The language of landscape

Toponymy is the taxonomic study of place names, and pfly has created a series of maps depicting language preferences in place names across the US. Using data from the Geographic Names Information System, the maps show regional uses of names that are essentially synonyms: lakes (orange) and ponds (blue), brooks and creeks, hollows and gulches, coulees and bayous, -bergs and -villes.

(Via Information Aesthetics.)