what’s in a (place) name?

see how we've interacted with and changed place names over time.

Namesake

Year 2026

About the data

Namesakes come from Wikidata’s “named after” (P138), via the QLever mirror. People are placed at their birthplace (P19). Founding years come from “inception” (P571).

Official names are Wikidata “official name” and “name” statements with start or end dates. Where Wikidata has none, dated historic names from GeoNames fill in (marked GeoNames).

Attestations come from the World Historical Gazetteer: the years a historical atlas, gazetteer or event record shows the city under that name. They show when a name was in use, not when it was official.

Undated names are GeoNames names flagged as historic and WHG records with no dates.

Covers settlements with 20,000+ people. Cyrillic names are transliterated.