About UNGEGN

UNGEGN works for a common, international standardization of geographical names with the purpose of promoting international communication and understanding.

Areas of concern for UNGEGN are types of national standardization, the right of minority languages to use own language place-names, the question of exonyms, creation of place-name databases and gazetteers, national names of geographical locations outside of the nation’s borders, transcription into the roman alphabet (Romanization) of other writing systems, etc.

UNGEGN has held congresses every five years since 1967 on standardization of geographical names. In between congresses sessions are held at regular intervals where divisions and working groups present preliminary works.

View a chart of the UNGEGN structure.