The GNIS was originally designed for four major purposes: to eliminate duplication of effort at various other levels of government that were already compiling geographic data, to provide standardized datasets of geographic data for … See more

Phase 1 lasted from 1978 to 1981, with a precursor pilot project run over the states of Kansas and Colorado in 1976, and produced 5 databases. It excluded several classes of feature because they were better documented in non-USGS maps, including airports, … See more

There is no differentiation amongst different types of populated places. In the words of the aforementioned 1986 USACE report, "[a] See more

• The United States Census Bureau (USCB) defines Census Designated Places as a subset of locations in the National Geographic Names Database.
• United States Postal Service (USPS) … See more

Phase 2 was broader in scope than phase 1, extending the scope to a much larger set of data sources. It ran from the end of phase 1 and had manged to completely process data from 42 states by 2003, with 4 still underway and the remaining 4 (Alaska, Kentucky, … See more

The GNIS accepts proposals for new or changed names for U.S. geographical features through The National Map Corps. The general public can make proposals at the GNIS web site … See more

• Canadian Geographical Names Database, a similar, but non-public-domain, database for locations within Canada only
• GEOnet Names Server, a similar database for locations outside … See more