What is a suitable name?
General guidelines for geographical
naming are set forth in the "Principles, Policies and
Procedures" booklet, published by the Geographic Names
Committee. Copies of this booklet are available from the Secretariat.
The Principles of Nomenclature for the naming of features
within Western Australia have been listed briefly below.
Names established by a statutory authority
are accepted unchanged.
Names in public use shall have primary consideration.
Name duplication and dual naming should be
avoided.
Names of living persons should only be used
in exceptional circumstances.
Names characterised as follows are to
be avoided where possible:
incongruous, given and surname combinations; qualified names;
double names; corrupted, unduly cumbersome, obscene, derogatory
or discriminating names; commercialised names.
The preferred sources of names are:
Descriptive names appropriate to the features;
Pioneers; war casualties and historical events
connected with the area;
Names from Aboriginal languages currently or
formerly identified with the general area.
Generic terms must be appropriate to the features
described.
New names proposed must be accompanied by exact
information regarding location, feature identification, origin
or, if alteration is proposed, by rationale.
The use of the genitive apostrophe is to be
avoided (eg. Butcher's).
Hyphenated words in place names shall
only be used where these have been adopted in local usage.
