1.4.4.3 Place Names

For modern place names, editors should consult recognized geographic authorities appropriate to the place in question. For places in the United States and its territories, the Geographic Names Information System may be used as a standard reference for federally recognized names, locations, and coordinates. For places outside the United States, the GEOnet Names Server may be consulted for standard spellings, variant names, non-Roman forms, administrative divisions, and coordinates.

For historical, ancient, sacred, or culturally specific places, no single modern gazetteer will be sufficient. Editors should use the most relevant specialist authority for the tradition or period under discussion, especially when dealing with archaeological sites, ancient cities, temples, shrines, mythic geographies, pilgrimage sites, or places known by several names across languages and eras. The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names may be useful for art-historical, architectural, cultural, and historical place names, since it provides structured geographic vocabulary, variant names, relationships, and coordinates.

In Thelemic and occultural writing, place names should be chosen with attention to context. A historical essay may require the name used in the period being discussed; a travel or archival reference may require the modern name; a ritual or literary discussion may preserve the name as it appears in the source text. When more than one form is possible, the chosen form should be used consistently, with variant names noted where helpful, and the decision recorded in the project style sheet.