Guidance

Information papers

Information papers produced by the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (PCGN).

• From: Ministry of Defence
• Published: 16 October 2014
• Last updated: 11 March 2026
  Show all updates

  1. 11 March 2026

     Update to the 'UK Overseas Territories: toponymic information' document

  2. 3 July 2025

     Updated 'UK Overseas Territories: toponymic information'.

  3. 16 May 2023

     Removed 'Indonesia: administrative divisions' and 'Sudan: administrative divisions' as up-to-date information on these regions can be found on https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/toponymic-factfiles.

  4. 29 April 2022

     'North Korea: information paper' updated.

  5. 15 March 2022

     Addition of: 'Ukraine: Crimea, second-order administrative divisions' and 'Moldova: Toponymic notes on Transnistria'.

  6. 22 July 2021

     Added updated information paper for North Korea.

  7. 2 June 2021

     Added an updated version of Crimea ADM2s (April): small change to 2 footnotes.

  8. 23 April 2021

     Added an updated version of Crimea: second order administrative divisions.

  9. 22 January 2021

     Added Morocco: administrative structure (February 2015).

  10. 18 December 2020

      Added UK Overseas Territories: Toponymic Information.

  11. 5 November 2020

      Added an updated version of Ukraine: toponymic information paper.

  12. 16 November 2017

      Added North Korea: information paper (November 2017).

  13. 5 July 2017

      Updated Sudan: administrative divisions document.

  14. 22 September 2016

      Added Czechia: New English-language country name for the Czech Republic.

  15. 11 February 2016

      Added Ivory Coast: administrative structure and Indonesia: administrative divisions.

  16. 9 June 2015

      Added Liberia, Russia and updated Sudan administrative divisions information.

  17. 16 December 2014

      Added Karnataka State, India: name changes.

  18. 10 November 2014

      Added Sierra Leone: administrative divisions.

  19. 16 October 2014

      First published.

Documents

Czechia: New English-language country name for the Czech Republic (September 2016)

PDF, 326 KB

Egypt: administrative structure (September 2014)

PDF, 210 KB

Ivory Coast: administrative structure

PDF, 175 KB

Karnataka State, India: name changes (December 2014)

PDF, 81.6 KB

Liberia: administrative divisions (March 2015)

PDF, 91.1 KB

Moldova: Toponymic notes on Transnistria

PDF, 203 KB, 2 pages

Morocco: administrative structure (February 2015)

PDF, 184 KB, 3 pages

North Korea: information paper (April 2022)

PDF, 269 KB, 3 pages

Russia: administrative divisions (May 2015)

PDF, 171 KB

Sierra Leone: administrative divisions (October 2014)

PDF, 23.8 KB

South Sudan: administrative divisions (August 2011)

PDF, 23.4 KB, 1 page

UK Overseas Territories: toponymic information

PDF, 351 KB, 6 pages

Ukraine: Crimea, second-order administrative divisions

PDF, 251 KB, 4 pages

Details

Information papers produced by the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (PCGN). Various relevant documents published before July 2014 can found in the UK Government Web Archive. Any papers not in PDF format can be obtained from PCGN in paper copy. Please note that these documents are Crown Copyright