Place Naming in Illinois 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:
- "Bloomington City Hall"
- "Kankakee County Courthouse"
- "Peoria Civic Center"
Police/Sheriff Stations: City, Agency or Division Name followed by Police[Sheriff] Station, for example:
- "Chicago District 1 Police Station"
- "Bolingbrook Police Station"
- “Winnebago County Sheriff Station”
- "Illinois State District 17 Police Station"
Fire Stations: “Fire Station – “followed by the City/Agency Name or abbreviation and followed by the station number. For example:
- "Fire Station – Naperville 1"
- "Fire Station – Bourbonnais"
Here is a list of Illinois Fire Departments
Metra Stations: Start with the line, followed by the station name. For example:
- "BNSF – Belmont 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:
- "Joliet Post Office"
- "O'Hare Airport Post Office"
- "Rogers Park 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 - Marion Medical Center (US Veterans Only)"
- "Quad Cities Vet Center"
Place Name Harmonization
A list of place names as well as a submission form are under development.