REPORT OF BOARD ON GEOGRAPHIC NAMES. 
15 
(d) The spelling of the word “center” as here given. 
{e) The discontinuance of the use of hyphens in connecting parts of 
names. 
(f) The omission, wherever practicable, of the letters “C. H.” 
(Court-House) after the names of county seats. 
(g) The simplification of names consisting of more than one word by 
their combination into one word. 
(ft) The avoidance of the use of diacritic characters. 
(i) The dropping of the words “city ” and “town ” as parts of names. 
All of these changes are warranted b}^ the direction of development. 
The possessive form of name is rapidly disappearing, except in rare 
cases where good reason exists for its retention. In most cases this 
is effected by dropping the apostrophe and the final “s.” In certain 
cases, however, usage or euphony appears to require the retention of 
the final “s,” when the apostrophe only, is dropped. 
Concerning the termination “burg” or “burgh,” as Pittsburg, an 
extensive correspondence has developed the fact that in more than 
three-fourths of the places having this termination the final “h”is 
not in local use. The case of the termination “boro” or “borough,” 
as Attleboro, is very similar. The present tendency is strongly 
toward the substitution of the abbreviated form. The Board, there¬ 
fore, deems it advisable to induce uniformity in this matter in the 
manner indicated. 
In the case of the word “center” as part of a name, as Mansfield 
Center, Center Rutland, usage appears to be about equally divided 
between “center” and “centre,” and the Board has adopted the first 
of the above forms of the word. 
Hyphens in connecting parts of names appear to be useless, while 
they add to the complexity of the spelling. 
The practice of adding the letters “C. H.,” meaning Court-House, 
to the name of a county seat is prevalent, especially in the Southern 
states. Frequently the place has two names, one being its charter 
name, the other the name of the county with “C. H.” appended; thus 
the county seat of Raleigh county, W. Va., is known as Beckley and 
as Raleigh C. H. 
The tendency toward simplification is in no way shown more decid¬ 
edly 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 without 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. 
