Place Names Ontologies

In this article is discussed possibility of development of place name (toponyms) ontologies as knowledge background for building semantic web. Place name is complex object. Place name conceptual domain ontology approach is discussed as possibility to develop platform for Semantic Web and better Internet interactions. Elements of global ontology and domain oriented ontologies are discussed on the examples of UNGEGN World Geographical Names Database, EuroGeoNames (INSPIRE) European infrastructure of geographical names and Croatian experiences. Influence of ISO/TC 211 geographic information ontology standards on standardization of geographical names is discussed. The main relationships between place name ontological objects are defined. Examples are given for: functional, inverse functional, transitive, symmetrical, antisymmetric, reflexive and irreflexive relationships. The ISO/TC 211 geographic information standards, INSPIRE and EuroGeoNames are also using UML schema as object oriented semantics in description of the place name model.