GeoNames Forum

Hi Marc!

Thanks a lot for providing all of the geonames information, it is very helpful! I wrote a small program to get the alternate names of cities and states in the US, IT and DE, and I have a couple of questions.

1. I noticed the EN preferred name for California in the United States seems strange:

"California Republic"

Should the EN preferred name be "California"?

2. What is the "name" field in the geonames table? It looks like English most of the time. Is it English? Or is it the most widely recognizable version of the name?

Thanks so much!
Anne

Hi Anne

1. You are right. I think 'California' makes more sense. I don't know what jacopo thought when he changed this and I have changed it back.

2. The name field is a kind of international name for a place, though not all contributors adhere to this rule. Some insist on their local name to be the 'main name'.

Cheers

Marc