Where can I get data about Canadian place names?
The official Canadian Government site for names is the Geographical Names Board of Canada (GNBC). On-going to the site’s homepage, users should then click “Querying Canadian Geographical Names”. The results of a query will give the name’s precise location (in degrees and minutes for both latitude and longitude), and will give other reference data such as its feature type and province or territory. The user can also create a simple map showing the feature’s general location in Canada. (This is recommended if there are several features with the same name in a single province, such as “Black Lake”). The data base used for the names consists of the more than half a million approved geographical names for Canada. The homepage lists other features of interest. One of particular interest is an entry listed under “News and Info” • “Information for translators” gives details about appropriate versions of names in Canada’s two official languages. One link goes to the list of 81 names (Pan-Canadi
