Guide:Finding_Alternate_Names.mw

When looking at and researching sites and systems in foreign countries, the inevitable question comes up: what do we call this thing?


For example, consider the [[SCUD]] missile. While it's the most identifiable name in American defense circles, the Russians call it the '''R-11''' or '''R-17'''! SCUD is simply a designation that was decided by whoever happened to be in the right meeting at the right time.<ref>https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/whats-a-scud-4510864/</ref> Sometimes, countries like North Korea may refer to systems or places with contradictory names, in an attempt to throw off researchers. Thankfully there are several tools and databases that allow you to search or view maps that have historic, previously identified, or already known lists of site/system names.

== [https://geonames.nga.mil/gns/html/ NGA GEOnet Names Server (GNS)] ==
The GNS allows you to search for different/alternate spellings of foreign names. This is especially useful in regions with languages like Chinese or Korean, where the romanization standards have changed over time, resulting in multiple spellings of the same name (e.g. is it Mao Zedong or Mao Tse-tung?)

== References ==
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