Wanted - new place names for OS maps The organisation believes the informal names could be particularly helpful to emergency services, to help them to quickly identify locations, and a pilot project is already under way with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to update its maps with new place names for locations around Britain's shores. Glen Hart, the OS's head of research, said: "We are trying to get a better idea of the names out there that don't turn up in normal mapping, because they are not official names, or we just don't know about them. There are lots of extra names out there being used now. At least a subset of those, we really ought to be interested in. This shows how maps have always developed. In some cases, the vernacular terms describe a location that already has an "official" name while others describe local features and places that are not known by any other word or phrase. Among the place names gathered on the database are Monkey Tump, a large earth mound in the village of Tonteg, South Wales, Cosy Corner, a shopping area in Hazlemere, Buckinghamshire, Tinkers Bath, a pond, and Jacob's Ladder, a hill, both features near Church Stretton, in Shropshire, Dolly Steps, a path in Penarth, The Plunge, a wooded area of Bristol, and Tin Town, an area of Congleton, Cheshire. Several vernacular names refer to road junctions, such as Monkey's Jump - a roundabout on the A35, in Dorset - and the Magic Roundabout, in Swindon. In several cases, areas or features have taken an informal name from a nearby pub or shop, even if the business no longer exists. On some occasions, these have already become established as official names, for instance, the Elephant and Castle area of south London, which takes its name from a former coaching inn. The OS plans to assemble a new gazetteer of the alternative names, with some being entered into its main, "official" gazetteers. First, though, the place names have to be "validated," either through web-based research to establish how widely used the terms are, or through "focus group"-style studies, where the names are tested on local people to see how familiar they are with them. Such use of informal place names is known as vernacular geography and is growing in use, prompted by the increasing reliance on digital maps rather than paper charts. Electronic maps can accommodate far more information, that would quickly clutter a paper map, and they are also used differently, with users often searching for places or destinations by inputting a term. Professor Christopher Jones, from Cardiff University, who runs the database of names - which can be submitted by the public online, said: "There is a common problem now, particularly on the internet, where people use names to search that are familiar to them and are used in everyday language but which the computer doesn't recognise because they are not recorded within gazetteers and official lists of place names. That is why it is useful for the OS to have this new form of gazetteer which includes these informal, colloquial names. Our database is building up a map of the whole country. For the Coastguard scheme, the OS have written a piece of customised software that allows staff to enter new place names and precise locations and descriptions for beaches, rocks, cliffs and waterways, that they are familiar with. It has been running for about two months, initially in three coastal stations - Lee-on-the-Solent, Clyde, Holyhead and Stornoway and is now being rolled out to others. Around 700 new place names have already been created, among them names for offshore rocks and nicknames for islands - Sausage Island, at Ynyslas, Gwynedd, Dell Rock, off Stornoway, and Church-in-the-Sea - which is otherwise known as St Cwyfans Church, a chapel on a small islet off Anglesey.