22 SECOND REPORT OF U. S. BOARD ON GEOGRAPHIC NAMES. 
PRINCIPLES FOR SPECIAL APPLICATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 
It must be understood that these are not designed as rules, but as 
guiding principles, from which the Board reserves liberty to depart 
whenever, in its judgment, it deems it advisable to do so. 
(1) That spelling and pronunciation which is sanctioned by local 
usage should in general be adopted. 
(2) Where names have been changed or corrupted, and such changes 
or corruptions have become established by local usage, it is not in 
general advisable to attempt to restore the original form. 
(3) In cases where what was evidently originally the same word 
appears with various spellings sanctioned by local usage, when applied 
to different features, these various spellings should be regarded as in 
effect different names, and, as a rule, it is inadvisable to attempt to 
produce uniformity. 
(4) Where a choice is offered between two or more names for the 
same place or locality, all sanctioned by local usage, that which is most 
appropriate and euphonious should be adopted. 
(5) The possessive form should be avoided whenever it can be done 
without destroying the euphony of the name or changing its descrip- 
tive application. 
(6) In names ending in " burgh" the final "h" should be dropped. 
(7) Names ending in "borough" should be abbreviated to "boro." 
(8) The word "center," as a part of a name, should be spelled as 
above, and not "centre." 
(9) The use of hyphens in connecting parts of names should be 
discontinued. 
(10) The letters "C. H." (Court House) appended to the names of 
county seats should be omitted. 
(11) In the case of names consisting of more than one word it is 
desirable to combine them into one word. 
(12) It is desirable to avoid the use of diacritic characters. 
(13) It is desirable to avoid the use of the words city and town as 
parts of names. 
PRINCIPLES FOR SPECIAL APPLICATION IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 
(1) Geographic names in countries that use roman characters should 
be rendered in the form adopted by the country having jurisdiction, 
except where there are English equivalents already fixed by usage. 
In cases where the English equivalent is so different from the local 
form that the identity of the latter with the former might not be recog- 
nized, the English form should be adopted, but both forms may be 
given. 
(2) The spelling of geographic names that require transliteration 
into roman characters should represent the principal sounds of the 
word as pronounced in the native tongue, in accordance with the 
sounds of the letters in the following system. 
