1. Enter a geographical name
2. Choose type of query
3. Choose feature type(s) [one or more, default is all]
4. Choose a selection by region(s) [default is Canada-wide]
5. Choose a sort order
6. Click on "Submit Search" or hit <return> key.
7. Once a list of features is returned, click on the "detail" button for the name you're interested in for more details or options (i.e. latitude, longitude, radius search, point-to-point distance)

• Background information about data fields and character sets

1. Enter a geographical name:

• Enter a geographical name - either in all upper-case letters or all in lower-case letters, with or without spaces between words
• Enter all accented characters in their non-accented form, e.g., "quebec" or "QUEBEC" will return "Québec"
• Ignore punctuation, e.g., apostrophe ('), comma (,), period (.), or hyphen (-)
• Wildcards (*) can be used. They must be at the end of your query text, preceded by a minimum of two characters (e.g., fe*, fred*, bake*, etc.). Wildcards will replace a string of characters if you are uncertain of the spelling of a name. Fred* will retreive records for Freda Lake, Lac Frédérick, and Fredericton.
• Populated places beginning with an article (e.g., The, Le, La, etc.) or a generic (e.g., Mount, Lake, etc.) are stored exactly as they are said (e.g., Mount Pleasant, Lake Ontario, The Bluff, Les Escoumins, etc.)
• Feature names beginning with an article (e.g., The, Le, La, etc.) or a generic (e.g., Mount, Lake, etc.) are stored differently

Some examples:

Abbreviations

Abbreviations and ordinal numbers at the beginning of a name should be spelled out.

Some examples:

Numbers

• "No." or "#" in a name must be searched as "number"
• a numeral immediately following "No." must be searched as if written in words
• other numerals in names must be written as words for searching purposes
• searching for features in Quebec requires entering the actual digits, just as they would appear in the name

Some examples:

Indian Reserves

Except in Quebec records, Indian Reserve names are stored differently to facilitate production of gazetteer lists (in which English and French versions of the names appear together). To search for an Indian Reserve name, enter:

• the specific part of the name
• the number of the reserve (if any) in two digit format
• "I" for the English version of the name; "R" for the French version of the name

Some examples:

Quebec examples:

2. Choose type of Geonames Query:

• You can narrow down your search by selecting only one of the three different search variables.

3. Choose feature type(s)

• Default is "all" but you can select one or more feature by using the Shift and Ctrl keys.

4. Canada-wide search, or selection by region(s)

• Default search is Canada-wide
• To limit your search to one or more regions, choose one or more regions from the list
• Once a region has been selected, it will remain in effect for subsequent searches, until it is changed or erased

5. Sort Order

Default sorting is alphabetical, by geographical name:

• Geographical name - grouped in alphabetical order
• Feature type - grouped by the feature type
• Region - grouped by province or territory

A sort order of Feature Type will force selected records to be grouped according to their generic type. These groups of records will be arranged in the following sequence:

Feature Type

• Populated Places / Administrative Areas
• Unincorporated Places
• Geographic Area
• Indian Reserves
• Parks
• Water Features
• Terrain Features
• Ice and Snow Features
• Features Associated with Vegetation
• Underground Features
• Volcanic Features
• Artificial Features and Military Areas

If the chosen sort order is Region, selected records will be grouped according to the Province or Territory in which they are found, and sequenced as follows:

Region

• Newfoundland and Labrador
• Prince Edward Island
• Nova Scotia
• New Brunswick
• Quebec
• Ontario
• Manitoba
• Saskatchewan
• Alberta
• British Columbia
• Yukon
• Northwest Territories
• Nunavut