What is a geographic name? Without attempting a categorical answer to this question I would say that geographic names seem to me to bear a strong resemblance to the names used in biology. They are generic and specific. To designate any specific geographic feature we usually use two words, _one_ a descriptive term, such as river, island, lake, pond or mountain, and the _other_, a specific name indicating what particular pond, lake, or mountain is designated. The term Mississippi River is a compound name, in which river may be regarded as a part of a proper name. It is the name of a genus, whereas the term Mississippi is the specific designation. Of course it will happen in geographic names, as in biologic, that certain features or objects become so well known that a single name, either the generic or the specific will be used by itself to designate the object. We speak of Maine without prefixing the generic term "State of," the specific name being sufficiently characteristic. On the other hand here in Washington references to "the Avenue" meaning Pennsylvania Avenue are familiar to all. In this case the generic term is used for particular specification. These exceptional usages, however, do not appear to me to invalidate the general principle that the designation of geographic features consists in general of a specific and of a generic name. The origin of generic terms has been much studied. The origin of specific names has been studied but little and the present notes relate chiefly to this class. Specific names may be said to have two distinct origins, _first_, those of formal origin where the name has been given _pro forma_ and published in a book or map relating to the region by its discoverer, or by the earliest explorers. This covers the case for a small body of names. _Second_, there is a very large body of names which appear to have arisen without such formal origin, and to have, as it were, grown up by common consent in the usage of the people of the region. That which it seems profitable to discuss here, and now, is the principles which should be adopted and followed in the selection of the names which are to go upon the map; principles which will enable one to discriminate when usage is divided, between that which should be adopted and that which should be rejected. To make this clear, a few instances of the peculiar questions which arise may be cited, and then some of the guiding principles stated which it might be possible to adopt and to follow.