Place names within the United Kingdom
Updated 3 May 2024
© Crown copyright 2024
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/place-names-of-the-united-kingdom/place-names-within-the-united-kingdom
You can see the United Kingdom toponymic guidelines for map and other editors.
In general, The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (PCGN) deals with geographical names outside of the United Kingdom. The following links will take you to web pages relating to place names within the United Kingdom.
Great Britain
For information on Great Britain, please refer to Ordnance Survey, the official body responsible for the mapping of Great Britain. There is also information available on the origins of place names in Britain.
The British online historical gazetteer contains historical place names from the 1911 census.
Northern Ireland
For place names in Northern Ireland, please refer to Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland.
England
For information on geographical names in England, in particular the etymology of names, consult the Key to English place names.
Scotland
For information on geographical names in Scotland, contact the Scottish Place-Name Society.
To search for geographical names in Scotland, please consult the Gazetteer for Scotland.
Wales
The Ordnance Survey Welsh Names Policy, describes Ordnance Survey’s policy for recording Welsh language names in their data. The Policy recognises the Welsh Language Commissioner as an independent body, with the statutory aim of promoting and facilitating the use of Welsh as the authoritative source on the accepted form and spelling of Welsh names, and commits to referring to the forms published in the List of Standardised Welsh Place-names online. The Commissioner has also worked in partnership with the Welsh Government’s translation service to produce a standardised list of names for sovereign countries, UK Crown Dependencies and UK Overseas Territories.