Nowadays each atlas is based on a large operational database. Such databases contain all the geographical names incorporated in one of the many atlases an atlas publisher brings out. In the names database a number of product-oriented attributes are contained, such as the language of the name, the generic class of the named object, and its importance. On the basis of its supposed importance the atlas editor has decided to incorporate the named object on a map with a specific scale. The smaller the scale, the larger the importance of a geographical object must be, in order to be incorporated, together with its name.

The allocation of a geographical object to a generic class can cause complications, because of the existence of: