ICA course on Toponymy

National standardization:	International standardization:
Establishing on a national basis for each geographical object one single name version as the official version	Establishing on an international basis for each geographical object one single name version in each script as the official version

Major aim: avoiding ambiguity and confusion, and therefore gaining time

Subsidiary aims: avoiding political conflict, e.g.:

Macedonia: The UN-approved official name of the country is Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia, or FYROM.
Persian Gulf: some mapping companies leave the gulf without name (Google, see first image below), others opt for the traditional name also endorsed by the UN, but display it in small letter (Bing, see second image).