GeoNames Forum

Hello,

different sources, different codes for romania:

ROU from geonames countries.txt rev 1.3
ROM from a shapefile as gmi_cntry

Which one is the correct one?

TIA,

Frank

Hi Frank

Both are correct. ROU is the ISO country code and ROM the country code used by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). I guess we should add the IOC country codes to the list : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IOC_country_codes

Regards

Marc

ROU is the current ISO code for Romania. It was changed from ROM a few years ago.

Hello Marc and anonymous,

i think anomymous is right, ROM seems the older fips code, since i found some other older codes (and boundaries) after that.

It seems i have to look for an actual world-amd0-shape file...

Thanks anyway.

Frank

Yes anonymous is right.

I found some more information.

The ISO newletter 2002-02-01 , "Change of the alpha-3 Code element for Romania from ROM to ROU following a request of the Government of Romania." : http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv3-rou.html

And on unicode.org also another country code change :

The Alpha-2 and 3 codes for East Timor were changed from TP and TMP to TL and TLS on May 20, 2002. For more information see:
http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/03updates-on-iso-3166/nlv5e-tl.html

Marc

A complement on that story. Romania government asked the change from "ROM" to "ROU" to avoid any (voluntary or not) confusion between Romanians and Gipsies, usually called "Rom" throughout Europe - or any of the more or less derogatory variants (in France you will hear e.g. "Romas", "Romanichels", "Manouches" etc ...)
This is a very sensitive cultural/linguistic issue, actually.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma_people

Hi,

concerning IoC codes.. This page contains useful information, for anyone interested..
http://www.statoids.com/wab.html

Sami Dalouche