16 REPORT OF THE UNITED STATES GEOGRAPHIC BOARD. 



The tendencj^ toward simplification is in no way shown more 

 decidedly than in the combination of the several words forming a 

 name. Thus "La Fayette" has become well-nigh universally 

 " Lafayette," and " El Dorado " has become " Eldorado." The Board 

 approves this tendency and will further it so far as possible with- 

 out forestalling usage too greatly. 



The use of diacritic characters in geographic names in the United 

 States, such as the German umlaut and the Spanish tilde, is rapidly 

 disappearing. It would be impossible, even were it desirable, to 

 oppose this change. 



The practice of adding the word " city " or " town," as Boise City, 

 as a part of the name is a useless complication, growing in most 

 cases out of an optimistic spirit on the part of the promotors of the 

 place. It is often misleading and almost invariably unnecessary. 



There are in Alaska a good many names of Kussian origin end- 

 ing in OBb, which terminating s^dlable has been variously rendered 

 6)/, off^ ow^ and ov. The Board uniformly uses of. Examples: 

 Baranof, Chichagof, Popof, and S'helikof. 



Outside of the United States, where the Department of State and 

 United States Hydrographic Office are chiefly interested, the work 

 of the Board is directed to the harmonization of American usage in 

 geographic nomenclature with the usage of the great map-making 

 nations — England, Germany, and France. The Department of 

 State, by reason of its diplomatic and consular functions, is inti- 

 mately concerned with the present style, change of names, transfers 

 of territorial jurisdiction, cession and acquisition of territory by 

 various governments abroad, and the proper forms of the titular 

 political nomenclature of foreign states and nations. The interest 

 of the Hydrographic Office is involved by reason of its publication 

 of charts and sailing directions of all foreign waters, to the effective 

 use of which uniformity of geographic nomenclature is obviously 

 indispensable. The forms of foreign names recommended for adop- 

 tion are determined on consultation of established usage, the best 

 authorities upon ethnological and political history and derivation, 

 and current geographic and political information from authentic 

 sources. 



Many names in foreign civilized countries present a peculiar diffi- 

 culty and appear to require that a further exception be made to the 

 general principle of following local usage. This lies in the fact that 

 many foreign names have been anglicized, and the anglicized form, 

 often quite different from the local form (meaning by local form 

 that in use by the best authorities in the country having jurisdiction) , 

 is well established in usage in this country. 



Such cases wherein English-speaking nations use names differing 

 from those locally accepted are not numerous, but they are among 



