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MassGIS Data: Massachusetts Community Names Lookup Table

December 2024

Lookup table providing an up-to-date list of alternate town names, both historic and contemporary, used by residents to refer to their neighborhood, section, mailing address, etc., for all 351 municipalities in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

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Download this data (.dbf and .xlsx) 

Overview

The table sources names primarily from the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Historical Community Names (SoS), the United States Postal Service (USPS), the Master Street Address Guide (MSAG), and ZIP Codes.

This table is named TOWNNAME_LOOKUP.

Production

MassGIS developed this table by web scraping names from the Secretary of State website, and then adding any remaining names from the USPS, MSAG, and ZIP Code data sources.

Attributes

The polygon attribute table contains the following fields:

FieldDescription
ALT_NAMEAlternate Name
ALT_NAME_UAlternate Name Uppercase
TOWNOfficial Municipality Name
TOWN_IDOfficial Municipality ID Number
COUNTYCounty Name
COMMENTSComments about Source and Other Information
TOWN_UOfficial Municipality Name Uppercase

Maintenance

MassGIS will update this table as needed.

December 2024 Maintenance Update: Based on feedback from the Martha's Vineyard Commission (MVC), MassGIS added "Elizabeth Islands" for Gosnold (TOWN_ID = 109), "Nomans Land" for Chilmark (62), "Chappy" for Edgartown (89), changed the source of "Vineyard Haven" for Tisbury (296) to ZIP, and changed the source of "Vineyard Haven" for Oak Bluffs (221) to MVC.

Date published: November 22, 2024
Last updated: December 11, 2024

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