AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

GEOnet Names Server


The GEOnet Names Server (GNS) provides access to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's (NGA) and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names' (US BGN) database of foreign geographic feature names. The database is the official repository of foreign place-name decisions approved by the US BGN. Approximately 20,000 of the database's features are updated monthly. Geographic Area of Coverage: Worldwide excluding the United States and Antarctica. For names in the U.S. and Antarctica, visit the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) web site. The GNS contains 4.0 million features with 5.5 million names (approximate). The coordinate system for data served by GNS is WGS84. Coordinates in the GEOnet Names Server are approximate and are intended for finding purposes only. The online database is updated on a bi-weekly schedule.