POLICY V: DEROGATORY NAMES
The guiding principle of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names for the names of places, features, and areas in the United States and its territories is to adopt for official Federal use the names found in present-day local usage. An exception to this principle occurs when a name is shown to be highly offensive or derogatory to a particular racial or ethnic group, gender, or religious group. In such instances, the Board does not approve use of the names for Federal maps, charts, and other publications.
The Board, however, is conservative in this matter and prefers to interfere as little as possible with the use of names in everyday language because attitudes and perceptions of words considered to be pejorative vary between individuals and can change connotation from one generation to another. Geographic names are part of the historical record of the United States, and that record may be either distorted or disrupted by the elimination of names associated with particular groups of Americans. Such unwarranted action by the Board could, in time, be a disservice to the people the process is meant to protect.
Policy
In the case of domestic geographic names, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names will not adopt a name for Federal usage that is determined by the Board to be derogatory to a particular racial or ethnic group, gender, or religious group.
Guidelines
Any individual or agency may request the Board to change a currently used name on grounds the name is derogatory or patently offensive.
Requests for name changes should be in the form of an application to the Board including reasons why the present name should not be used. The requester must offer an alternative name as part of the application following Board guidelines for submittal of name proposals.
Upon receipt of a request to change a derogatory name, the Board will investigate the background for the current name and will solicit from the appropriate State names authority that organization’s views on the proposed change, including any alternatives.
In considering a change proposal, the Board will give careful consideration to all relevant factors, including the extent and distribution of usage, historical context, user perceptions and intent, and lexical meanings.
The Board will not adopt a name proposal that includes the word “Jap” or the word “Nigger” whether or not it is in current local usage and regardless of by whom proposed. In the event of a name change, the prior form will appear in the permanent record as a variant.