Published on 13 August 2024

Swiss geographic names

2'676’315 / 1'180’580 oder Titlis? In order to designate a location within a given country, it is standard practice to use geographic names instead of coordinates. Place names are an essential feature on maps and in swisstopo’s applications, and we frequently receive requests for information on this topic. Geographic names are defined by various players, and swisstopo compiles them within the framework of the national survey.

The picture shows an aerial image which is overlaid by geographic names of Interlaken

Use of geographic names

The term "geographic names" refers to various place names and topographic features. These names are used to designate residential areas, individual objects (e.g. castles, alpine huts, chapels, hospitals), traffic infrastructure (railway stations, bus and tram stops, bridges, tunnels, airports, etc.), local names, major facilities, natural features (landscapes, valleys, glaciers, mountains, water courses, lakes), administrative facilities, and so on.

Specification of official geographic names

The Federal Ordinance on Geographic Names specifies who is responsible for the definition, implementation and administration of geographic names. It defines various categories of names, and specifies the responsibilities and processes for each category. As a rule, cantonal and municipal authorities play a significant role in the designation of geographic names. Official procedures apply regarding the naming of municipalities, localities (for post office purposes), streets and stations (including bus and tram stops). Here, swisstopo is primarily responsible for coordination and consultation, but it also makes recommendations with respect to the orthography of these names.

Geographic names on swisstopo’s maps

swisstopo primarily uses geographic names for its production of the series of national maps. The names are stored in the topographic landscape model (TLM) – a comprehensive database that is used for a broad range of applications. The TLM also forms the basis for the place names included in the national survey. The database currently contains more than 430,000 entries, and anyone can download them free of charge via the swissNAMES^3D dataset. For its input into the TLM, swisstopo mainly relies on the geographic names specified by the cantons in the cadastral survey, and on the official names adopted via the respective administrative procedures. These are supplemented with the geographic names specific to the national survey, including those of major topographic features and landscapes, plus important names adopted from previous versions of the national maps.

A selection of names in the TLM is used for the purpose of producing national maps at different scales. Cartographic rules determine the placement, colour and font size of the names. Captions on the national maps provide additional information. The geographic names in the TLM are also used for performing searches in swisstopo’s mobile app or the official map viewer (map.geo.admin.ch).

Official language or dialect?

For residential areas, swisstopo uses the official names adopted through administrative procedures, which are normally written in the official language of the region concerned. For other places and topographic features (mountain peaks, passes, traditionally named locations, etc.), the orthography is adopted from the local names in the cadastral survey, many of which are written in local dialect. On the national maps, it is sometimes the case that geographic names are written side by side in both dialect and the official language. You will find some illustrated examples in the FAQs below.

Multilingualism

Multilingualism is one of the special characteristics of Swiss geographic names. It is not unusual for different names to be used for the same location. On maps, this applies solely in areas that are on the borders of language regions. Multilingualism primarily applies to names of residential areas and certain topographic features (e.g. mountain peaks). In some cases, several names can be attributed in the same language. You will find some illustrated examples in the FAQs below.

FAQs concerning geographic names

The vast majority of names printed on maps are based on data published by the cantons and municipalities. swisstopo itself does not specify either these names or their spelling, but merely makes a selection of relevant names for the national survey. You can submit requests for name changes to us, and we will examine them in our revision service. In many cases, we will advise you to address requests concerning name changes to the relevant municipalities.
Multilingual names can be depicted on the national maps in three ways.
- Names separated by a forward slash (/) indicate bilingual localities. These names have been specified by the municipal and cantonal authorities. Apart from Biel/Bienne and Bosco/Gurin, this concerns several localities in the canton of Grisons.
- For residential areas situated in the vicinity of borders of language regions, in addition to the official name in the local language ("endonym"), recognised names in a language not traditionally spoken at that location ("exonyms") are shown on the national maps in light typeface. These represent the usual name from the point of view of the other language, but such names are not official.
- For the names of mountains, it is often the case that several endonyms are shown in different languages (e.g. Becca d’Audon and Oldehore) or even in the same language (e.g. Bietenhorn and Schwarzbirg).
The names of residential areas are based on the official directory of localities (for post office purposes), not on the municipalities themselves. Each locality is classified on the basis of the number of inhabitants. The font size is based on these categories. The municipality of Köniz is divided into a number of different localities belonging to the same category (Köniz, Liebefeld, Spiegel, Wabern, Niederwangen, Schliern, Thörishaus, Niederscherli – all of which have a population between 2,000 and 10,000), which is why they are all shown using the same font size. The name of the municipality itself is distinguished in that it is written in normal typeface, not italics (for map scales above 1:50,000).
Various sources are consulted for the spelling of residential areas: official directories of localities, streets and addresses, plus the official names of stations, etc. The names defined in these directories have been subjected to approval procedures and are deemed official and binding. Generally speaking they are based on the official language and avoid the use of dialect. The aim here is to simplify the use of these names at the national level and avoid misunderstandings.
Preference is given to the official language for the names of residential areas. Dialect is primarily used for the names of topographic features and certain locations (e.g. mountain peaks, passes, traditionally named locations). Here, swisstopo adopts the local names from the cadastral survey, which are specified by the municipalities and approved by the cantonal nomenclature commission. Dialect is mostly used for these local names, and their orthography approximates the spoken form. swisstopo has been systematically adopting the orthography of these local names for a number of years. They are gradually being incorporated into our maps, and this could give rise to the impression that they contain an increasing number of names in dialect.
For residential areas, swisstopo uses the official names adopted through administrative procedures, which are normally written in the official language of the region concerned. For other places and topographic features (mountain peaks, passes, traditionally named locations, etc.), the orthography is adopted from the local names in the cadastral survey, many of which are written in the local dialect. On the national maps, it is sometimes the case that geographic names are written side by side in both dialect and the official language. This applies in particular to the names of very small localities on the 1:10,000 national map. On the smaller scale maps, only the names of residential areas are shown.
In the topographic landscape model, local names and the names of residential areas are shown in the form of polygons that correspond to the applicable areas. For local names, polygons are adopted directly from the cadastral survey. The 1:10,000 national map has been automatically derived from the topographic landscape model. The text is placed inside the applicable perimeter without taking account of other objects such as buildings, etc. For the 1:25,000 and subsequent maps, the automatic placement is supervised by a cartographer who manually optimises the positioning of the geographic names as necessary. This difference in processing (automatic placement or manual editing by a cartographer) explains why the positions of the names vary depending on the map scale. It should also be noted that fewer names are included on smaller-scale maps.
The search engine is based on geographic names recorded in the national survey, which encompasses Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Geographic names in other countries are neither recorded in the national survey nor saved in our databases. They are merely depicted in the national border sections of the maps.