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ONTERMOntario Terminology

Headings and Entries


The following is the type of data found under each heading in the database.

Approved Name

These names appear in the first column. They are approved for official use by appropriate authorities, in particular, the Minister of Natural Resources, the Ontario Geographic Names Board, Provincial Park authorities, municipalities, the Government of Canada, etc.

French

The geographic name adopted for use in French texts, and designated applications.  Use it in conjunction with its code listed under the A7/Q1/FTE heading to determine its status for use on maps and road signs.

Entity

This defines what the named feature or place is in English. It may be abbreviated. To find the full form, see the list of Entity Abbreviations

Municipal Unit

The name of the municipal unit (i.e., County, District, Regional Municipality, or District Municipality) where the centre of the geographic entity is located. The municipal units marked with an asterisk indicate units that have recently been dissolved.

A7
Q1
FTE

The code indicating the status of the corresponding geographic name listed under the French heading. Geographic names coded A7 are classed as dual names having an official name in both English and in French. The Q1 code indicates an alternate name and the FTE a French-text equivalent. In the database, the heading is hyperlinked to a page summarizing the usage principles corresponding to each code. For more detailed information on how to use geographic names coded Q1 or FTE listed under the French heading, consult the Linguistic Treatment of French Geographic names in Ontario.

Entries

The following are general rules concerning the database entries.

Each entry refers to a single separate geographic entity. Identical entries appearing twice or more (with the same approved name, French, type of entity and municipal unit) refer to separate geographic entities having different geographic coordinates (longitude and latitude). For example, there are two entries "Aldous Creek" under the municipal unit "Thunder Bay". Although both of these creeks are within the municipal unit of Thunder Bay, they are two different entities with their own coordinates. In both cases, the French name is "ruisseau Aldous".



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