California/Places

Place Naming in California should adhere to the following guidelines. Following the government agency naming guide is a list of businesses which are chains or franchises. Please use these name spellings when creating or updating a place.

Naming Standards

We are trying to standardize the naming of all the various public agencies and facilities. This makes search results more consistent and useful, and helps the map to look more professional and uniform. The names have been designed to work well with instant search, regular search, and to be clear and concise in the map display. Please strive to follow these guidelines when naming the places described below. Places which are part of a larger encompassing place (i.e. place points for lot in a university area, Separate ER entrances in a hospital area, etc.) should be named with their unique name followed by a hyphen and the name of the larger area they belong to. For example "Student Parking Lot C - StudyHard University"

Government Agencies (selected)

All places for the following agencies should be named according to the standards as follows:

City/County Offices: City/County Name followed by City Hall or department/agency as appropriate, for example:

“La Palma City Hall”

“Los Angeles County Probation”

“Los Angeles Civic Center”

Police/Sheriff Stations: “Police[Sheriff] Station – “followed by the City, Agency or Division Name, for example:

"Rampart Division Police Station"

"Pasadena Police Station"

“Lakewood Sheriff Station”

Fire Stations: “Fire Station – “followed by the City/Agency Name or abbreviation and followed by the station number. For example:

"Fire Station – LAFD 15"

"Fire Station – Pasadena 3"

“Fire Station – LACoFD 105”

Subway/Metro Stations: Start with the line, followed by the station name. For example:

"Blue Line – Willow Station"

"Red Line – Hollywood/Highland Station"

"Gold Line – Lake Station"

United States Postal Service: Start the name with CDP or Station name, then append “Post Office”. Place the City name and the ZIP code of the Post Office in the Description box, so it will be viewable in the app GO page. Alternate name should be “USPS”. For example:

"Seal Beach Mariner Station Post Office"

“Los Angeles Airport Post Office"

"GMF Long Beach Post Office"

Here is the USPS tool to find the names of specific post offices. https://tools.usps.com/go/POLocatorAction!input.action

US VA Hospitals/Centers/Clincs: Should be named with their official name as the primary name. For VA hospitals/medical centers "(US Veterans Only)" should be added to the end of the primary name, and as the first line of the description. In the primary name "VA" should be expanded as "Veterans Affairs", so as not to cause a TTS conflict with Virginia. Names can be shortened to remove extraneous words, for example replace "Campus of the" from the official name with a hyphen (-). Any colloquial names should be added as alt names, so they are returned in search results, and also at the beginning of the description, so they are visible on the place preview page in the client. Some examples: " Veterans Affairs - Long Beach Medical Center (US Veterans Only)" “Anaheim Veterans Medical Clinic” “Veterans Affairs - West Los Angeles Medical Center (US Veterans Only)"

Place Name Harmonization

If you don't find the business you're looking for, please use this form to submit the missing information.