Hermagor, Austria | 12–13 October 2026
What can the name of a meadow tell us about a vanished village? How can a narrow alley preserve the memory of social inequality? And what happens when the last person who remembers the traditional name of a field is no longer there to pass it on?
These questions will take centre stage tomorrow, 12 October 2026, when the international GeoNames Symposium 2026, entitled “The heritage value of microtoponyms”, opens in Hermagor-Pressegger See, Carinthia, Austria.
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| Non-official poster, AI-illustration. |
Over two days, researchers and practitioners from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas will present 46 papers, including four keynote lectures, organised into eight thematic sessions. Their common subject is microtoponymy: the names of small geographical features and locally recognised places, including fields, pastures, paths, streams, buildings, neighbourhoods and other elements of the everyday landscape.
These names may be absent from official maps and unfamiliar to outsiders, yet they frequently preserve information about historical land use, local dialects, traditional occupations, environmental changes and collective memory.
Organised under the auspices of the Dutch- and German-speaking Division of the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN), chaired by Peter Jordan, the symposium brings together theoretical onomastics, dialectology, historical geography, cultural heritage studies, cartography and digital technologies.
Importantly, it is also part of a broader UNGEGN programme in Hermagor, continuing from 14 to 16 October with meetings of the Working Groups on Geographical Names as Cultural Heritage and Exonyms.
Monday, 12 October: From Theory to Living Landscapes
Opening and the cultural meaning of minor names
The symposium will open with addresses by Peter Jordan, organiser and Chair of the UNGEGN Dutch- and German-speaking Division; Heinz Pansi, District Governor; Leopold Astner, Mayor of Hermagor-Pressegger See; Pierre Jaillard, UNGEGN Chair; Mark Iliffe, UNGEGN Secretary; and Roman Stani-Fertl, Chair of the Austrian Board on Geographical Names.
The opening keynote, delivered by Milan Harvalík and Iveta Valentová (Slovakia), is entitled “The significance of minor place names from the perspective of cultural heritage”.
Their contribution will establish the conceptual foundation for the symposium, examining why names associated with relatively small and often obscure places should be regarded as an important component of cultural heritage.
A central question running through the subsequent programme is whether microtoponyms should be preserved simply as linguistic records or understood as living expressions of the communities that created and transmitted them.
Session 1: Methodological questions
Chaired by Emily Lethbridge (Iceland), the first session will address the theoretical and practical foundations of microtoponymic research.
Peder Gammeltoft (Norway) will present “Revisiting the Name-Semantic Model: integrating naming intention and focus of naming”, returning to the fundamental question of how and why particular geographical features receive names.
Sanda Rapa (Latvia), in “Talking landscapes: linguistic layers of cultural heritage in geographical names”, will explore the linguistic strata through which landscapes preserve traces of successive cultural and historical experiences.
The challenge of collecting names in the digital age will be addressed by Kristina Neumüller and Elin Pihl (Sweden) in “Collecting microtoponyms today – benefits and challenges of a digital world”. Their contribution is expected to consider how new technologies transform traditional fieldwork and the documentation of local knowledge.
Closely related is Christian Zschieschang's (Germany) paper, “Current challenges and solutions in digitizing microtoponymic collections as part of the cultural heritage in Germany”, which will examine the technical and scholarly difficulties of making historical name collections accessible in digital environments.
Abigail Lloyd (United Kingdom) will discuss “Dialect, local character and intangible heritage: Saving microtoponyms through modern development”, drawing attention to the relationship between naming traditions, linguistic variation and changing landscapes.
Finally, Federica Cugno and Sara Racca (Italy) will present “Orally transmitted place names as heritage: knowledge, safeguarding and valorization in the experience of the Atlante Toponomastico del Piemonte Montano”. Their paper will introduce a substantial Italian tradition of collecting orally transmitted local names and consider how such material can be preserved and made useful to contemporary communities.
Together, these presentations will raise one of the symposium's most important methodological questions: how can researchers transform fragile oral traditions into reliable scientific records without losing their linguistic and social specificity?
Session 2: At the margins of microtoponymy
Running in parallel, the second session, chaired by Marie Aurélie Thériault (Canada), will explore the boundaries of the concept itself.
Florian Koch (France) will present “Microtoponyms as local identity markers. Locally engaged supporters and their stadium names”. By examining stadium names and supporters' local attachments, this contribution moves microtoponymic research beyond its traditional rural setting.
Cosimo Palagiano and Davide Pavia (Italy) will examine “Microtoponyms in the Castelli Romani”, focusing on the historical and geographical significance of small place names in this distinctive Italian region.
From Taiwan, Yentsao Wei will present “An exploration of the land-sea changes and microtoponyms in the reclaimed land of Hsinchu, Taiwan”. This case study promises to demonstrate how local names can provide evidence of environmental transformation and changing relationships between human communities and coastal landscapes.
The session illustrates an important development: microtoponymy is no longer concerned exclusively with agricultural field names. Urban spaces, sporting identities and changing coastlines are also becoming relevant subjects of investigation.
Keynote 2: The challenge of standardisation
The afternoon will begin with Gerhard Rampl (Austria), whose keynote is entitled “Challenges in standardizing crowd-sourced microtoponyms”.
The subject is especially relevant to contemporary geographical-name management. Community-based documentation can produce extensive collections of local names, but it also raises questions about spelling, dialect pronunciation, geographical identification and database interoperability.
Rampl's abstract draws on a Tyrolean project that documented approximately 120,000 microtoponyms, demonstrating both the possibilities of large-scale digital collection and the unresolved problems of standardisation.
The underlying dilemma is clear: how can locally transmitted names be incorporated into official information systems without imposing forms that distort their traditional usage?
Session 3: Microtoponym surveys in the Alpine-Adriatic region
Chaired by Josip Faričić (Croatia), this session will highlight a region where multilingualism, historical settlement patterns and traditional naming practices are closely intertwined.
Florian Jordan and Martina Piko-Rustia (Austria) will present “Documentation, writing, standardization, localization, explanation and transfer of Slovenian field and farm names in Carinthia [Kärnten/Koroška]”. Their paper will examine efforts to document and transmit the Slovenian naming heritage of southern Austria.
Vinko Wieser (Austria) will introduce “FLU-LED: A cultural portal of field and house names (2011-2026) – a citizen science product. From handwritten notes by local idealists and supra-regional projects to a multilingual web portal with an online map based on a uniform database”.
This contribution represents one of the programme's particularly interesting examples of cooperation between local communities, cultural organisations and digital technologies. It illustrates how handwritten records and oral knowledge can evolve into a structured multilingual resource.
The documentation of South Tyrolean names will be examined by Johannes Ortner (Italy) in “Plandalineira, Piperbühl, Palù longia. Linguistic and ethnological aspects of the South Tyrol documentation of toponyms”.
Viviana Ferrario (Italy) will consider the cartographic dimension in “Giving micro-toponyms a second life: the power of map-making”, while Franco Finco (Austria) will investigate historical language contact in “The contribution of microtoponyms to the study of language contact: medieval Slavic colonization in Friuli (Italy)”.
The session concludes with Ivan Zupanc and Ivana Crljenko (Croatia), presenting “Names of Istrian residential houses as part of microtoponymic cultural heritage”.
These papers demonstrate how house names, field names and minor landscape designations can reveal information about settlement history, linguistic contact and cultural continuity in multilingual border regions.
Session 4: Microtoponyms in the post-Soviet realm and the Black Sea region
The parallel session, chaired by Milan Harvalík (Slovakia), will shift attention towards Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.
Gevorg Manukyan, Vahagn Muradyan and Yuri Varyan (Armenia) will present “Microtoponyms of the Republic of Armenia as elements of historical and cultural heritage”.
Halyna Zymovets, Oksana Mykhalchuk and Serhii Yermolenko (Ukraine) will discuss “Microtoponyms as a source for the formation of urban object names in the context of contemporary renaming processes in Ukraine”. Their contribution is especially relevant to current debates about the reconstruction of Ukrainian urban naming landscapes and the role of historical local names in contemporary renaming.
Maya Vlahova-Angelova (Bulgaria) will present “Microtoponymy of the village of Starosel, Central Bulgaria”, offering a geographically focused investigation of a local naming system.
Finally, Vadzim Shkliaryk (Poland) will introduce “Online bibliography on Belarusian microtoponymy as an attempt to stimulate relevant research”. The project demonstrates how bibliographical infrastructure itself can become a tool for encouraging further fieldwork and identifying neglected research areas.
Taken together, the session will explore the value of microtoponyms not only for reconstructing regional history but also for strengthening cultural memory in societies experiencing linguistic, demographic and political change.
Tuesday, 13 October: Multilingual Communities, Historical Memory and Global Comparisons
Keynote 3: Surveying names in bilingual communities
The second day will open with Katalin Reszegi (Hungary), presenting “Microtoponym survey in bilingual communities”.
The keynote will address a particularly complex aspect of toponymic research: situations in which different linguistic communities name, pronounce and interpret the same geographical features differently.
Bilingual naming environments require researchers to consider not only linguistic forms but also questions of identity, usage, historical continuity and the representation of minority traditions.
Session 5: Microtoponyms from the Pannonian Basin to the Adriatic
Chaired by Ivana Crljenko (Croatia), this session will explore the historical and linguistic significance of microtoponyms across Central and Southeastern Europe.
Andrea Bölcskei and Gábor Mikesy (Hungary) will present “Microtoponyms in the reconstruction of the past”, examining how surviving local names can provide evidence about earlier settlement patterns and geographical organisation.
Erzsébet Győrffy and Anita Rácz (Hungary) will discuss “Microtoponyms in Hungary: current trends and approaches to preservation”, addressing ongoing documentation and preservation initiatives.
Oliviu Felecan and Adelina Emilia Mihali (Romania) will investigate “Habsburg microtoponyms in Transylvania, the Banat, and Bukovina”, focusing on a region whose geographical-name heritage reflects complex processes of historical administration, settlement and language contact.
Josip Faričić (Croatia) will present “Microtoponyms of the Croatian coastal area as linguistic fossils – indicators of the coexistence of humans and nature”. His contribution will explore the environmental and historical information embedded in coastal naming traditions.
Jožica Škofic (Slovenia) will discuss “Slovenian dialect microtoponymy – a dialectological contribution to the study and preservation of intangible cultural heritage”, highlighting the importance of local linguistic forms.
The session will conclude with Zoran Spasovski (North Macedonia), whose presentation “Cartography as a scientific tool: preserving and mapping microtoponyms for geographic and onomastic research” will consider the scientific importance of spatial documentation and visualisation.
A common theme unites these contributions: microtoponyms can function as historical evidence, but their interpretation requires the integration of linguistics, geography, cartography and local historical knowledge.
Session 6: Local case studies
The parallel session, chaired by Gerhard Rampl (Austria), will demonstrate how individual places can illuminate broader questions about cultural heritage.
Sungjae Choo (Republic of Korea) will present “Beyond small features: Rethinking microtoponyms through the case of Pimatgol (피맛골) in Seoul”.
Pimatgol, historically associated with narrow streets used by ordinary people to avoid encounters with high-ranking officials, offers a particularly striking example of how a local name can preserve memories of social hierarchy and everyday urban life.
Roman Stani-Fertl (Austria) will examine “Croatian field names in south-eastern Lower Austria. An unconventional approach to recovering lost toponyms”, illustrating the possibilities of reconstructing local naming traditions associated with historical linguistic minorities.
Hannes Guggenberger (Austria) and Ireno Sandri (Italy) will present “Four villages, four alpine pastures, many names. Valle and Rivalpo over there, and Goderschach and Stranig over there”, drawing attention to the richness and interconnectedness of naming practices in Alpine communities.
Finally, Jutta Willmann (Austria) will discuss “Microtoponyms as condensed multilingual narratives and markers of identity: the case of the linguistic enclave of Tischelwang”.
The session will demonstrate that even a relatively small geographical area may contain an unexpectedly complex archive of linguistic interaction, social relationships and cultural memory.
Keynote 4: The Norwegian experience
The fourth keynote will be delivered by Ingvil Nordland (Norway), entitled “Evaluating Norway's grant scheme for microtoponym collection: methods, challenges, and lessons learned”.
This presentation will introduce an important institutional perspective.
According to the published abstract, Norway's publicly supported collection initiative has registered more than 170,000 local place names, including names in Norwegian, Sámi and Kven. Its evaluation considers the effectiveness of financial support, digital registration tools, volunteer participation and cooperation between institutions.
The Norwegian experience may offer practical lessons for countries seeking to move from isolated documentation projects towards sustained national preservation programmes.
Session 7: Microtoponyms in Europe's centre and North
Chaired by Peder Gammeltoft (Norway), this session will bring together historical, geographical and sociolinguistic approaches.
Pavel Štěpán (Czechia) will present “Non-settlement names in Bohemia as cultural heritage”, examining a substantial tradition of collecting and interpreting minor geographical names.
Michael Albus and Holger Meyer (Germany) will investigate “Where are the lost places?”. Their paper raises the problem of identifying and locating deserted settlements whose names survive in historical records or local naming traditions.
Andreas Dix (Germany) will present “Agrarian microtoponyms and their value as sources for the historical-geographical study of river landscapes: The case study of the river Wiesent and its catchment area in the northern Franconian Alb in Bavaria”.
Marit Alas, Tiina Laansalu and Peeter Päll (Estonia) will discuss “Microtoponyms: resurrection or oblivion”, raising the question of whether historical names should be actively restored or whether documentation should reflect their actual contemporary use.
Josefin Devine (Sweden), in “‘This is not especially important’. Attitudes to preservation of a transhumance onomasticon”, will explore attitudes towards preserving names associated with traditional seasonal livestock movements.
The session concludes with Aindí Mac Giolla Chomhghaill (Ireland), presenting “‘We used to play on the Cloch Bhán when my grandad was making the hay’: the survival of Irish-language microtoponymy in Dublin”.
These papers promise to address one of the most difficult questions facing heritage preservation: should researchers prioritise names that are still actively used, names surviving in individual memory, or historically documented names that have disappeared from everyday speech?
Session 8: Global comparison
Chaired by Sungjae Choo (Republic of Korea), the final thematic session will extend the geographical scope of the symposium well beyond Europe.
Marie Aurélie Thériault (Canada) will present “Rural microtoponymy in Québec: a cultural heritage of territorial organization in North America”, exploring how local naming systems structure agricultural landscapes and preserve regional linguistic traditions.
Ana Cláudia Araújo Diniz and Mircia Ribeiro Fortes (Brazil) will discuss “Indigenous toponymy and cultural memory: the Tarumã Waterfall as a microtoponym in the former rural area of Manaus/Amazonas/Brazil”. Their contribution will consider the cultural significance of an Indigenous name within the changing geographical environment of the Amazon region.
Sophia Waithera Muhuri (Kenya) will present “Microtoponyms of Kenya: mapping local names as intimate cultural heritage”, contributing an African perspective to the documentation of locally meaningful geographical names.
Jusmianti Garing (Indonesia) will examine “Naming and representation patterns in ancient Maros toponyms: linguistic and cultural perspectives”.
Debanjana Gupta and Tushar Vaish (India) will present “Mapping memory: small names, deep roots — heritage value of microtoponyms in the Indian landscape”, exploring the relationship between local names, cultural memory and geographical identity.
From Taiwan, Peter Kang will discuss “The microtoponyms along the littoral areas of Taiwan: based on the data collected by the research projects sponsored by the National Academy of Marine Research”. The paper will examine coastal naming traditions and their relationship to local environmental knowledge and linguistic diversity.
The final scientific presentation will be delivered by Jihwan Yoon (Republic of Korea), entitled “Everyday heritage in transition: the making and unmaking of microtoponyms in urbanizing Jeonju, South Korea”.
The Korean case will return the discussion to an issue introduced at the beginning of the symposium: what happens when urban development transforms or removes the environments in which traditional names once existed?
The symposium will conclude with contributions from Peter Jordan, Emily Lethbridge, co-convenor of the UNGEGN Working Group on Geographical Names as Cultural Heritage, Kohei Watanabe, convenor of the Working Group on Exonyms, Mark Iliffe and Pierre Jaillard.
A social dinner hosted by the Municipality of Hermagor-Pressegger See will follow.
Beyond the Symposium: A Week of UNGEGN Cooperation
The significance of the Hermagor meeting extends beyond the two-day scientific programme.
From 14 to 16 October, the venue will also host the 28th meeting of the UNGEGN Working Group on Exonyms and the first in-person meeting of the revitalised Working Group on Geographical Names as Cultural Heritage.
Their joint discussions will focus particularly on “Exonyms as Cultural Heritage” and on ongoing efforts to reconcile aspects of UNGEGN's earlier resolutions and decisions concerning exonyms.
This combination creates an opportunity to connect scientific research on geographical names with institutional discussions about naming policies, multilingualism, standardisation and the protection of cultural heritage.
It also places the symposium within an increasingly international framework of cooperation between linguistic scholarship, geographical-name authorities and heritage organisations.
Conclusion: Where Is GeoNames Heading?
The 2026 symposium marks an important stage in the intellectual development of the GeoNames conference series.
Earlier meetings provide a useful historical perspective. GeoNames 2000 in Frankfurt am Main was strongly associated with the technical and administrative dimensions of geographical names, including standardisation, romanisation, exonyms and toponymic databases.
GeoNames 2005 in Leeuwarden turned particular attention to minority and Indigenous geographical names in multilingual environments. The 2008 Vienna symposium, “Geographical Names as a Part of the Cultural Heritage”, placed the heritage dimension at the centre of discussion. The 2019 Vienna meeting, “Place Names and Migration”, subsequently examined naming practices in the context of population movements, cultural encounters and changing identities.
The 2026 programme can be interpreted as a further development of this trajectory.
First, geographical names are increasingly being treated as cultural evidence rather than merely geographical identifiers. Microtoponyms are approached as sources for historical geography, dialectology, ethnology, environmental history and the reconstruction of everyday life. Their scientific value lies not only in identifying places but also in preserving information about how communities have perceived and organised their surroundings.
Second, the symposium demonstrates a clear movement towards participatory research and digital preservation. Community fieldwork, crowdsourced databases, online maps, digital archives and publicly supported documentation initiatives occupy a prominent place in the programme. This suggests that toponymic research is increasingly concerned not only with collecting names but also with ensuring their continued accessibility and transmission.
Third, the concept of microtoponymy is expanding. Traditional field and pasture names remain central, yet the programme also includes stadiums, urban alleys, residential houses, Indigenous sites, reclaimed coastal land and rapidly transforming neighbourhoods. This expansion is intellectually productive, although it also raises a methodological challenge: scholars will need clearer criteria for distinguishing microtoponyms from other categories of local geographical names.
Fourth, linguistic diversity and local communities are moving closer to the centre of geographical-name research. Presentations concerning Slovenian, Croatian, Irish, Belarusian, Sámi, Kven, Indigenous and other naming traditions demonstrate the importance of documenting forms that may not be adequately represented in official geographical-name systems.
Here, however, a fundamental tension remains. Standardisation can improve visibility, interoperability and institutional recognition, but it can also simplify linguistic variation and detach names from the communities whose pronunciation and usage give them meaning.
Finally, GeoNames 2026 reflects a growing internationalisation of microtoponymic research. The programme brings European documentation traditions into conversation with examples from Asia, Africa and the Americas. This wider perspective encourages comparative approaches while also showing that heritage preservation cannot rely on a single model applicable to all linguistic and cultural environments.
In this sense, the direction taken by GeoNames is not simply a departure from traditional geographical-name standardisation. It is better understood as an expansion of its purpose.
The question is no longer only “What is the correct name of this place?” It is increasingly also “Who uses this name, what knowledge does it preserve, and how can that knowledge be transmitted without losing its local meaning?”
That is a significant intellectual development. It moves the discussion from the management of names towards an understanding of naming as a relationship between people, language, memory and landscape.
Yet the future success of this approach will depend on whether the growing interest in cultural heritage can be translated into sustainable documentation methods, accessible research infrastructures, meaningful community participation and careful scientific analysis.
If the contributions in Hermagor succeed in connecting these priorities, GeoNames 2026 may become an important reference point for the next stage of international microtoponymic research.
The smallest names on the map may ultimately tell some of the largest stories about the people who have inhabited it.
