GeoNames is a free global geographical database holds more than eight million geographical names covering coordinates, administrative divisions, postal codes, population, elevation and timezones. Users of GeoNames include Microsoft Popfly, Slide.com, LinkedIn, and Tagzania. GeoNames is a one-stop access to maps, data and other webservices with places and their coordinates (longitude/latitudes) for free download.

The geonames.org geographical database is available for download free of charge under a creative commons attribution license. Geonames.org contains over eight million geographical names and consists of 6.3 million unique features whereof 2.2 million populated places and 1.8 million alternate names. All features are categorized into one out of nine feature classes and further subcategorized into one out of 645 feature codes. The data is accessible free of charge through a number of webservices and a daily database export. Geonames.org is already serving up to over 3 million web service requests per day.

Geonames is integrating geographical data such as names of places in various languages, elevation, population and others from various sources. All latitude/longitude coordinates are in WGS84 (World Geodetic System 1984). Users may manually edit, correct and add new names using a user friendly wiki interface.

With GeoNames, you can:

• search for names with our fulltextsearch (table based or displayed on map)
• browse capitals, highest mountains and largest cities on map
• browse names on map and show/hide feature classes and codes
• bookmark maps
• send maps via email
• export names as character separated values (csv) file or as png image
• edit names (wiki)
• add new names to the database (for registered users)
• geotagging of names (for registered users)

You can use the edit functions of geonames to correct spelling, correct the location of the place, add names and postal codes. You can also add names in other languages. If you are using geonames data on our website, you can have a backlink to the geonames edit page where your users can move and update a wrong entry.

For more info on how to use GeoName, read the User Manual.