The Institute for Regional Analysis and Public Policy (IRAPP) under the auspices of geography professor Dr. Steve Parkansky and toponymist Cecelia Armstrong has been awarded a grant from the United State Geological Survey’s Board on Geographical Names, to compile names of Kentucky geographical features for the Geographical Names Information System (GNIS) database. 
 
Phase I of the GNIS project began in 1976 by gathering names from federal topographical maps and data list that were available at the time. A collection of 32,000 feature names for the state of Kentucky was added to the database. A phase II was implemented in the mid eighties to collect the feature names that was missed by Phase I. Kentucky is one of the last states in the nation to implement phase II. Phase II divided Kentucky into two contracts: one for the eastern counties and another for the western counties. IRAPP has been awarded both contracts.

Phase II, will include geographic names from a variety of sources. One source in particular, is the top authority of geographical place names for the state of Kentucky, Robert Rennick – with research spanning 40 years - he will serve as a consultant to the project and will add close to 100,000 plus names to the phase II contracts. Other sources for collecting data are the Kentucky Geographic Information Systems office (GIS) the Kentucky Gazetteer, other books and datalists that were not included in Phase I.

The United States Geological Society (USGS) Board on Geographical Names (BGN) serves as a official reporting agency for all domestic geographic names.  Individual or groups that wish to add a name to a certain feature must go through a formal process and obtain approval by their states geographical names board and request approval by the USGS BGN.

The purpose of GNIS is to provide a federal standard for geographic nomenclature. The research will compile names as well as coordinates of streams, valleys, historical and current post offices, churches, summits, parks and populated places. Data collected will be available to view by the public on the GNIS database and the National Map at http://geonames.usgs.gov/. The project will extend to the year 2011.

Phase I

Phase I compiled about 32,000 feature names for the Commonwealth, which represents about one third the locations in the Kentucky.

Geographical Names Information System currently contains most names recorded on the United States Geological Survey 71/2 Quadrangles (Sometime in the later 70’s)

One of the most unusual features that has been collected, is the family Purnell cemetery found in Rowan County, off the CCC trail road.  This unusual feature has only one grave – in which the owner, who died in an accident involving the vehicle, was buried underneath it.

Where We Get Some Of The Data:
•    Robert  Rennick has spent 40 years collecting place names in Kentucky
•    He is a consult to the project
•    Allowing free access
•    Benefit from a lifetime of research on place names