# Where can I find a list of credibly spelled place-names? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 9, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-a-list-of-credibly-spelled-place-names/563550 "2010-12-09T17:05:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-a-list-of-credibly-spelled-place-names/563550/1 "2010-12-09T17:05:54Z")
Every day I work with documents that are peppered with place names from around the world. Though some are small villages, most are decent-sized cities and towns, and there are lots of references to countries’ internal divisions (e.g., state, department, province). Word is not happy with me. I am not happy with Word. Aside from the sea of red underlines, I have to copy/paste into Google to verify spelling, then come back and ignore or add the name. I’d like to find a credible word list of place names to add to my custom dictionary. That way, whether I’m working on a report about Sierra Leone or Timor Leste, I’ll have most of the names already checked. Is there such a thing? Would adding several thousand words to my dictionary slow things down too much or create an instability? Thanks, Rhythm ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-a-list-of-credibly-spelled-place-names/563550/2 "2010-12-09T17:12:00Z")
Wiktionary Appendix:[Place Names](http://open-dictionary.com/place_names_od#Place_names) Something to get you started. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-a-list-of-credibly-spelled-place-names/563550/3 "2010-12-09T17:22:12Z")
I don’t have one to recommend, but I believe the word you want is _gazetteer_. ---
**Author:** ![Dave.B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9f8e36/32.png) [@Dave.B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave.B)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-a-list-of-credibly-spelled-place-names/563550/4 "2010-12-09T19:26:30Z")
In the UK, the Ordnance Survey have just opened up a lot of their data for free access. One of the datasets available is a gazetteer of every named place on the 1:50,000 scale Landranger series. It’s a big list! See here if you are interested (scroll down): [https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/opendatadownload/products.html](https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/opendatadownload/products.html) 11MB download, which they email you a link to. I’ve downloaded it myself, and it’s quite useful. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-a-list-of-credibly-spelled-place-names/563550/5 "2010-12-09T20:30:59Z")
Adding a few thousand custom items won’t cause any noticeable slowdown in Word. I know this from assisting on a fictional work that used hundreds of place names and character names that we added to Word’s dictionary. All told, the custom dictionary ended with 1600 entries We didn’t notice any performance issues. The default dictionary already has tens (or hundreds?) of thousands of words in it, so I wouldn’t expect to. My recommendation would be to keep using Google to check and then add words as you use them. I recommend that because I’m sure a comprehensive list would include plenty of places that are very close in spelling to each other and might actually make it harder to spot a typo. ---
**Author:** ![ctnguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-a-list-of-credibly-spelled-place-names/563550/6 "2010-12-10T01:05:59Z")
[NGA GNS](http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/namefiles.htm) for places outside the US; [USGS GNIS](http://geonames.usgs.gov/domestic/download_data.htm) for places in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-a-list-of-credibly-spelled-place-names/563550/7 "2010-12-10T03:37:34Z")
As noted, the GNS is what we cartographers use as gospel. However, it can be a little too complete. A large group of us have collaborated on a project called [Natural Earth Vector](http://www.naturalearthdata.com/) to create high-quality public-domain data sets for small-scale mapping. If you download a ZIP file such as [1:50m Populated Places](http://www.naturalearthdata.com/http//www.naturalearthdata.com/download/50m/cultural/50m-populated-places-simple.zip), one of the files in the folder will be a DBF file that you can open in Excel. One column will be the “official” name (English-language exonym) for the various cities, and another column (still incomplete; it’s a volunteer project) will include native-language endonyms such as Köln and Napoli. These files should be much more manageable; 50M cities has 1294 entries, for example. ---
**Author:** ![ctnguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-a-list-of-credibly-spelled-place-names/563550/8 "2010-12-10T08:01:42Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > [Natural Earth Vector](http://www.naturalearthdata.com/) Oh my gosh, that is really awesome! Thank you for pointing this out! I’ve been looking for something like this for a while. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-a-list-of-credibly-spelled-place-names/563550/9 "2010-12-10T12:53:02Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > As noted, the GNS is what we cartographers use as gospel. However, it can be a little too complete. > > A large group of us have collaborated on a project called [Natural Earth Vector](http://www.naturalearthdata.com/) to create high-quality public-domain data sets for small-scale mapping. If you download a ZIP file such as [1:50m Populated Places](http://www.naturalearthdata.com/http//www.naturalearthdata.com/download/50m/cultural/50m-populated-places-simple.zip), one of the files in the folder will be a DBF file that you can open in Excel. One column will be the “official” name (English-language exonym) for the various cities, and another column (still incomplete; it’s a volunteer project) will include native-language endonyms such as Köln and Napoli. These files should be much more manageable; 50M cities has 1294 entries, for example. awsome! thanks for the link. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-a-list-of-credibly-spelled-place-names/563550/10 "2010-12-10T17:22:50Z")
This is fantastic–thank you thank you THANK YOU! I’m a bit torn between the UK and the GNS versions. Our client prefers British English, but I suppose that the variations (if any) would be minimal–and if there is a conflict, the red underline will point it out. Thanks!!! ---
**Author:** ![ctnguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-a-list-of-credibly-spelled-place-names/563550/11 "2010-12-10T20:44:19Z")
Are there many placenames whose spelling differs in British and American English? I can’t think of any right now. ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-a-list-of-credibly-spelled-place-names/563550/12 "2010-12-11T04:19:08Z")
I can’t think of any placename differences between British and American English. Would a Briton say that Sinclair Lewis was from Sauk _Centre?_ (That’s a little joke, as the Minnesota town already uses the British spelling, for some reason.) ---
**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2010, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-can-i-find-a-list-of-credibly-spelled-place-names/563550/13 "2010-12-11T04:20:10Z")
Its all politics… South China Sea…