Reach out to your local name society!

International

• International Council of Onomastic Sciences 

Africa

• Ghana: Ghana Place Names Research Project 
• Southern Africa: Names Society of Southern Africa

Asia

• Korea: National Geographic Information Institute

North America

Canada

• Canadian Society for the Study of Names
• Canadian Geographical Names Database
• Alberta: Alberta’s Geographical Names 
• British Columbia: British Columbia’s Geographical Names 
• Manitoba: Manitoba Geographical Names Program 
• New Brunswick: Service de toponymie du Nouveau-Brunswick
• Nova Scotia: Nova Scotia’s Geographical Names 
• Prince Edward Island: Prince Edward Island’s Place Finder
• Prince Edward Island: Geographical Names of Prince Edward Island 
• Quebec: Commission de toponymie du Québec 
• Saskatchewan: Saskatchewan Geographic Names
• Yukon: Yukon Geographical Place Names Board

United States

• Council of Geographic Names Authorities (COGNA)
• Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) 
• United States Board on Geographic Names

South America

• Brazil: Banco de Nomes Geográficos do Brasil (BNGB)

Europe

• NORNA
• Gazetteer of British Place Names 
• The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use (PCGN) 
• Austria: Working Group for the Austrian Cartographic Place Names 
• Denmark: Norden Division UNGEN 
• Denmark: The Names Research Section of the Department of Scandinavian Research
• England: Institute of Name Studies 
• England: Key to English Place Names 
• England: The English Place Names Society 
• England and Ireland: Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland
• Estonia: Place Names Database of Estonia 
• Finland: The Research Institute for the Languages of Finland 
• France : Société Française d’Onomastique 
• Germany: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Namenforschung 
• Germany: Onomastik Namen und Namensbedeutung 
• Germany: Zentrum für Namenforschung 
• Germany: Forschergruppe NAMEN (Universität Regensburg) 
• Greece: Lexicon of Greek Personal Names 
• Greenland: Place Names Committee
• Greenland: Personal Names Committee 
• Hungary: The Onomastic Department of the Society of Hungarian Linguistics 
• Iceland: Department of Names 
• Italy: Centro Studi di Onomastica Piemontese 
• Italy: Il Nome nel testo
• Italy: Onomastica e Letteratura
• Italy: Rivista Italiana di Onomastica
• Ireland: Historical Dictionary of Irish Placenames 
• Ireland: Placenames Database of Ireland 
• Ireland: Ulster Place-Name Society
• Lithuania: Dept of Onomastics Lithuania
• Lithuania: Institute of the Lithuanian Language 
• Netherlands: Meertens Instituut 
• Norway: Norwegian Name Association 
• Norway: Norwegian Farm Names 
• Poland: Commission on Standardization of Geographical Names Outside of the Republic of Poland (KSNG) 
• Scotland: Scottish Place Name Society 
• Spain/Portugal: Asociacion Gelaga de Onomastica 
• Sweden: Swedish Institute for Language and Folklore 
• Switzerland: Ortsnamen 
• Switzerland: Ortsnamenforschung BS 
• Wales: Welsh Place Name Society

Australia

• Australian National Placenames Survey
• Geoscience Australia: Place Name Search
• Geographical Names Board of New South Wales
• Committee for Geographical Names of Australasia
• Aboriginal Place Names Around Sydney Harbour 
• Nomenclature Board of Tasmania 
• New Zealand: New Zealand Geographic Place Names Database 

 … Read More

Learn more about personal names on the following websites:

Given Names

• U.S. Social Security Administration -U.S. Birth Name Statistics by year and state.
• BabyNames.com – Online since 1996, this site provides name meanings, origins, notes, top most popular lists and a large name community.
• Behind the Name – Extensive collection of names, meanings and cross-references.

Read more about the Lurline Coltharp Collection of Onomastics, housed at the University of Texas at El Paso.… Read More

Learn more about fictional names on the following websites:

CharacterNames.com – Tips on naming fictional characters and essays on fictional names from television, movies and books.… Read More

Learn more about place names on the following websites:

Placenames.com – Find countries, cities, towns, villages, mountains, hills, rivers, lakes, islands, and other geographic and administrative place names.

GeoNames – geographical database of place names

Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names – find information about named places

Scots Words and Place-names – glossary of Scots words which are used in place-names

Gaelic Place-names of Scotland – national advisory partnership for Gaelic place-names in Scotland.… Read More

Check out what we can build using names!

These companies and organizations are building tools that you can use.

Software

• Ethnic Technologies – predictive ethnicity identification software
• NameSor – name recognition software
• How Many of Me – A calculation of how many people in the U.S. have your given name and surname