The Ontario Geographic Names Board was established to recommend appropriate geographic names for the Minister of Natural Resources to approve.
The Board has developed a set of Principles and Procedures which are used as the basis for selecting names to be applied to both geographic features and unincorporated places in Ontario.
The principles are generally based upon:
- Local usage as the most important reason for the selection of a name.
- The need for commemorative naming in the case of persons who have made an outstanding contribution to an area, the province and/or the country.
- The need for uniformity in the spelling of names.
- The proper language treatment of names – English, French, First Nation/Métis or other and respect for the unique or local character of an established name.
- Avoidance of names that are in any sense derogatory, are out of place linguistically or culturally in an area, or are meaningful only to a limited number of people or specialists.
In addition to these principles, there are other guidelines and documents available which may be used to help applicants propose new names or changes to names, including the limits (or extents) to which a name applies. Some of these documents include:
In recommending names to the Minister, the Board has to ensure that the above principles have been followed, that there is no controversy surrounding the use of the proposed name, what support there is in the community for the proposed name and other information that will lead to a clear-cut choice of the name. While names, once approved, are not often changed, this does happen. For this reason, thorough documentation of the information leading up to the recommendation is needed by the Board.
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