Home / Data stories / Names on the map
Names on the map
The World's Strangest Borders
Every enclave, exclave and tripoint: 42 true enclaves in 85 pieces, and a front door split between two countries.
This is an interactive data study by Dr Tristan Hotham, built from open data. The map runs in your browser: explore it, search for places and switch layers. The write-up explains the method and what the data shows, and the data and code are open for anyone to reuse.
More in Names on the map
Named After Somewhere Else3,981 places named after another place: most names come from a river or the town next door, 14% crossed an ocean, and Britain gave away the most.
Has Your Surname Left Home?Where 133,761 notable Britons with each surname were born, 1800s against since 1950: Welsh Joneses and Cornish Tre- names are leaving home, though slowly.
-ton, -by, Llan- and Bally-105,532 place names in Britain and Ireland tagged by the English, Norse, Latin, Welsh and Gaelic words inside them: Kil- is a wood far more often than you might think.
High Street or Main Street?All 913,335 named streets in the UK sorted by name: High Street rules the towns, Main Street the villages of Scotland, Northern Ireland and parts of England.
Games on the MapA world map of 6,691 video games tied to real places: New York leads, Japan to the United States is the busiest route from studio to setting, and the Moon beats Mars.
What the World Calls Each Other54,037 country names in 262 languages: most countries keep something like their own name everywhere, but Germany has six families of names.