black "Regional Keyboard" button is located on left-edge of the map and it can be used to construct regional strings..

Legend - display any relevant legend information

Layer List - display and toggle the map layers

Add Data - add data from various sources

Select - select features on the map for analysis

Search - main tool for search and display of Geographic Name features

Regional Keyboard - web version of the Regional Keyboard

GNS Search Application Help

GNS How-to Videos

Looking for U.S. or Antarctic names?

The GNS Search and Download App does not contain any coverage data for the United States of America or its Dependent areas, nor does it cover Antarctica. To obtain U.S. or Antarctica coverage data, please access the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) database of names.

Domestic (U.S.) names

Antarctic names

Frequently Asked Questions

How come I can't search for a domestic name like Los Angeles?

The GNS does not contain any coverage data for the United States of America or its Dependent areas, nor does it cover Antarctica. To obtain U.S. or Antarctica coverage data, please access the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) database of names.

Visit USGS page

Why can't I open GeoNames documents and document-links in Safari browser?

By default Safari blocks Pop-up windows. Go to Settings, Safari, and uncheck Block Pop-ups. Refresh the GNSHome website in Safari.

When I open .csv geographic names files in Excel, the characters aren't rendering correctly. How do I fix that?

The .csv files are generated with UTF-8 character encoding, but unfortunately, Excel doesn't always recognize that encoding by default (this varies by Excel version and your own personal settings). To fix the issues, you need to import the .csv into Excel and specify that UTF-8 encoding is used. Open Excel. Import the .csv data using Data –> From Text/CSV and click Import. On the Import options window that appears, be sure to specify the File Origin field as Unicode (UTF-8) before choosing to load data.

Why do certain points/features appear to be gridded?

From the initiation of foreign geographic names collection in 1947 through the introduction of GIS in 1993, locations of named features were collected according to the gazetteer standard, which is to the nearest minute of latitude and longitude. This was the required accuracy level for the production of gazetteers.

What does a particular data attribute or field mean?

For complete details on the GNS data schema, see the GNS data dictionary
GNS Data Dictionary

How do I know what these various data codes mean?

You can use the Searchable GNS Codes tool to look up particular code values Searchable GNS Codes or download the complete GNS Code Reference Tables here
GNS Code Reference Tables

The filter by visible extent option in the search application isn't giving me the "right" number of records.

Visible Extent is the map-area NOT covered by Attribute Table and Geographic Names Search controls. Sometimes one might have to zoom-in or zoom-out to see the entire collection of features in the application.

Why do some features have more than one name associated with them, and which one should I use?

Many countries have two or more official languages. These languages may be official nationwide or only in certain areas. We collect names in all official languages whenever possible. In addition, some features may have a conventional name in addition to an approved name. In these cases both the conventional and approved name are equally correct and either or both may be used.